Does somebody know why the Nikon D1 cost five times more than the coolpix 990 if the resolution is better in the coolpix 990? Could somebody out there tell me why the nikon D1 cost over 5000 ?

Thanks.

-- Victor Arana (varana@mines.edu), May 30, 2000

Answers

Yup - I'll be happy to tell you
The D1 is based on a 35mm Nikon - all titanium body. It accepts the full range of Nikon Lenses and accessories. It is an unbelieveably professional piece of gear.
As for resolution - it's CCD is several times larger than the 990, but as you know sports fewer pixels. The larger CCD works better for prophotography because of a number of reasons - including the fact that focal lengths used for 35mm can be used. The D1 also saves images using much higher quality compression ratio's - so in essence it can do a great deal more with fewer pixels. It also saves images in RAW format which results in absolutely outstanding quality.
The D1 also autofocuses instantly and can shoot up to 4.5 images per second. It can practially fill a 128meg card before even taking a breather.
I am crazy about the D1. It's outa my budget - but I can't say enough about it. Having been a long-time Nikon fan I think Nikon has absolutely set the standard for digital cameras in the professional category with this camera.
I don't think it's right to compare the 990 with the D1 - it's comparing Apples with Axlerods. The 990 is a very nice camera (though not my cup of sassafras)- but is a consumer camera. Des

-- Dan Desjardins (dan.desjardins@avstarnews.com), May 30, 2000.

Hello Victor,

up to a certain point, I agree with my predecessor's answer, but if you are planning on buying a digital camera in the near future - then wait a bit, for instance Canon will be unveiling a new professional digital camera, something in the region of 3.1 mio pixels and it should be cheaper than the D1. What will really blow everything out of the water is Fuji's new professional camera, based on a Nikon body) (6.0 mio pixels!!!) and according to semi-official sources it will cost as much as the D1....

-- Guy Bernhardt (info@gannetvision.ch), June 03, 2000.

I made several tests myself with Nikon D1. It does give much better results than my expectations. You easily can print 8x10 inch pictures. Details from portrets are "too sharp". You have to be carefull not every spot in the face is seen. The qualities for advertising product photography (retail) are enormously. With Nikon capture software there is no need for using expensive Leaf digital backs anymore. You can work fast too. The reviews download pictures of e.g. Nikon Coolpix 990 -which has a 3.3 million resolution chip- instead of 2.7 for the D1 are less sharp than D1. Besides the lens of Coolpix is much more bad than of normal Nikon lenses. It is not really the quality of the lens itself, but you have to take into account that the chip of a D1 is 4 times bigger (2x linear) in dimension than that of Coolpix. So lenses have to be more good in quality (4 times) to get the same result if the chip itself should be the same quality for both camera's. (Still the D1 chip is better).

I was intend to buy a consumer camera for the time being, and when everything is set up for a business I am starting invest in Nikon D1.

Looking what you get for "consumer" digital camera's I could not find the best combination. - New SonyDSC-S70 3.3 million resolution chip have best quality image (Zeiss lens) in the consumer range when I look to the images. But the camera you could not use in manual mode. So no use with studio-flash equipement. (You can not set appature (?) / diaphragm and shutterspeed manual). - Coolpix 990 has most individual settings etc. (nearly the same as Nikon D1 if you don't capture immediately to PC), but lens has much remain errors. - Olympus C3030, only 2 values for diaphragm - Casio QV3000EX, not sharp for a 3.3 million resolution chip (some 2.5 million resolution chips are as sharp).

So less to choose. The D1 is another range of quality you cannot reach with consumer camera's.

As of the new Fuji, in the other message. It is ***NOT*** a 6 million chip. Only interpolation of about a 3 million chip. Results from test I already have seen are not better as normal 2.5 - 3 million pixel chip camera's. (Not as sharp as Nikon D1, but better results with noise when using high asa values).

-- Leon Obers (Leon.Obers@iae.nl), June 04, 2000.