Nikon Coolpix 995. Fantastic pics, gotta love the swivel...
Started with a Coolpix 800. My company gave me $300 to apply towards any device or service of my choosing (among a list they had) that would help me get more into the "digital world mindset". I could have chosen a PDA, MP3 car deck, 'net phone and service, broadband at home, etc. I figured the PDA would be obsolete in a year, the MP3 car decks to choose from at the time were few and far between, I already had broadband, didn't want a cell (I hate being bothered...) so I went with the camera. Ended up loving it, taking pics all the time. Took awhile to get over the fact that it looked like one of those joke squirt guns, tho'...
Considering the camera's retail price at the time was $600 (I think the original msrp was $700), it turned into one of the best deals I ever had. I bought it thru Mercata: starting price was $600, but enough people bought it in order to lower the price to just barely over $500. Mercata gave you 20% off of all orders you make thru them, with a ceiling of $100...so because this was my first order, that lowered my price to $400. Then there was a $75 MIR. Throw in the $300 my company gave me, and I paid $25 out of my own pocket.
Then a couple of years later some jerk broke into my house and stole it, along with some other small, expensive items.
According to our insurance company, the camera had a current value of $500 (based on the original msrp of $700). They also considered the monster 64 meg card and two sets of rechargable batteries. The new camera only cost about $460 thru buydig.com.
So after all was said and done, I ended up with a 995 with three batteries and a 256 card for approx the original $25 I paid.
