Nikon has a long and illustrious history as a camera maker. Its cameras gained a reputation as a true news photographer's machine in the Vietnam War, and by the mid 80s, about three-quarters of US photo-journalists were shooting Nikon.
Most digital cameras on the market these days have an electronic feel to them - not in the functionality, but in the hardware, the buttons and casing. You feel you are handling something which has as a closest relative a portable tape player, not a camera.
The Nikon CoolPix 950 is different. The body has a sturdy, robust feel and the switches and buttons remind me of a professional Nikon.
It is comfortable to use in the field and the software allows a wide range of user settings, including some manual exposure and focus settings and a huge number of image-quality settings.
Autofocus seemed to work well in subdued light, something that seldom can be said about digital cameras. Battery consumption was good to average for a camera of this type, although Nikon does not include an AC adaptor to power the camera when downloading pictures into a PC - something that should come with all digital cameras in this price bracket, but seldom does.
The body is much like other makes, in two sections with the one containing the lens able to swivel up and down. Unlike other, its lens points up when the camera's two body sections are aligned and must be swivelled to shoot. While this may seem a fashion choice, it makes using the optical viewfinder more comfortable, because you do not need to mash your nose into the back of the camera.