N75 - A few thoughts

[paul_dibiase3]

I have had this camera for over a month and have done quite a bit of

shooting with it. Overall, I am impressed. I like its light weight

and small size. With the 24-85mm zoom it is a nice camera for

general travel photography and it is great for carrying on long hikes

uphill. The light weight and small size are its #1 benefits in my

book. That and the fact that you don't give up to many modern

features to get them.

 

The autofocus is more than adequate, though for shooting moving

subjects the N90s or F100 is preferable. That should surprise

nobody. I am impressed with its metering system. At first I was

skeptical that the 25 segments were marketing hype. However, after

shooting a number of slides in varied lighting conditions, I have to

say that this meter is very accurate. It is much better than the

N90s and appears to be an equal to the F100 meter. I have found the

F100 meter to be very good surpassed only by the F5's RGB meter.

 

Of course, this body is not for use with the manual focus lenses or

with the TC's that don't pass through metering information. It won't

meter with them. There are a number of little quirks. For example,

to get continious autofocus on a moving subject you must use the

sports program. A minor annoyance since I would not choose this body

if I was going to photograph rapidly moving objects.

 

I purchased the optional battery holder and grip. While somewhat

expensive they allow the camera to be used with AA batteries instead

of the tiny and expensive S2 batteries. I can load the holder with

$1 worth of AA batteries instead of $7 worth of S2 batteries. The

payback is about 7 battery changes. And AA batteries are much easier

to find out in Podunck Junction, and they match the batteries used by

the F100.

[hemen_oza]

Absolutely! N75 is a real good camera that allows you to grow even more with it. Everytime Nikon comes out with a lower level camera, they make it quite better or at par with the higher version (F100 after F5, N80 after F100 and now N75 after N80!).

The other thing that I love about it is that it has spot metering (using custom functions?). I hate that my N65 does not have it.

I don't have N75, and probably would not get one. Although N75 seems like a better camera, I would rather jump from N65 to F100 now! (if and when the wallet permits :) specially because what I buy next will stay with me for 20+ years!

[edwardchen]

i know it is nice camera with lot of improvement compared compare to N65. But for serious (more than snapshot taker) photographer, N80 is minimum.

[Guest]

Like the F65 I had, the F75's a fair bit of camera for the money and still a bit cheaper than the F80. It will take you quite far, and may be all you ever need. After all, if you never change the ISO manually on an F80, it's a bit more of a camera than you need.

 

I knew the F65 wasn't the ideal camera when I bought it, but I wanted something cheap and autofocus to try out that I could junk later for little loss if I did need more. I've now decided that manual-focus lenses are more my thing, and I have an AF body (because it has a spot meter) to meter with them. So if I'd shelled out the extra for an F80, it wouldn't have done me any good.

 

And Galen Rowell used to take and F65 and other entry-level bodies with him to make fantastic-selling photographs. It's light enough to take everywhere, even on a mountain jog or trek, and that's a bonus.

 

So I respect the F65 (and the F75, which is about the same price) but don't rate the F80 that much. Just to be contrary.

[piyush_jain]

The N75's Spot Meter can be used only by a Custom Setting that determines the metering system to use when the AE-L button is pressed. At first I thought this was awkward, but after using it for a while I think it's very convenient. I keep the AE-L on Spot Metering all the time. The AE-L button is well placed to the right of (but not too close to) the viewfinder so that your right thumb finds it very naturally. You can easily compare the Matrix Meter setting with the Spot Meter without taking your eye off the viewfinder!

 

I don't miss the lack of an ISO override that much. I either adjust the exposure using the EV Compensation button in P/S/A modes, or calculate the desired exposure when I'm in full manual mode. Yes, the ISO override would have been convenient, but I have found this to be a great learning tool because I'm constantly thinking about it.

 

As others have noted, the size and weight are great for travelling. Best of all, it has a full auto mode so it doubles up as a (expensive) P&S camera for my wife. She now ends up with sharper pictures than she would have with her (pos) P&S camera.

 

The N80 is probably the minimum a "serious" photographer must have, but I get by with the N75 without too much to complain. Having used my N75 for a few weeks now, what I miss most from N80's feature list is flash compensation. I have heard that there is a way to do this with the N75 although it's not directly supported. If others on PN know how to do this, please post.