All of these are "jointed" cameras... the lens and optical viewfinder
are on one side of the joint, and the LCD, batteries, and flash card
are on the other side of the joint. I was so delighted with
the 900, that when I had opportunity to sell it and upgrade to the 950,
and then again to the 995, each of which got higher resolution, and the
995 a longer optical zoom, I did so, and was not disappointed.
The current model in this series, which unfortunately seems
to be the last, in the Coolpix 4500. I really, really like
the joint. The 995 has a 4X optical zoom, which combined with
the lens doubler I had, gives 8X magnification. A great line
of cameras for still photography. Some shutter lag, but you
get used to that--but it is annoying for action photography, if the
action isn't predictable. A somewhat puny flash makes night
photography limited, but low-light photography of still subjects can
often be done without the flash, by using a tripod, and would turn out
well. One could jam this camera into a large pocket on
loose-fitting pants, and I often did, but it was still a conscious
decision to be burdened with the camera, so it didn't go everywhere.
I seldom used the 30fps QVGA video on these cameras, the results are
tiny (especially if displayed on a high-resolution monitor) and if you
magnify them to a decent size, they quickly get grainy, and motion
artifacts are extremely visible.
The Nikon lens has a filter ring, which supports not only filters, but
also wide-angle and telephoto lens attachments, such as the doubler
(2X) telephoto lens attachment I had.
Casio Exilim EX-Z750
This little fellow is my current sidekick. It is small, rides
in my pocket or on my belt any time I leave the house. It is
an early technology leader for speed in this size camera... most
previous non-pro digital cameras have a noticable shutter lag.
The flash is even punier than the flash on the Coolpix 9xx
cameras, so an auxiliary flash is necessary for flash pictures except
when you can get really close to the subject (6' or so). So
large group pictures at night, without an auxiliary flash, generally
don't work. I bought this camera before a recent 2 month
trip, and I was delighted with the 4000 or so pictures it took.
Another technology plus for this camera is the 60fps VGA video.
While most video cameras have a much longer optical zoom
range (which also requires them to be significantly larger), their
picture quality isn't any better, unless they take HDTV video.
For this camera, the optical zoom is not active during video
shoots, but you can compose your shot to the widest zoom you wish for
the video before starting to shoot, and then use the digital zoom while
shooting. Since the video is only 640x480 (or 0.3 megapixel),
and the image sensor is 7.1 megapixel, digital zoom is actually OK to
use for video on this camera. I have really enjoyed some of
the videos I've taken with this camera.
This camera, like most that have fully retractable lenses, does not
support lens attachments of any kind. Because it is so small, and can
always be carried, it enables pictures within its limits, that would
otherwise be missed because of "Oh, I wish I had my camera with
me"-itis.
Equipment
Flash Card Reader
SanDisk ImageMate 12-in-1 flash card reader
-- handles xD and about everything else. Most of the newer card
sizes are compatible with one of the older card sizes, so the
ImageMate, when I bought one, was called 8-in-1! I don't think it
has changed, though! Marketing!