To playback your work, turn the mode dial to the PLAY position.
Then, the last image you took appears on the LCD monitor. At this point, you have two choices: (1) view one image at a time (single-image playback), or (2) view thumbnails (thumbnail playback). The single-image playback displays the images one by one, while the thumbnail playback displays the images in a 3×3 or 2×2 thumbnail format.
When the mode dial is turned to PLAY, the last taken image will be displayed on the LCD monitor along with some information:
The bottom row indicates the resolution and the image number. In the figure, the resolution is NORMAL and the image being shown is the second out of total four images. The numbers in the bracket are of form [m/n], which means there are n images in total and the one being shown is the m-th one. The upper left corner shows the date (07:29:2000) and time (21:46) when the image was taken, and the upper right corner shows the folder name (100NIKON) and file name (2040.JPG) of this image.
In addition to this first screen, we can turn the command dial to see more information of the image on the monitor:
There are four more screens. Turning the command dial counter-clockwise will display these four as shown below. Turning it clockwise reverses the order of display.
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| (2) | (3) |
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| (4) | (5) |
Images (2) and (3) above display the exposure parameters used for taking the image; image (4) has a very useful histogram, and image (5) even includes the focus area (i.e., the pair of dark bracket). Once you see the image (5), turning the command dial again will bring the screen back the first image shown earlier.
You can press the MONITOR button to remove these information from the monitor. Press the MONITOR again to turn off the monitor. Then, press the MONITOR button to display the image information.
When the camera enters the playback mode by turning the mode dial to PLAY, the camera always displays the last taken image. Using the left or up arrow of the multi-selection button to browse backward, and the right or down arrow to browse forward. Going backward (resp., forward) when the current image is the first (resp, last) one displays the last (resp., first) image. Thus, we can consider all images are organized in a circular order. More precisely, the next (resp., previous) image of the last (resp., image) is the first (resp., last) one.
There is a short cut for finding an image quickly. Press and hold an arrow of the multi-selection button, the image number will scroll quickly. Once the arrow is released, the corresponding image is then displayed.
It is difficult to detect if the image just taken is an out of focus one because the LCD monitor is too small. Therefore, Coolpix 990 provides you with a magnifying or zooming-in capability. To perform zooming in, you need to use the zoom button T. Please note that there is a magnifying class above this button:
When an image is shown on the monitor, pressing the zoom button T to zoom in with magnifying ratio ranging from 1.2 to 4.0 with increment 0.2. For example, press the T button to activate the magnifying process. Then, the monitor displays information as shown in the left image of the first row. The bottom part indicates that use zoom button T to zoom in and that use the four arrows of the multi-selection button to scroll. The upper-left corner shows an important piece of information, the zoom in ratio. The first time the zoom button T is pressed, the zoom in ratio is 1.2 as shown. As the zoom button is pressed again, the ratio increase in a step size of 0.2 until it reaches 4.0. That is, the maximum zoom in ratio is 4. The other three images below show the effects of zoom in ratio being 2.0, 3.0 and 4.0.
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| (1) | (2) |
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| (3) | (4) |
As the image is being magnified, some part of it will not fit into the monitor. To see these "hidden" areas, we need to use the four arrows of the multi-selection button to scroll. That is, pressing the left, right, up and down arrow to scroll to the left, right, up and down, respectively. For example, the following image is obtained by pressing the left and up arrows to scroll the image to the north-west corner.
To return to normal display, press the zoom button W.
To delete an image, you have to display it on the monitor. Once the image you want to delete is shown, press the focus mode button. Note that in the PLAY mode, the bottom row of buttons serve a different purpose. As shown in the figure below, the focus mode button now serves as a delete button as indicated by the trash can, while the flash mode button serves as a thumbnail display button.
After pressing the delete button, the following screen appears indicating that one image is about to be erased. If you really want to delete that image, press the down arrow of the multi-selection button to highlight Yes, followed by pressing the right arrow to make a selection. Then, the image is deleted, and the screen returns to normal display function. Otherwise, press the right arrow to cancel this delete operation.
After pressing the thumbnail button, the monitor shows a 3×3 grid of 9 thumbnails with the current image highlighted. See the left image below. Pressing the thumbnail button again changes the display to a 2×2 grid of thumbnails with the current image highlighted (the right image below). Then, pressing the thumbnail button again returns to the single-image playback mode (i.e., a 1×1 thumbnail).
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| A 3×3 thumbnail | A 2×2 thumbnail |
There are two ways of browsing thumbnails. First, the left and right arrows move the highlighted thumbnail to the left and right (on the same row), respectively, while the up and down arrows move the highlighted thumbnail to the image above (resp., below) the current one (on the same column). Second, you can turn the command dial to scroll through thumbnails screen by screen (i.e., in a group of nine or four thumbnails at a time).
Deleting an image while browsing thumbnails is identical to that of browsing single image. First, highlight the image to be deleted, and press the delete button (i.e., focus mode button).
To delete all images of this current folder, press the MENU while in the PLAY mode. The following menu appears:
Press the right arrow of the multi-selection button to select Delete. Then, the next menu appears (left image below). Use the down arrow to highlight the item All images (right image below).
Use the right arrow to select it, and the following screen appears:
Again, use the down arrow to highlight Yes and use the right arrow to select. After this, all images in the folder are erased.
What if you change your mind? Simple, press the MENU button (or press the right arrow when No is highlighted) and you will return to normal operation.
You can also delete a number of selected images in the same folder. To do so, press the MENU button while in the PLAY mode. The following menu appears:
Use the right arrow to select Delete and bring up the next menu:
Now, the first item Selected Images appears. Use the right arrow to select it. Then, the monitor displays a 2×3 grid of small images like the thumbnail:
You can use the left or right arrow to browse and the command dial to scroll. Do not use the up and down arrows. To select images for deletion, move the highlight frame to an image and use the up or down arrow to select. Once an image is selected, a trash can icon appears in that frame. Images 7, 9 and 10 are selected for deletion in the above example. Once all images are selected, press the QUAL button. This brings up the next screen asking for your confirmation.
This screen displays at most six of all selected images, and asks you to confirm. If you really want to delete those selected images, use the down arrow to highlight Yes and use the right arrow to select. Then, all selected images are erased. If you change your mind in this process before selecting Yes, you can press the MENU button (or press the right arrow when No is highlighted) to return to normal operation.