Greetings Y'All,
I've been lurking here for the last 6 weeks or so, reading posts
and getting a sense of how people like the various models of
digital cameras. The reviews on this site and others, along with
the feedback and information that this forum provides have been
very helpful. Thank you all.
Despite all the good things about these forums, there's also been
something annoying me - namely, the "cultish" behavior exhibited by
various adherents to different camera brands/models. The responses
in this forum to Phil Greenspun's article finally prompted me to
post something.
The responses to Greenspun's Coolpix 995 review have been WAY out
of line. I quote:
Jerry: "Wonder what he was on when he snapped those pictures?
Reckon somebody drugged him and paid him to write it?"
Gary: "...I guess the site is film-camera oriented and they want to
self-congratulate themselves on their superior equipment."
Frances: "A complete idiot!! Maybe I should e-mail him this..."
(followed by a shot which is sharp, but is somewhat lacking
aesthetically and compositionally).
When people post knee-jerk responses like this they make themselves
look foolish. First off - Philip Greenspun is an excellent
photographer (both conventional film and digital). He's worked
with tens if not hundreds of different camera models and makes over
the years and has produced quite a lot of outstanding images
(checkout his galleries on photo.net) and contributed quite a bit
to the photographic community (checkout how active photo.net is).
To put it bluntly, Greenspun knows his s*
t, and it would behoove
you to find out a little bit more about a reviewer before
dismissing him/her as an "idiot."
Phil's review of the 995 is fairly critical - he obviously doesn't
like the user interface or the LCD, and he finds the shutter lag to
be annoying. In my own evaluation of the 995 (see below) I don't
find these points to be as annoying as Phil does but these are all
valid critiques. If you disagree with these points, that's fine.
Just agree to disagree and keep producing top notch images...
There are a few individuals in this forum who seem to have taken it
upon themselves to defend the 995 to the death. Any possible
critique, or any suggestion that the 995 is less than perfect is
met with derision and disbelief. The immediate response to anybody
who has a problem with focus or image sharpness is to say "That
can't be true - MY camera works just fine." This litany quickly
gets tiresome.
Yes you paid a lot for your camera, yes it is capable of producing
excellent images and no it's not perfect and could be a lot better
in a whole lot of ways. You need to remember that not every camera
that rolls off the assembly line performs as it should, and that
for a $800 piece of equipment the relatively high number of
complaints (not just for the Nikons) suggest some serious QC
problems in the digicam manufacturing world.
Anyhow, now that I've got that off my chest.
I bought a the 995 about 2 weeks ago and I'm having lots of fun
(not my first digicam though - that was a Ricoh RDC-4200 about 2.5
years ago - great macro for its time). My photographic background
is mostly manual SLRs and lot's of macrophotography in the context
of my work (I'm a biologist).
The 995 is a blast for doing macro work, and performs admirably for
landscape and portraits. In particular I appreciate the swivel
lens (the RDC4200 had this as well!) which allows me to approach
subjects from all sorts of odd angles.
I found the user interface to be cumbersome, but after a couple of
days I got used to it. Despite it's poor layout, I really
appreciate the fact that I can fine-tune things.
What I like:
- Great macro
- Decent flash with adjustable output
- Swivel lens
- Pleasing colors with good default saturation levels
- Decent white balance once you take it off "Auto" (WB bracketing
is nice too)
What I don't like:
- No focus-assist for focusing in low-light
- Shutter lag
- No standard hot-shoe for external flashes
- Lot's o' barrel distortion at wide angles
- Relatively poor performance in "idiot" mode (everything on Auto).
I'm about to head off for a 4-day backpacking trip with the 995 in
tow. When I return I'm sure I'll have some more thoughts and
feedback.
Remember, ultimately it's not the camera that matters but rather
the photographer. The great thing about digital is that once
you've gotten over the shock of the initial outlay of cash (camera,
batters, flash cards, etc.) it becomes very cheap to produce lots
of images. Be your own strongest critic. If something is
technically wrong with a shot, evaluate it and try and figure what
you did wrong. If the composition is off, or lacks punch, figure
out how you could make it better. Spend time looking critically at
other peoples photographs - noting both the positive and negative
things about the images. Use your imagination and learn to think
photographically.
Stop worrying about whether your equipment is good enough and get
out there and shoot!
Cheers,
Paul
