Quick, read this review before the camera becomes obsolete!
You're probably aware of how fast digital products become outdated but it seems that cameras are the fastest of them all.
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Old Epson 500
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My Epson 500, which I bought about two years ago, could now be given away with a fill up at your local gas station. Here's hoping the new state-of-the-art Nikon Coolpix 950 will remain current for weeks to come.
I don't have the time or energy to give you a real in-depth review of this fabulous camera. Fortunately I don't have to. The amazing folks over at The Imaging Resource have done it for me. Their review is so thorough that I printed it out (30 pages) to use for my own documentation. Which brings up one of only four complaints I have about the Coolpix. Complaint number one: The documentation eats worms. A small printed version just barely gets you started and then you're forced to use a CD and that only works in the PDF format. ARGGGGHHH!
But before we get into what the Coolpix doesn't have let's review a small sampling of what it does have:
2.1 Million pixel 1/2 inch CCD
1,600 X 1,200 pixel resolution
3X optical zoom
An optical and LCD viewfinder
Matrix, Spot or Center-Weighted metering
Three JPEG compression levels and Uncompressed TIFF
Manual Focus Option
Shutter/Aperture priority
Rapid cycle time
White balance
Shutter speeds from 8sec to 1/750sec
Built-in flash
Low light capabilities
Continuous shooting
Color or black and white imaging
Macro capability
Slide show playback of images taken
Thumbnails of images taken
etc, etc, etc.
But making one of the best under $1,000.00 digital cameras work harmoniously means solving the remaining three problems:
1. This thing eats batteries for breakfast.
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Rechargeables
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My solution: Purchase eight AA rechargeable batteries and a battery charger ($30.00). The 950 takes four and you keep four more ready to go.
2. The 950 comes with a small 8MB CompactFlash card.
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Thanks for nothing
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My solution: Go to CompUSA and buy the biggest CompactFlash card you can. I purchased a 64MB card for around $200.00. This gives you about 130 to 160 shots in "Normal" mode. That's the equivalent of over six (24 shot) rolls of color film.
3. Transferring 150 images directly from the camera to your computer eats up batteries and time.
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For fast transfers
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My solution: Go back to CompUSA and pick up a Lexar Digital Film Reader for about $50.00. You pop your CompactFlash card into the reader which is connected to your computer via the printer parallel port. The reader then becomes its own drive on your machine. Total image transfers take just a few minutes.
Follow my excellent advice and you too will be in digital heaven... for a few weeks anyway.
Some sample images shot in "Normal" mode.
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