Nikon F75, is it any good?

[www.scarlettdamen.com]

I am thinking of buying the Nikon F75 with a 28 - 80 zoom.

 

I am looking for feedback about this camera. Is it good? Why and

compared to newer models?

 

I am a Canadian student so price is an issue.

 

In addition, can you recommend any good books that will help me

learn about Nikon cameras and Nikon history?

 

Thank you so much for your time

 

Scarlett

[alan_friesen]

I'm also a Canadian student, and I recently bought the camera through B&H in the States. The total price for the camera, including a Nikkor 50mm 1.8/D was $531.60 CAD -- this also includes the importing fee and GST, as well as an international 7-year warranty on the body. This is dirt-cheap; trust me, I priced out many, many Canadian and American stores.

 

The F75 kit w/28-80 is probably going to be around the same price, maybe a bit more, depending on where you buy. I think that cameracanada.com has the kit on for $500 CAD or so, last time I checked, but that might have changed. Also, if you order it online, you don't have to pay PST -- saved me $30.

 

Personally, I love the F75. I've taken two rolls with it, one a Kodak Max 200 and the other a Fuji 1600 (can't remember type), and both rolls came back beautifully -- and I was shooting in full auto. The lens mount for the camera is metal, which means it'll last longer than the F55's plastic mount. The 28-80 lens has a plastic mount, FYI.

 

Anyway, I've got big hands, so I decided to buy the MB-18 battery pack, and I'm really glad I did. It's got a terrific grip and makes the whole camera feel that much more solid.

 

BTW, this *is* Nikon's latest SLR film camera on the market, can't get much newer :) I don't know about general books for Nikon's, but Thom's guide to the camera is outstanding. His web site's at bythom.com. Hope this helps!1

[arnabdas]

Though I have no first hand experience with this particular camera, from the specs and reviews it appears to me to be a "rationalized F65". I'd still recommend the F80 to serious shooters though.

[Jerry_]

It depends on what you determine 'good' is....

 

 

For a photo class, putting the camera in 'M' mode and getting any lens but the 28-80mm 'little package' lens, you should do OK. Running 2 or 3 rolls a week through the camera, the camera body itself should hold up. (It is not built like a F100 or a F5, so if you intend to shoot 6 to 8 rolls of film a day, day in and day out, it may not be 'good' for your expectations.)

 

 

 

If you can find a AF 50mm f1.8'D' lens, that may serve you better in learning the basics. If you have to have a zoom, the AF 28-105mm f3.5D~ Nikkor is better (but more costly.)

 

 

You can check

 

 

www.keh.com

 

 

and you may find the F75 body available in LN- shape or new for less than $210.00 in U.S. funds.

[www.scarlettdamen.com]

Thanks your answers really help.

 

Scarlett

[paul_dibiase3]

The F75/N75 is the camera the F65 should have been. :)

 

Read http://bythom.com/n75.htm for a good review of the F75.

[david_sereda]

Hi Scarlett from a fellow Canadian-

 

I've had my F75 for about 2 months now. It is alright, not too many complaints, other than its inability to meter with MF lenses and slow flash sync primarily. You will probably enjoy it.

 

However, the 28-80 zoom it came with is not that great. Waaaaaaay too slow. I hardly ever use it anymore since buying some better glass. My personal recommendation would be to -not- get the 28-80, and either take that budgeted money to step up to the F80, or to buy some other lenses. I've picked up all of mine on ebay, and had great success.

 

Here's another plug for Thom Hogan's review, and also for his "Complete Guide to the F75". If you do pick up the camera, order this ebook from him the same day, and then pack away the manual (or sent it to me, since I lost mine!).

 

As far as the other recommendations, look of course at Thom's other books, and for Nikon history, I don't think you can beat the Malaysia site (http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/photography.htm). Also be sure to check out nikonlinks.com, as well as nikonians.com

 

Good luck!

[lachaine]

The F75 is not bad, but if you plan on being somewhat of an enthusiast, I would recommend spending a bit more to get an F80. Generally, I would say it's better to spend the money on the lens rather than the body. However, it's hard not to recommend in favour of the F80, for the simple reason that it's Nikon's most full-featured camera in the "consumer" line, and the user interface is virtually the same as the F100 and F5. For an enthusiast, the F80 has more straightforward, direct controls for everything. For example, if you want to use the spotmeter, you just turn the little knob to spotmeter, nothing more. You can also set film ISO manually if you want to. This can be very useful if you get into black & white especially. It also has separate, individual "wheels" for setting aperture and shutter speed when in manual exposure mode. I find this extremely handy, myself. If you get it with the kit lens, it's a pretty good value (and so is the F75 for that matter). The 28-80G zoom that comes with them is actually pretty good for what it is - a consumer zoom that isn't expected to be a lifetime lens. Certainly not as sharp as a Nikkor prime lens or the more expensive zooms, and it does have linear distortion at the extreme ends, but it does get you into the ballgame as opposed to sitting on the sidelines. I started out with the 28-80G, and then moved on to a 28-105D zoom. To be perfectly honest, I finally went to a set of prime lenses, and in hindsight, I could have skipped the 28-105. I feel more involved with prime lenses, and more like an observer with the zoom. What you gain isn't really that much except better build quality, and very little distortion, plus a macro mode. In terms of sharpness, I don't really think it's an order of magnitude better. The alternative, of course, is to get the body only plus a 50mm 1.8D lens. So, I guess my recommendation is to get the F80 if you can manage it, but the F75 is not a bad compromise. It does have a 25 segment matrix meter compared to the F80's 10 segment meter (the same one as in the F100, basically). I don't think it has been demonstrated that the number of segments really makes any difference, however. I think it's really more something that Nikon has to do for the camera to compete with the Canon equivalent in terms of specs.

[armando j. heredia]

One thing that hasn't really been mentioned so far is the improved ergonomics - Thom Hogan goes into this in some detail in his web review, but I have to agree - the three-position selector around the control pad on the back pretty much simplifies what AF mode you're in and makes no bones about it. For a beginner, this is a great camera. Later on, you can move up to the F80/F100, and the 75 will still be a great backup body.

[Allen Herbert]

Small and light, excellent back up camera. Packed with the latest Nikon tech. Excellent value for money. Go for it.

[darin_cozine]

I just purchased an N75 from etronics.com for 250 USD. I think it is a great value. I was comparing it to the Canon Rebel TI.

Both are similar in specs, but there were a few things I liked about the Nikon better.

They both have selectable AF points, but I liked the nikon because it had a separate control for it,and it was quite intuitive.

 

The other thing I liked about the nikons is the fact that there is a better selection of lenses at reasonable prices. The only canon prime lenses longer than 135mm are 'L' series lenses, which are VERY expensive. There is a Nikon 180mm f2.8 which is reasonably priced and may be my next lens.

 

The Canon rebel TI had a little better autofocus in my opinion.

 

As far as not being able to meter with older lenses, dont worry about it unless you allready own other nikon lenses. The MF lenses arent much cheaper than the AF lenses.

 

The only thing I dont like about the Nikon is that there are lots of tiny buttons all over the camera for different things. Makes me appreciate my all-manual cameras.

[giostanni_pangilinan1]

Nikon N80/F80 is a good camera and value, but the N75 now easily tops that. If you can live with a few missing features, this body is a tremendous value.

[peter_h1]

I bought the F75 pretty much as soon as it was available here in australia. For many years I'd been whipping away with an F60 and a Tamron 28-200, but after trading in the F60 for the F75 I sold the Tamron and bought the 24mm 2.8, 60mm 2.8 (micro) and 85mm 1.8 prime lenses to go along with a 50mm 1.8 prime which I already had. To that end I'd totally recommend you dump the zoom idea and just use prime lenses. I've never used a zoom on the F75 and to be honest I never want to. Also if you can afford it, check out the 24mm rather then the 50mm. I've found that since putting the 24mm on my camera I rarely take it off, it is simply just a fun all encompasing lense which is good for both macro and micro shots.

Now down to the camera, the F75 is a very good camera for the money. Considering I have quite large hands I can use this camera quite effortlessly, so I really don't know where all these people who review it on the websites are coming from saying that its for small hands. Adding the battery pack to the camera just makes it even better, and also gives you a vertical shutter release which makes using an 85mm prime (or any portait zoom) a treat. The only downfall of the battery pack is that it means the camera can never sit on its base with any sort of mid telephoto zoom on it. But hey thats a miniscule price to pay. I normally use the camera in Aperture priority, and to be honest the camera always brings back very good results. The only failing of my shots would be me, and to be honest this is the type of scenario you want. The 1/90 fill flash is a let down though, but the metering of the camera is good enough to compensate for this. At 1/90 the F75 takes better pictures then my F60 did at 1/125, so I'm not really complaining. I also picked up the IR remote when I bought the camera, and it makes using the 60mm Micro lense so much easier. On the F60 I had to use the timer which then fired the metering light as a count down, but with the F75 you can set up the shot, walk away and take it comfortably. Much easier when your subjects (small and very hypo frogs) can be scared off by the blinking light.

Overall, for the money your getting a plastic camera packed with all the technology and experience Nikon gained from years of making very expensive camera's for professionals. If you can afford it I'd say get the F80, but only the F80s model as this one prints extra info between the frames. Other then that I couldn't make any 'huge' differences between the two which warrented the price to me.

Hope this helps.<div></div>

[fourfa]

how about a used N80 instead of a new N75? I really liked the straightforward controls of the N80 over the N75 when I was making the same choice.

[bolt_last_name]

I have had my f75 for 8 months now, mostly time exposures. My only complaint about the camera is that you can not manually select the film speed (or I haven't worked out how to). You can under or overexpose by up to three stops. There is a setting that turns this under- or over-exposure on and only turns off when you re-set it.

 

The inability to manually select film speed has only been a problem when I've used my own re-fillable film cannisters that don't have a code on them. In this case the camera defaults to ISO 100 but this isn't enough for indoor shots of people, neither is three stops faster, 400!

 

I solved the problem by buying a bunch of coded, re-usable film cannisters but it was dissappointing to find a major fault with the camera.

 

Good Luck!