Coolpix macro lens question

[Stelenes at aol.com]

No, the Nikon len suggested, nor any other Nikon chemical film camera lens selection will work with the supposedly economical (near $1000 without frills!!) Coolpix 950 and 990.

If you want to use the Nikon regular lenses, you need to buy the D1.  You will find it will run several thousand $.

The 990 and 950 are digital consumer products and Nikon is not letting them cannibalize their higher margin film products now.

The 950/990 already have a macro feature, so closeness is no problem.  It does a bit better than the 4" advertised, though you will miss the working distance a typical 90-105 mm could give.

I am sure you occured to you "could a modification be made to the camera body to accept the good lenses."  The short answer to that is, when the dust clears you will be better off financially with the D1.  By the way the D1 would appear to have worse resolution than the 950 or 990.  The results of the performance of the D1 are significanty superior, its not as simple as how many pixels you have...

There are some consumer accessories available with the 950/990.  One is a telephoto and the other is a wide angle.  Note they while the telephoto might help, you lose so much on the lens speed that your pics won´t come near the pro level of the regular lenses on any Nikon film body.  In conclusion: For web publishing, sending /IDing those species you can´t remove from wherever, or making greeting cards you are fine.  Anything else requires a little more time for the technology to get tweaked or a serious investment.

Good luck Jim, & Happy butterflying.
Doug Dawn
Monterrey, Mexico
(soon on to CA)