I have a Nikon CoolPix 990 on backorder. But now I'm reconsidering. The Epson PhotoPC 3000Z costs about the same and looks interesting. I've never held either of these cameras in my hand. Both should work well with my Macintoshes. The Epson comes with recharger and batteries. It looks more like a traditional 35 mm camera. Any suggestions? Thanks. John

-- John Baughman (jbaugh@relia.net), June 11, 2000

Answers

If suggest you to buy an Olympus C-3030 Zoom instead on any of those two, Nikon Colorpix 990 works great, but Olympus C-3030 takes near perfect shots, it has plenty of features and smaller size, and it's 100 bucks cheaper, look for it at www.pricewatch.com at $850

just compare the sample images in this website.

-- Alfredo Salinas (vatoloco@gob.com.mx), June 14, 2000.

Get down to your local retailer and play with one! I found several 990's to play with before I bought one.

I bought a Nikon, and couldn't wait for Epson to play catch-up yet again.

I encourage you to find a respectable retialer near you and consider that as a source for your 990 purchase. At this point, you are only saving $100 - $150 on the purchase by buying from the web and you have to put up with the backorder crap, while others like me, are enjoying the 990's we bought. I wanted a place to take the Nikon back if I didn't like it, so I paid list price at a Ritz Camera, the only ones who had one in stock, and they offer a 30-day unconditional money-back gaurantee. I don't abuse retailers who offer this, but I was more condident in buying the Nikon with the 30-day gaurantee even though I didn't make a purchase until I had done extensive research on the Nikon 990 and its competitors.

The Olympus was a contender, believe me. Better software package and I think it comes with batteries and charger. Despite my quest for compactness the Olympus lost, even with the infrared remote. It is too compact, not natural in my hands, and I don't like Smart Media. You can get 128MB CF/I cards right now at a reasonable price (less than $2 per MB) and the CF/I hard drives are coming out soon. Also, Olympus' insists that you use their media for panoramic shots.

When you are comparing the Olympus and Nikon, you are going to be talking about preferences, mostly. I read a lot about color problems with some folks who owned 990's...and others, raved about the colors. I side with the camp of excellent color, in adequate lighting and I haven't even fussed with any setting other than Automatic. I don't think you are going to be able to prove that one takes pictures that much better than the other. Read the reviews. That isn't going to be of much concern between the best contenders.

I for one find the grip on the Nikon fantastic. Nice and rubbery, shaped with a good size grip, but not "bulky." The shape of the 990 is unique. While it is a larger camera, it doesn't seem like it because of the way the lens rotates and the sleek, slim shape it takes as a result...it will fit nicely in a variety of places.

The "feel" of the Nikon is like no other. The buttons have a wonderful tactile touch, the constuction is rock solid, the TFT display is sharp and bright, the menu navigation is swift, once you get the hang of it. The number of buttons you have to make choices like manual and automatic settings, EV correction, quality and size of the picture, etc. is great without having to enter the color LCD menu display. The top LCD display shows almost all details about the shot settings too!

Once you buy the Nikon and get to know it, you will feel more comfortable with it. I wasn't sure I liked the Nikon at first, but after reading the entire manual and going through every feature, determining if it would do what I wanted, I was satisfied. That took a couple weeks, since I rarely have more than 30 minutes at a time alone with the thing.

For your comfort, I am an Epson owner. I have a PhotoPC 600, which I bought in April 1998 after the price dropped to $500. On this recent upgrade, I was originally going for the 850Z, but the price was too close to the 3MP cameras that were coming out and it was not very compact. In fact, I really disliked the Epson when I played with it. I had heard just a wind about the 3000Z Epson when I was getting ready to lay the cash down for the 990, but had decided that I was going to leave the Epson ranks after looking at the 850Z...

It took me some time to adjust to the Nikon after using the excessively friendly Epson 600 for over 2 years. I still love that camera and I am actually using the batteries and charger for it because Nikon saved a few bucks by not providing it. But, now I can easily do everything the Epson did, but I have a zoom, 3.34MP resolution, and oodles of manual features I never had before. I even use the little movie mode for cute, short little action shots, which most serious professional photographers balk at when they hear it is included with this cameara.

-- Jarrod (deepsnow@freewwweb.com), June 15, 2000.

I also have Nikon 990 on backorder for over 2 months and fianally got one from local dealers fro more bucks. However, I am very happy with overall performance. I was also looking at Casio QV3000-EX which sports Canon lens and comes with 340 Mb IBM Microdrive.

-- Tanasit Siriluck (tanasit@flashcom.net), June 18, 2000.