Home > Consumer Reviews > Nikon COOLPIX 775 Digital Camera With Free 64MB CompactFlash Card [2.1MP 3xOptical]

This camera is the perfect starter camera for those interested in digital photography.
The quality of the pictures is superb, especially when considering its miniature size.
It has a surprising number of user-friendly features which are easily accessible on the rotating menu button. There are pre-programmed settings for common scenes (eg. landscape, party indoors etc) where flash, exposure etc are adjusted. There is also the option of setting the parameters manually - for those advanced enough to brave this.

The CoolPix small size means it is no problem to carry whenever and wherever you go - you won't miss out on the shot of a lifetime because you left your camera at home! It also comes with a battery charger and a long-life Li-ion battery which results in long usage time and convenient recharging. No disposal battery costs to worry about!

I am a relative novice to digital photography and was rather apprehensive about all the subtleties involved. This camera has made digital photography easy and I have been encouraged enough to learn more. This camera has enough features for the serious user, while easy enough for the beginner to master. I cannot recommend this camera highly enough. It has hugely exceeded my expectations and I am extremely glad I bought the CoolPix 775!!

This is a lovely little camera, small enough to fit into a handbag and be forgotten, yet clever, sophisticated and packed with features.

The auto mode is just that - fully automatic, just point and shoot. The close-up mode is particularly excellent - the camera can focus as close as 4cm from the subject, perfect for photographing even very tiny flowers. It also has a self-timer, and a "continuous shoot" mode, and much else besides.

At 2 megapixels it's not the highest resolution on the market, but you are unlikely to need more for home use - prints about 30cm by 20cm (about the size of your monitor) are crystal clear. A 64MB memory card (which can be bought separately) will hold about 70 pictures at best resolution. The 8MB card supplied will hold 10 at most at best resolution.

The software supplied is pretty basic, but as there are many reasonably priced image manipulation programs on the market, this is not a serious problem.

Overall, highly recommended, whether you need it just for holiday snaps or for more serious photography.

Press reviews about the Coolpix 775 rated it highly for its combination of good picture quality, user friendly controls, Li-ion rechargable, CF memory card and being pocket size; it was also within my sub-£300 budget. In practice it lives up to and exceeds all my expectations for accurate colour and auto exposure. One can go straight to print with very good results, (something I've been battling with and lost with my previous digicam). Life becomes interesting as it can be driven beyond just being a good point 'n shoot camera - as it includes features like 7 modes for white balance, ±2EV in 0.3 steps, and 5 flash modes. The 5 buttons located around the LCD viewer are very functional and intuitive, providing quick modifications to any of the 7 preset scenic modes. The macro facility is excellent. At last, skin colours are good!

A couple of pointers, get at least one additional li-ion rechargable battery, useful if you pop in a 64Mb CF card. The Nikon MH-52 recharger unit supplied is fast, just over the hour from flat.

The 775 handles dim lighting conditions very well if you elect not to use its in-built flash (say in a large hall), but, due to the resultant long exposure time ensure the camera is held steady, otherwise expect blurred pics. For a boost, it works well with a higher power hand-held slave flash gun (with a low cost sync adaptor attached to the gun's shoe).

Nikon have got this one right, its user friendly and produces consistently good results.

Bought this camera for battery life and simplicity of use.

I was not disappointed - battery is great, lasts 70 - 100 high-resolution pictures (1600x1200). 64MB card says reports 66 fine quality pictures but holds at least 10 more.

With the 64MB makes a well-rounded package.

Picture quality - I'm no expert - I use a Nikon 995 from work sometimes and can't see the difference (I take all pictures at 1600 x 1200).

Service from Amazon was great - ordered camera Sunday - arrived Wednesday - holiday started Friday. An email was sent to make sure that the camera arrived on time - communication was good.

Service was impressive - fast and efficient. Thank you.

Zahid.

I've had this camera for a couple of months and rarely go out without it.

The good stuff: It's small, about the size of most 35mm p&s cameras. It's not heavy. That means it doesn't spoil the line of a suit too much, would definitely squeeze in a small handbag. It ships with a Lithium Ion battery (what you get in the better laptops keeps the weight down and keeps the camera running for quite a while). 2 mega pixels should be enough for most purposes: it prints well up to A5 and acceptably up to A4. It's pretty intuitive to use, although you'll still get some benefit from reading the very clear manual. The flash works well, it's not overpowering and flesh tones look natural. USB hook up to Win2K or XP is very easy with the camera appearing as an external flash reader - and reading the images off is quick. 64Mb is enough for 65 images at default compression. This is not the drastic compression I've seen on some other cameras, think high quality jpeg. The mode dial works nicely (the sunset setting is great but you'll need to get it on a tripod, there's a standard mounting thread on the bottom). Despite having a plastic body it feels robust and having carted it around in a variety of pockets I must concede it's a pretty rugged camera. Lastly, it starts up quickly and is ready to start shooting in seconds.

There's a few downsides. The lens provides good detail but has noticeable barrel distortion across the entire zoom range. This is more a may be more a problem for pictures of architecture than people (Probably expected on this kind of camera). It has an output to TV to review your pictures but the quality is pretty bad, but then I guess most people won't use this anyway. The 3x zoom doesn't start particularly wide: the pictures don't look as though they were taken with a wide angle lens. At the telephoto end depth of field isn't enough to separate people from the background.

All told though I think the negatives are not significant for most people and this would make a great camera for keen photographers looking to replace a P&S camera or for anyone looking for an easy to use digital camera to get started.