Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I read the user warnings: impossible low light autofocus, poor manual focus with no distance indicator, battery eater, buttons on the side can't be found when you need them but always hit by accident, no filter threads. I thought, "It's a Nikon. Must be operator problems." I was wrong. This camera has a good flash and works well with Nikon external flash units, but there's a catch. The camera will not focus under conditions when you normally need a flash! No focus assist light, and the manual focus...you've got to be kidding: Hold down a button on the side of the camera while turning a knurled wheel on top. Under really bright conditions, you can sort-of tell when the image is in focus, but under those conditions, you probably don't need manual focus. If you think maybe you'll just estimate the distance under dim light and dial it in, well guess what? The focus distance indicator is a bar which slides between a flower and a mountain. How's that for precision measurement! Yep, it eats batteries. Buy two spares ($$ ouch!) and a rapid charger plus a car adapter. You'll always have batteries on you mind when you use this camera. You can turn off Continuous Autofocus and reduce battery drain, and noise, significantly, though. I found a press-on adapter for $25 to use standard threaded filters. That helped, but should not have been necessary on a $900 camera. And just wait till you hit the file type button by mistake--and discover you've changed from Fine (JPEG) to RAW, and have to wait 45 seconds for the 15MB file to save to CF, while you scratch your head trying to figure out what happened. Yes, the menus are a little complex and mastering the extensive feature set may take a while, but that's to be expected with this many features, although some would be better placed for quick access. Built-in macro focusing is good, too, but an aperture smaller than F8--at least F11 or F16--might give the depth of field you need for close-up photography. The 8:1 zoom is nice, with 35mm equivalent of 280mm, but the wide angle end is weak with only 35mm wide angle instead of the more usefull 28mm equivalent. And given the price of this camera, image stabilization should be included for hand-holding the telephoto zoom. But it's the low light focus that will drive you screaming into the night. A helper pointing a small flashlight or a laser pointer at your subject will help the camera to focus (you'll get used to the Canon people laughing at you), but you'll still be guessing on the composition, since the viewfinder display goes nearly black in low light. If Nikon could at least update the firmware to display manual focus distance in feet--that would be a help, but just try and contact anyone interested! You get referred to the incredibly lame FAQs and "knowledge base" every time! If you really want the precision framing of TTL viewfinders on a digital, save your money for a true digital SLR.