Back on the Nikon Mafia:
Swivelling lens great for shooting from the hip (no one know your taking a pic) and self portraits (lens will swivel backwards)
This is a great feature by the way. It's useful for all kinds of things, not simply taking pictures of Rude's gf.
Good on board interface - clear and intuitive
Heh. The E995 was singled out in an article on "feature creep" and digital cameras. Once you figure it out though, it's pretty handy. I've used about 60% of the features.
short shutter lag (fires
What we're seeing is the difference between a "point and shoot" camera and an SLR. Affordable digital cameras are all "point and shoot" designs. (dSLRs I guess are getting cheaper, but the cheapest is still $2k). Point-and-shoots have shutter lag (I guess this is so you don't need a timing chain for slow exposures); their optics are good, but you don't get the extreme F-stops you find on a good SLR lens.
Low light autofocus
Again, this is a "point-and-shoot" problem with optical autofocus. I do much of my work in low-light conditions, and I find myself pulling various tricks (like put the focus crosshairs on some detail).
highlights burn out easily.
I find that (Again point-and-shoot problem with the light meter) at slow speeds, the camera tends to overexpose. When I take it down, I'm often underexposing by as much as -1 ev.
oh and digital camcorders as cameras? The resolution won't be anywhere near as good. I'd check it out. Odds are you can get a digital camera with the same features for under $100. Digital Cameras don't make great camcorders either.
