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-------------------------------------------------------------- This story was printed from ZDNet Australia. --------------------------------------------------------------
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New king of the Coolpix hill August 31, 2001 URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/reviews/coolgear/cameras/soa/New-king-of-the-Coolpix-hill/0,139023377,120222014,00.htm
ZDNET Australia takes a first look at the latest and fullest-featured Nikon Coolpix camera. Nikon has unveiled a new member of the CoolPix 900 series of digital cameras - the CoolPix 995.
Launched at press conference in Singapore, the new camera retains the Unique swivel design found on all the CoolPix 900 cameras. The Nikon CoolPix family of digital cameras has come a long way since their introduction back in 1998. First, it was the 1.2-megapixel CoolPix 900 in 1998, then the 2-megapixel CoolPix 950 in 1999, followed by the CoolPix 990 last year. This year, Nikon has added a new member to the CoolPix 900 series of digital cameras -- the CoolPix 995. Launched at press conference in Singapore, the new camera retains the unique swivel design found on all the CoolPix 900 cameras. The high-end 900-series has a look you either love or hate. It's not as stylish as the Canon and Sony cameras. For example, it's in black, not silver or gold -- probably to reinforce its prosumer image. Like its siblings before it, 995 has an odd swiveling lens, which in my hands provided a firm, comfortable grip. The placement of the control buttons also makes it easy for me to navigate through the various menu options. Significant improvements
Where lens design is concerned, Nikon claims that by incorporating two aspherical lens elements into the lens, optical aberration is minimised, resulting in higher quality images. As with most Nikon cameras today, the images recorded by the CoolPix 995 are processed using intelligent advanced algorithms that aid in faithful reproduction of colours. New king of the Coolpix hill Automatic and manual controls In the automatic recording mode, the exposure and colour balance settings are automatically controlled by the TTL White Balance and 256-segment Matrix Metering, allowing for nicely-lit photos in any lighting condition. On the other hand, the manual mode lets the more experienced photographers take full control of all the camera functions. They include a user-selectable five-area multi autofocus with 7,123 steps (found commonly in SLR cameras), 50-step manual focus, four preset exposure and a macro mode (for shots as close as 2cm). In addition to a user-defined white balance mode, the CoolPix camera comes with a new White Balance Bracketing function that allows you to shoot the same scene with three different white balance settings. This supposedly helps ensure better colour accuracy in all lighting conditions. A Saturation Control Mode also lets you modify the appearance of colours in your images in four steps, plus Black and White. Other manual controls include brightness and contrast compensation, sharpness and ISO sensitivity (ISO 100 to 800). Features aplenty One interesting new feature that can be found on the CoolPix 995 is the Quick Review function. This allows users to conveniently view recorded images at the press of a button, even in capture mode. A noise reduction mode also helps enhance the pictures captured in long exposure shots. If the built-in pop-up flash (which Nikon calls Speedlight) is not sufficient, an external flash unit can be connected through a flash sync terminal and mounted using an separate Multi-Flash Bracket Unit (SK-E900). Up to five optional converter lenses can be also added for variations in shot perspective. New king of the Coolpix hill Features aplenty (cont'd) Depending on the image resolution you require, you can choose to capture in Full (2,048 by 1,536 pixels), UXGA, SXGA, XGA, VGA or even 3:2 (2,048 by 1,360) and motion JPEG format. You can then save it any of the four compression modes available. For management of images, the CoolPix camera uses the Nikon View 4 software. Connecting the digital camera to the PC using the included USB cable, all or selected images can be transferred by pressing a button. The included rechargeable lithium-ion battery (EN-EL1) lasts approximately 110 minutes on a full charge. Besides the battery charger, the full package comes with a video cable to allow the display of images on a TV monitor, a lens cap, a neck strap, one 16MB CompactFlash card and a PhotoShop 5.0LE CDROM. Availability The Nikon CoolPix 995 is expected to hit the stores at the end of June 2001. Nikon cannot confirm the retail price but it is estimated to be around AU$2,000 Product: Nikon CoolPix 995
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