Nikon Coolpix 775: Small Camera, Big Pix

Ben Long

It doesn’t matter how good your camera is if you don’t have it handy when that great shot presents itself. If you often find yourself thinking, “If only I had brought my camera,” then you may want to take a look at the Nikon Coolpix 775. This $449.95 2-megapixel digital camera competes directly with Canon’s tiny $599 PowerShot S110 Digital Elph and Olympus’ small $399 Camedia D510 Zoom.
With its dimensions of only 2.6 by 3.4 by 1.7 (HWD) inches, the Coolpix 775 easily justifies its pocket-sized moniker, and the camera weighs a mere 6.5 ounces (without battery). Even so, this svelte digital camera packs a generous assortment of big-camera features, including a 3x zoom lens, Nikon’s 256-element matrix metering, and shutter speeds as fast as 1/1,000 of a second.
Design
One of the first things you’ll notice when you pick up this camera is that it is light — just over 8 ounces, even with its lithium-ion battery pack and 8MB CompactFlash card. The 775’s low weight comes courtesy of its all-plastic body and small design. On the downside, the camera does not feel particularly sturdy, and it has an understandably plastic feel. Even so, the 775 is very comfortable to handle and use. The well-designed handgrip provides for a sturdy hold, and makes the shutter and zoom controls easily accessible with your forefinger and thumb.

The back of the camera features a nice, bright 1.5-inch LCD screen, along with numerous buttons. One of these — the Transfer button — allows direct, one-button transfer of images to your computer via the camera’s USB connection. The included NikonView software also provides a unique Web uploading feature that can automatically e-mail transferred images, or post images to Nikon’s Web-based photo sharing service.
The top of the camera sports a rotating mode dial that lets you select between nine different shooting modes, in addition to playback.

The 775’s 3x Nikkor lens zooms through a 35mm-equivalent range of 38 to 115mm. Maximum aperture ranges from f2.6 to f4.9, depending on the zoom level.
A simple flip-up door behind the handgrip provides access to the camera’s Type I CompactFlash slot. Power comes from a proprietary lithium-ion battery pack, and the package includes a separate charger; the battery cannot be charged in the camera. On the bottom panel of the camera you’ll find its tripod socket, a wimpy-looking plastic mount that seems easily stripped if not used carefully.
All in all, the Coolpix 775 is well-designed, comfortable, and easy to use, if a little chintzy feeling when compared to the all-metal designs favored by Canon.
Shooting
Shooting with the 775 is straightforward. In most cases you’ll probably shoot with Auto mode, but Nikon has included eight other modes you can select simply by rotating the mode dial. The camera provides a Party/Indoor mode that uses a slower shutter speed to capture background lighting; a Backlight mode that automatically activates the camera’s fill flash; a Portrait mode that attempts to choose an exposure that will blur the background; a Night Portrait mode that uses slow shutter speeds and flash; and a Landscape mode that chooses exposures that capture deep depth of field. You’ll also find Beach/Snow, which selects exposures that will more accurately reproduce the tone of sand and snow, and Sunset, which can more accurately capture the warm tones of a sunset. Finally, a Movie mode can capture 320-by-240-pixel silent QuickTime movies of up to 15 seconds.
The camera’s optical viewfinder shows only about 82 percent of your final image, so you’ll want to make a point of using the LCD viewfinder if you care at all about accurate framing.
The 775 provides a continuous autofocus function, which constantly refocuses as you move the camera. The idea behind continuous autofocus is that, with the camera always trying to keep its image in focus, it will more likely be ready to shoot at a moment’s notice. Unfortunately, the constant whirring and buzzing of the autofocus as you move the camera around can be a bit disconcerting (and can shorten battery life), and the only way to switch to a “normal” autofocus mode is to turn off the camera’s LCD screen, which would force you to use its not-so-accurate optical viewfinder.
A single button on the back of the camera lets you switch between Infinity focus mode, (wherein the camera’s autofocus is locked on infinity) Macro mode, and the camera’s self-timer. As with other Coolpix cameras, the 775 provides an excellent macro feature, which can focus as close as 1.6 inches.

The Coolpix 775 captures images as close as 1.6 inches in macro mode. Click here for the original, full-size image (569K).

The flash button lets you select between fill flash and red-eye reduction flash, and the menu button lets you pop open the standard Coolpix menu system.
Through the menu, you can access the camera’s white-balance controls, which provide preset white-balance settings for sunlight, incandescent, fluorescent, cloudy, and flash, in addition to the camera’s auto white balance. Surprisingly for a camera in this market, the 775 also provides a fully manual white balance — an essential feature for ensuring accurate color in difficult lighting situations.
Aside from the relatively small optical viewfinder coverage, we had only three big complaints about shooting with the 775. First, the camera’s six-second startup time is too slow. You can, of course, leave the camera on when you’re in an area where you might want to shoot (you can turn off the LCD screen to save power), but because the camera’s lens extends from the front of the camera body, you may not be comfortable walking around with the lens extended for long periods of time.
Second, there’s no quick way to set the camera’s exposure compensation controls. Though the camera provides the standard +/- two-stop exposure compensation, the only way to access the controls is through the camera’s menu system. It’s much more convenient to have external controls for this everyday function.
Finally, the camera is sorely missing any manual ISO control. The 775 uses an ISO of 100 and offers no additional options. Other cameras at this price point have long offered multiple ISO settings, as have other Coolpix models, and it’s surprising that Nikon has not included them in the 775. Nikon lists “Auto gain-up function” among the camera’s specifications, which seemingly means that the camera will increase ISO sensitivity automatically when needed. During our testing, however, the camera consistently behaved like a 100 ISO camera
Otherwise, shooting with the 775 is easy and comfortable. The camera’s zoom control is responsive and allows a fine degree of control. We especially like the Quick Playback button, which lets you quickly review your images without having to switch the camera into playback mode.

1 2 Next