Has anyone used Nikon Coolpix 990?

[Rhodes19]

Has anyone used a Nikon Coolpix 990 for taking pictures of their fish and corals? I have one but can not get good pictures of my fish or corals. They either come out dark or blurry. I also can not get a close up of anythink. It is always blurry. Using a tripod has helpped some. I am using the auto mode at the moment.

Here is an example of what I am getting.

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Short of buying a new high speed, low drag camera, is there anything I can do with this camera?

Thanks

 

[Rhodes19]

Bump

 

[Rhodes19]

Bump

 

[Recty]

Are you shooting through curved acrylic or is it straight glass?

Some of those pictures almost look to me like you're shooting into a curved front tank and that will really wreak havoc with focusing.

I know nothing about the camera you have, but some things to try are putting it in a sport mode, if it has one, which will increase your shutter speed and help with things not being so blurry. Also, clean your glass. It looks to me like your camera is focusing on the glass and not the things inside the tank. Cleaning the glass can really help stop that.

Also, hold the camera perpendicular to the tank. Dont take a picture from the left side of the tank looking at the right side of the tank, or from the top of the tank looking down towards the bottom. You'll get a lot of distortion that way.

 

[Rhodes19]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15325442#post15325442 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Recty
Are you shooting through curved acrylic or is it straight glass?

Some of those pictures almost look to me like you're shooting into a curved front tank and that will really wreak havoc with focusing.

I know nothing about the camera you have, but some things to try are putting it in a sport mode, if it has one, which will increase your shutter speed and help with things not being so blurry. Also, clean your glass. It looks to me like your camera is focusing on the glass and not the things inside the tank. Cleaning the glass can really help stop that.

Also, hold the camera perpendicular to the tank. Dont take a picture from the left side of the tank looking at the right side of the tank, or from the top of the tank looking down towards the bottom. You'll get a lot of distortion that way.

Hi Recty,

Thanks for your response, I appreciate it. My tank is a standard 29 gallon glass aquarium with straight sides. I was trying to take pictures at an angle to try to avoid the flash. I don't know if it has a sports mode or not but I'll check when I get home tonight. I know it has a manual setting where I can change the settings, but, Ive never done that before. I cleaned the glass before I took the picture but I noticed when I moved the algae scrubber the glass smugged a bit. I guess I'll have to do a better job of cleaning :eek2: I am begining to wonder if there is not enought light over the tank to make the picture stand out. I have a 30" 48 watt T-5 light on top but I probably need more.

Chris

 

[Rhodes19]

Well, I cleaned the glass, set up and used a tripod and took a couple of test pictures. The camera was about 2' away from the tank. Here's what I got:

GSP with the camera perpendicular to the tank.

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Kenya Tree perpendicular to the tank.

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Toadstool at an angle.

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Over all the pictures came out a little better I think but the flash is annoying. I think the angled shot came out better.

 

[JB NY]

I used a Nikon 995 for years. It's basically the same as the 990. The one thing with the 990/995 is it is not very good in low light, as it has focusing problems. But really I found it fine for taking photos with just the VHO lights on, but I mostly used Metal Halide.

Play around with the setting and you will be surprised at what good photos you can get with that camera.

The main things to remember are, always take picture with the camera lens perpendicular to the glass (you can even put the lens against the glass as all the focusing is done internal to the camera), and keep the camera steady, a tripod will help a lot.

Here are some shots of my tank with my 995 from a few years ago so don't think you can not get good shots with that camera.

 

[Recty]

Yeah, you'll need to turn the flash off, I think, and your camera will compensate for that and take a longer exposure.

 

[Rhodes19]

Wow! Joe,

Nice pictures and nice corals! I'm definitely going to play with the camera over the weekend.

Recty,

Once I figure how to turn off the flash I'll take some more pictures. Now, I just need some awesome corals!!!

Thanks for the help. I appreciate it.

Chris

 

[cdness]

A few things I do with my point and shoot for better pictures:

1. Put the lens right on the glass. This reduces the chance of the camera focusing on the glass.

2. Flash off most of the time

3. Tripods are your friend

4. Macro acro macro... If your camera has a macro setting play around with that a bit and you'll notice a difference when focusing on close up objects...

 

[RichK]

As Joe has demonstrated, the camera is very capable of taking good pictures. "Back in the day" it was one of the most used cameras for hobbyists. I started with a 990 and then a D70, and then a....nevermind...it's just a blur.

Keep practicing with it. I had a macro lens set that Tiffen made for the camera that did a great job with close ups.

 

[Rhodes19]

cdness, RichK,

Thanks for the help. I am, going to try to get some pracitice time in this weekend between birthday parties, drinking (youngest one turns 21 on Sunday), in-laws visiting, and oldest daughter and her husband visiting before leaveing the country for 9 months. I might try placing a halogen work light over the tank to brighten it up while I take pictures. I'll post some of the pictures when I get back on Monday. Thanks again to every one for your help.

Chris

 

[Rhodes19]

I finally had some time to play with my camera and was surprised at how much better my pictures came out with the flash off. I also figured out how to play with the macro setting.

without flash

with flash

I'll have to play with shutter speed next

This was taken this morning without a tripod. Its my 45 g tank with a regular flouresent bulb. It seem brighter than my 29 g with a T 5 bulb. The room it is in is darker than the room the 29 is in.