Re: My retro fascination
By: poindexter FORTRAN to All on Sat Jul 17 2021 07:01 am

I charged the batteries up in my Nikon Coolpix 995, that camera that Nikon released in 2001, with the body that swivels in the middle?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikon_Coolpix_995

2.11 megapixels (if that), full manual controls, an optical viewfinder, filter ring that let you screw in a neutral density, polarizer or UV filter, or a wide-angle attachment. Shoots on old-school compact flash cards.

I picked up mine a couple of years ago in mint condition.

I love having complete control over the exposure, and I grew up with optical viewfinders. While this one isn't the biggest, it's great in bright light, where I hate composing a photo using a viewscreen.

I used to get my retro fix shooting 35mm film SLRs, but with the demise of one of my favorite (read: cheap) online film processors, I haven't been tempted to take them out. The 995 gives me all of the control I'd have with a film camera, but saves me the processing cost.

What I'd really like is a pocketable camera with manual controls and a fast non-zoom lens, like the Ricohs. That would come close to shooting with my Canon FTb with a 50mm lens.

I'm going to take it out shooting to an old-school beach boardwalk tomorrow, we'll see how that turns out.

... Mechanicalise something idiosyncratic

The Coolpix 995 is a great digital camera. For the 2.11 megapixels it provides, it always had great colour balance and takes great photos. I pretty much only use optical view finders when composing shots, and like you said, it's not the largest viewfinder (at approx. 85% viewing area) but it's good enough with a bit of practice.

I made good use of the manual controls, and with the skills I learnt from
using my 35mm Voigtlander Vito II film camera, the Coolpix doesn't disappoint.

Another thing that I'm yet to find on any non-DSLR digital camera is a
threaded lens filter ring. Although it uses a pretty small thread (I think it's 18mm or 22mm), I made good use of coloured lens and various filters like you've mentioned on it when I go out and do some B&W digital photography in-camera, without post-processing. It always yielded great results :) For a 20 year old camera, it does a great job.

Regards,
Xandiraud
--- SBBSecho 3.14-Win32
* Origin: Diamond Mine Online BBS 21:1/194 bbs.dmine.net:24 (21:1/194)