NIKON COOLPIX 990

Nikon Coolpix 990 digital camera review and photo examples

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Review

The Coolpix 990 is a Nikon digital camera with a built-in lens that was released in 2000.
It’s a fine old compact camera, as it’s been more than 20 years since its release.

I was interested in this camera, and I picked it up because it was being sold at a reasonable price at a junk sale at a certain camera shop. I’ve bought and used a fair number of Nikon Coolpix series cameras, but this 990 was my first purchase.

I bought two Coolpix cameras when they were released: the first Coolpix 900, with its beautiful solid shape, and the third-generation Coolpix 950, with its striking black body and red lines. The 990 had a higher pixel count, but the camera body color was gray and the accent color of the grip was changed to purple, so the overall look was a bit vague, and I didn’t buy it when it was released.

As an aside, I don’t know why Japanese manufacturers are so keen to change the design and color scheme every time, as is common with Japanese manufacturers. I think it’s also necessary for a brand to persistently continue to create good designs like overseas.
Also, at the time, the trend was toward digital SLR cameras and rangefinder cameras. This transition to digital cameras was due to a preference for larger sensor sizes, which continues to this day.

The real image optical viewfinder of the swivel-type Coolpix changes the shooting range in conjunction with the lens zoom, but the photographer can only check the shooting range and not the focus position, the same method as AF compact cameras in the film camera era. The rear LCD is a live view, so the shooting range and focus can be confirmed, but the monitor size is small at 1 inch and the resolution is 100,000 dots, so it is not very accurate.

Up to the Coolpix 990, the camera could be operated with four AA batteries, and it could also be operated with relatively low-voltage nickel-metal hydride batteries such as Eneloop. It is probably designed to be operated with a voltage of about 1.2V per battery.
The start-up time is relatively slow, and it takes about 2 to 3 seconds from turning on the power until it is ready to shoot, and it is also slow to return from sleep, so it feels faster to turn the power back on.

The recording media is Compact Flash, the image storage formats are TIFF and JPEG, and you can choose from four recording image quality types: HI/FINE/NORMAL/BASIC. HI saves in TIFF format, which is large at about 10MB per image. Compared to FINE, which is about 1MB in JPEG format, the file size is 10 times larger, and you need to wait about 10 seconds to write, which requires a lot of patience.
The image quality is far inferior to that of today’s smartphones because it is an old digital camera. Even in daylight at ISO 100, the photos look a bit sleepy and loose, and at night at ISO 400, there is a lot of noise and the resolution drops. At night, there is no image stabilization mechanism, so the impact of camera shake is also large. The AF speed is also quite slow, and the focus cannot keep up at all in sudden scenes. I think it is quite a durable specification for someone who is used to modern cameras.

Nikon camera options are sold for a relatively long time and are designed to be used with various models, so I purchased a 0.63x wide converter (hereafter referred to as wide converter) and 2x and 3x teleconverters (hereafter referred to as teleconverters). I have almost no use for the teleconverter, but I bought it as a bonus because it was cheap.

The 0.63x wide converter has a slight vignetting at the periphery, but it has a field of view equivalent to 24mm, which I would say is essential for wide-angle lens lovers, but the downside is that it makes the camera very large. As shown in the photo below, when the wide converter is attached, it creates an indescribable shape, like a mushroom growing on your head.
I did not purchase a fisheye lens because there are few products and they are expensive. When I looked further, I found that there were also converters such as the TC-E3PF (with phase Fresnel lens) that were superb in many ways.
This product uses the same principle as what Canon calls a DO lens (laminated diffractive optical element), and by applying special processing to the lens, it is possible to gain focal length in a more compact size than before.
Even though the TC-E3PF is an add-on teleconverter, I’m impressed by the price, 80,000 yen, almost the same as the camera itself. Unfortunately, the TC-E3PF doesn’t seem to have sold well, with few on the market and almost no second-hand versions. Even when you do see one, it’s quite expensive.
Even so, I’m amazed at the range of camera options available for Nikon’s built-in lens cameras.

Specification and Competitor

Items	COOLPIX 900	COOLPIX 950	COOLPIX990	COOLPIX995	COOLPIX4500
カメラ有効画素数	1 million pixels	2 million pixels	3 million pixels	3 million pixels	4 million pixels
Focal length	3x zoom Nikkor lens f=7 to 21mm (35 mm film equivalent: 38 to 115mm) F2.6 – F4	←	3x zoom Nikkor lens f＝8～24mm (35 mm film equivalent: 38 – 115 mm) F2.5 – F4	4x zoom Nikkor lens f＝8 to 32mm (35 mm film equivalent: 38-152 mm) F2.6 to F5.1	4x zoom Nikkor lens f=7.85 – 32mm (35mm film equivalent 38 – 155mm) F2.6 – 5.1
Lens Construction	–	–	9 elements in 8 groups	10 elements in 8 groups	←
Leaf blade	–	–	7	←	←
Image sensor	1/2.7-inch CCD	1/2-inch CCD(?)	1/1.8-inch CCD	←	←
Max ISO	–	320	400	800	←
Back LCD	2-inch, ? pixels	2-inch, 130,000 pixels	1.8-inch, 110,000 pixels	←	1.5-inch, 110,000 pixels
View Finder	real image type	←	←	←	←
Battery	4 AA Batteries 1.2V*4	←	←	EN-EL1	←
Recorded Media	Compact flash	←	←	←	←
Size(mm) W x H x D	157×75×35	143×76.5×36.5	149×79×38	138×82×40	130×73×50
Weight(g)	360(Only body)	350 (Only body)	390 (Only body)	390(Only body)	360(Only body)
Release date	1998.4	1999.3	2000.4	2001.6	2002.6
Price(Yen/No-tax)	110,000	125,000	125,000	113,000	OpenPrice (105,000)

Items	Fish-eye Converter: FC-E8 (0.2x)	Wide Converter: WC-E63 (0.63x)	Teleconverter: TC-2E (2x)	Teleconverter: TC-E3ED (3x)	Teleconverter: TC-E3PF (3x)
Lens Construction	5 elements in 4 groups	4 elements in 4 groups	4 elements in 3 groups	6 elements in 3 groups	6 elements in 3 groups
converter magnification	0.2倍	0.63倍	2倍	3倍	3倍
composite aperture value	No change.	←	←	←	←
Size	?	75*29.5	64*44	75*78.6	61*64.3
Mounting Diameter	28mm	←	←	←	←
Filter Size	–	72mm	62mm	72mm	58mm
Weight	?	150g	240g	260g	175g
Supported models	COOLPIX P5100 COOLPIX P5000 COOLPIX 8400 COOLPIX 5000 COOLPIX 4500 COOLPIX 4300 COOLPIX 995 COOLPIX 990 COOLPIX 950 COOLPIX 885 COOLPIX 880	←	←	←	COOLPIX 8400 (with adapter ring UR-E15) COOLPIX 5000 （COOLPIX 5000 (with UR-E6 adapter ring) COOLPIX 4500/4300 （COOLPIX 4500 /4300 (with UR-E4) COOLPIX 900 Series
Price(Yen/No-tax)	45,000-	14,000-	14,000-	29,000-	80,000-
Note	–	Image quality is better without telecon after 35mm focal length	Vignetting occurs on the wide side.	←	←

Options

Fish-eye Converter: FC-E8 (0.2x)
Wide Converter: WC-E63 (0.63x)
Wide Converter: WC-E75 (0.75x)
Teleconverter: TC-2E (2x)
Teleconverter: TC-E3ED (3x)
Teleconverter: TC-E3PF (3x)
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Update history

2024.07.19
2023.10.4:First draft

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