Nikon CoolPix 775

I bought this camera with macro photos in mind, but have taken many other types of pictures with it. Even though it's a fine macro camera with a very close macro range, it is also a fine general purpose camera with a nice 35mm equivalent wide end of its zoom.

When I bought it I could choose between the 2 megapixels, which I finally decided on, and models with 3 megapixls like the CoolPix 995. I also considered the older and "original" CoolPix-models like the 880 or the 990, which were great cameras with their twisting bodies. But they were too expensive for me, so I finally opted for the CoolPix 775 -- a desision I didn't regret.

Picture machine

This little camera had all the childhood deseases of the first digital cameras. My biggest problem with it was its very rough treatment of the jpg-images. It compresses the pictures too much and on top of that has some problems with blown-out highlights. These two things combined has tied me to Photoshop salvaging the remains of overexposed pictures many times.

On the other hand the camera could accasionally produce some really nice pictures just out-of-the-can. This camera likes good light, but not too much of it. Had I known what I know today, I would have systematically underexposed all images in this camera. But back then I didn't know better, and just had the camera on its basic settings.

I loved this camera, but compared with today's compact P&S-cameras it was slow with long shutter lag and slow AF, slow processing and a slow interface. But the lens was fine, and under the right circumstances, it did produce some technically good pictures.