No, this isn't a shameless commercial plug for Nikon. I doubt that anyone at Nikon really cares what I think, but the CoolPix is a great product. I am now on my third. I didn't invest in the model 900 but I have had an opportunity to own and use the 950, the 990 and now the 995.
As a photography teacher I have many people come and ask what kind of digital camera they should buy. Unfortunately, many come and ask the question after they have already made the purchase. They are looking for confirmation that they made the right choice. I'm not always able to be kind and tell them what they bought is wonderful. They have also, many of them, gone for the low budget models and are really disappointed in the resulting picture quality. This is why that persistent rumor keeps circulating that digital photography is not very good. You do get what you pay for.
My advice: If you can't afford the model you want new, buy it used (e-bay is full of them). Also, you need to shop around for new models. Beware of Internet scams. If they advertise a camera you are interested in at a ridiculously low price, I'll bet even money that they don't have it in stock. They may then attempt to get you to buy it for what you could have bought it for in the first place.
The current model CoolPix (995) is $895 list. If that's too steep, the model 990 is still available and the 950 is a real bargain at $595 (about $400 used). The two recent models 990 and 995 will produce an 11 X 14 print on an ink jet printer that will blow you away. In the middle of writing this, I flipped over to Amazon.com. They have the model 995 in stock for $775, and no tax.
So what is the difference in these cameras? The 990 has a higher resolution chip than the 950 as well as numerous other enhancements. The 995 uses the same chip but uses an improved lens and flash. It's basically a better camera as you might expect. CoolPix cameras come with a 175 page instruction book. Not exactly a point and shoot machine. I carry my camera and my instruction book in my briefcase.
Digital cameras do things that film cameras can't, such as record video and sound, as they basically use a video process. They have a more limited contrast ratio than film cameras. To get acceptable images with a digital camera you need to be very concerned with the overall lighting in the scene.
CoolPix cameras focus down to 3/4 of an inch. That comes in handy if you want to get close up photos of the creatures in your garden or the coins and stamps from your collection.
If you are considering purchase of the 995, let me tell you about some of the important new features.
The 995 has a 4X optical zoom lens (38 - 152 35mm equiv.) and a pop up flash. It comes with a charger and rechargeable lithium ion battery.
The camera is slightly smaller and lighter than its predecessor. The image has a different aspect ratio (the width of the image is longer in proportion to the depth) and it has a smaller file size in "jpeg fine mode." I haven't noticed much difference in day-to-day operation and am quite satisfied with the quality, though the lens has some noticeable barrel distortion in wide-angle mode.
New features also include greatly improved firmware. It takes about one and a half seconds to download images to the CF card in the camera. This is important when you have moving subjects like cats, butterflies or grasshoppers. And the USB download time (time it takes to put the images on the hard drive) seems to be about ten times faster than previous models.
Another plus feature on the new CoolPix is that it will accept type II Compact Flash cards. This means you can put IBM's 1GB Microdrive in the camera. One GB will give you approximately 670 images in "JPEG_Fine" or 115 in "uncompressed TIF." Uncompressed images are 9 MB each. JPEG Fine images are 7.7 MB each, compressed at a ratio of approximately 4:1.
Whatever camera you buy, research your purchase carefully. You may think higher resolution is unimportant but the results can be very disappointing if you don't have it.

[Caption for picture]
Butterfly image taken with a CoolPix 995 in "jpeg fine mode."