* Coolpix picture galleries *

* Canon G1 vs. Nikon 995

* How I repaired the tripod socket on my Coolpix

* My first external flash test

* My external flash test 2.0 (highlighting Stofen products)

* My polarizer test

This page is dedicated to my latest hobby -- digital photography. I got my first digital camera, an Olympus D-340R, for Christmas 1999. It was a very nice little camera, especially for the price (under $300) but I soon began to want more features, namely a zoom. So, after only having the 340 for about a month, I returned it and bought an Olympus D-400Z. This camera was basically the 340 with more features, such as a 3X optical, 2X digital zoom, exposure compensation, white balance presets, spot metering, and a couple of other features. I used the 400 for about 5 months until I again began wanting more features. That is when I purchased my Nikon CoolPix 950 (June 28, 2000.) The Coolpix has too many features to mention but the features that I wanted most were manual modes, to allow setting shutter speed, aperture size, sensitivity (ISO), etc. I am not going to detail the features of the 950 here. If you are interested in what they are, you can find out at any of the digital camera review sites that are listed in the Links below.

I love my 950. The pictures that it produces are exceptional, and are of much better quality than those from either of my Olympus cameras (which makes sense since the 950 is a 2.1 megapixel camera compared to 1.3 megapixel for both Olympuses -- not to mention being a lot more expensive ;-) But, like all things, the 950 does have its down sides. My gripes are about the same as other 950 users, such as a poorly placed CF slot, poor flash, no lens cap retaining device (how much does a piece of string cost Nikon?), the supplied 8 meg CF card is too small, and you can't use the self timer in macro mode. But for all its shortcomings, the 950 has MANY more strengths. The gripes are mostly small, convenience issues that you learn to live with. I don't see myself buying a different camera any time soon (well, not for a year or so at least ;-)

At the beginning of October I got an external flash setup for my 950. It consisted of a Nikon SK-E900 flash bracket with AS-E900 hot shoe, and a Sunpak 266D flash unit. I got it mainly to eliminate the problem that the 950 has with horrible redeye. It did that and much more. I had no idea the difference that an external flash would make in all of my indoor shots. Using the flash in bounce mode (tilting the flash head upwards) with a bounce card (Sto-Fen bounce attachment) gives much more natural looking light than using the flash straight on. For large rooms or shots where the subject is more than about 5 or 6 feet away, the bounce card approach doesn't usually put enough light on the subject and the shot comes out underexposed. For these situations, a homemade diffuser is the answer. It is made out of a piece of a plastic milk jug and slips over the flash to diffuse the light. While it doesn't look quite as natural as the bounce flash, it looks better than using the flash with no diffuser at all. Overall, I am extremely impressed with the external flash setup.

After using the Nikon bracket for a while, I found a better solution at www.therollbar.com which is detailed below.

Here is a picture of the Sunpak flash and Nikon bracket with the bounce card and milk jug diffuser attached:

Here is a good comparison of direct vs. bounce flash:

Direct flash

The picture at the link above was taken with the flash aimed directly at the scene.

Bounce flash

The picture at this link was taken with the flash angled upward with the bounce card attached (as seen in the picture above of the flash on the bracket.

Here is a picture of my original setup -- Nikon CP950, Sunpak 266D flash, Nikon SK-E900 flash bracket, and Vivitar tripod:

I have modified the Nikon bracket slightly with a handle and handstrap from another bracket. It works much better and is more comfortable than the piece of metal that Nikon expects you to use as a handle on the SK-E900.

UPDATE 3/20/01

Last week, I received my new flash bracket from www.therollbar.com. It is a great bracket and the design is much better than the Nikon bracket. With the Nikon, there are two main problems. First is that the flash isn't far enough from the lens to completely eliminate redeye when used straight on (not bounced.) Second, the flash being beside rather than above the camera causes some unsightly side shadows. If you are looking for a new bracket for your Nikon 950 or 990, I highly recommend the Rollbar. A picture of the setup is below.

UPDATE 4/25/01

Well, last week I got a new flash. I replaced the Sunpak 266D with a Nikon SB22 that I found on eBay. I got a very good price on it and I am VERY pleased with the results. It seems that the lighting from the SB22 is more even than that from the Sunpak. But the thing that I like most is that when the flash is in bounce mode, it automatically compensates and correctly exposes the scene. I can now cover my living room with the flash pointed 90 degrees straight up, whereas the Sunpak could not do so without a bounce card attached. The other thing that is nice about the SB22 is that it is much more compact than the Sunpak so my whole rig isn't quite as bulky as it was. Here is a picture of the new setup:

NIKON 995!!!

Today (4/25/01) the Nikon 995 was officially announced and I must say, I am pretty happy about it. The 995 addresses some issues that were present in the 990, most importantly the redeye issue with the flash. It does this by using a pop-up flash above the lens that should reduce redeye considerably. At first I wasn't that excited about this because I use an external flash. But the more I thought about it, the more I decided it was a pretty good thing. If I am going somewhere that I will need to take pictures indoors but I don't want to cart around my bracket and flash, at least the internal flash on the 995 will now be usable. The flash on the 950 isn't, pure and simple. Other features that I am most excited about:

• 4x zoom (vs. 3x with the 950 and 990)
• swivel lock for the lens half of the camera (will now support heavy addon lenses without droop)
• INCLUDED Li-Ion battery and charger (if it has good battery life, I'm all for it.)
• Compact Flash type 2 support (although Nikon doesn't support the Microdrive, CF2 is still nice.)
• quick review (you can view the last picture you took in a picture-in-picture type display with the live image)
• noise reduction for long exposures (judging by the samples at Imaging Resource, this is an excellent feature)
• exposure AND white balance bracketing (excellent feature for those important shots)
• saturation control
• the aforementioned popup flash

Is the 995 going to be better than the Canon G1/Pro90/Olympus 3040, etc.? I don't know. Only time (and real world shots from actual users) will tell. I am now in the process of trying to decide between the 995 and the G1 and it is a VERY difficult decision. You can read more about the pros and cons of these two cameras on my G1 vs. 995 page.

If you are interested in more information about the 995, here are a couple of links:

Steve's Digicams Review

Imaging Resource Review