Nikon N75 35mm SLR Camera Kit with 28-80mm f3.5-5.6 Nikkor Lens

1 Well balanced features at a great price-Film Not dead yet!
I bought this camera for a several reasons, as a backup to my aging Nikon 8008s (still going strong after 10 years!) and for a film body to use Nikon "G" lenses, and because of the Nikon USA Fall rebate.

Upon first opening the box I thought I'd made a real mistake. It's the lightest 35mm SLR I've ever used. The viewfinder is rather small and none too bright. Compared to the 8008s the N75 feels like a disposable camera!
Upon inserting the batteries and mounting a 50mm Nikon lens, things began looking up. I bought the body only, and strongly recommend you do the same, and get a Nikon AF 50mm 1.8 lens. This camera balances beautifully with this prime lens! My hands are small, so the N75 felt just right. Autofocus is quick, and I like the red confirmation light in the finder (same as on my D 70 digital SLR).
When it comes to focus speed and silence, the N75 blows my old 8008s out of the water. It's focus rarely hunts and the shutter is fairly quiet, as is the drive motor. Switching to Manual Exposure mode is quick and easy. This camera even has a depth of field preview button.

Overall this has become a favorite film camera because it is so light and easy to carry. It's fast and the meter is accurate. I wish the spot meter were easier to access, but that is my only real complaint. It does 90% of what the N80 does at less than half the price. This is a great camera for a new photographer or advanced user looking for a backup film body. The nice thing is all those wide angle lenses stay wide, and shooting a roll of slide film through this little gem will convince you film is not yet dead!

2 An okay product in it's class
I bought this for my dad. The features are standard for it's class with a major disappointment being a flash sync speed of just 90. The results have been okay to good and not worth gushing about. The body has a rugged feel which I liked. The auto light-reading underexposes a bit, so I would suggest compensating it +1.5 .
I also own a Minolta Maxxum5 which is in the same league but comes with better features and lower price, it produces excellent results consistently. My impression is Nikon is riding more on it's brandname nowadays, rather than leading the field with innovation.
My 2c advice for anyone who has decided to go for a Nikon SLR, but has a dilemma in deciding between N80 and N75 - go for N75. You only sacrifice flash sync speed to 90 instead of 125. But the N75 is from more recent technology(incldg light meter) and is much much lighter(which is REALLY IMPORTANT). Out of the Nikon prosumer SLR stable, N75 is the most value for money.
If you ask me for a prosumer SLR suggestion between Nikon and Minolta - hands down Minolta.

3 One great camera
This camera is amazing. I've been using one for about 5 months and I'm amazed at the high quality pictures I've gotten. The camera has a lot of advanced features that allow even someone new to SLR photography to take excellent pictures. The camera also includes 4 priority modes which allow you to develope even more as a better photographer.

The lens that comes with the camera is a 28-80mm f3.3-5.6 Nikkor. This is a good all around lens. I used it for the first three months solo before getting a 70-300mm lens. I still use the 28-80 a lot, but if you plan on continuing taking pictures, then you should get a bigger telephoto lens.

The camera is very easy to use and if you get one, experiment with all the functions on the camera. You will most likely be very happy with the results.

4 Great Camera f
This is a great camera for amateurs because it has Nikon quality at a great price. Please don't think cheap piece of crap, though. Its zoom isn't great but thats why it's for amateurs. Note: NOT FOR BEGINNERS FOR THAT A SIMPLE POINT AND SHOOT WILL DO. It's easy to load and to use. And has a dicent flash syncro of 1/90. I also reccomend a Quantaray Filter to replace the lense cap becuse after a while the lense cap get extremely annoying.

5 Need to know something about the N75
I now own a N60 which does not work with an external flash, I would like to know before purchasing this one if the external flash would work with it.

6 Excellent, economical SLR
I love my Nikon N75 - it's by far the best camera I've ever owned. I've had it for several months now, and have taken the best pictures of my life with it. A great first SLR, due to the ability to leave it in fully automatic mode at first, and then start using the expanded features as you learn.

I mainly wanted to write this review to debunk the 'error' a previous reviewer was complaining about. They really should read the owner's manual... The 'film not loaded error icon' that they are talking about is used in two ways on this camera. If when you first load the film, something goes wrong, this will blink to indicate the film was not loaded correctly. The second use is as a 'low-film' indicator. When you're looking through the viewfinder, this light will blink when you hit 5 exposures left. It's obviously meant to let you know you're getting close to the end of your film, so you don't miss that 'perfect shot' due to running our of film. The fact that the reviewer went through several of these cameras, and never figured this out astounds me. I've never had to contact Nikon support, but I would hope that the support person I got would be a little more knowledgeable than the people she talked too...

Overall, if you're looking to get started with an SLR, you can't go wrong with this camera. I would, however, suggest that you visit your local Ritz (or equivilent camera shop) to hold onto the camera, and compare it to a few others. I was all set to buy a Canon Rebel Ti, based soley on reviews - until I went to the shop. It just felt wrong in my hands, where the Nikon felt perfect. It's all a matter of personal preferrence, so you'll want to make sure you're getting the right one.

I've also been pretty hard on this camera since I got it (Ritz has an optional replacement warranty, so I've not been too worried) - including getting it soaked on a boat trip. It's kept on going through everything I've thrown at it - very durable.

Pros:

-Can be used as a point-and-shoot when needed (or while learning)
-Has the ability to control every aspect of the picture taking process.
-Great built in flash
-Amazing 25 point 3D metering system
-Controls are all easily accesible while holding the camera
-In my opinion, it just feels sturdier and more comfortable in your hand than the Canon Rebel Ti - Canon's equivilant camera

Cons:
-Being an SLR, it's a little on the big side. It is, however, lighter than you might expect. Basically, you have to be making the commitment to carrying it around with you. For this, I'd highly recommend one of the lowepro bags - they're about the smallest you can get for this type of camera.

7 easy and simple
I don't have a lot of experience with cameras but this one was so easy and simple to use and produced a bunch of great pictures with little effort. I have to give it a 5 star rating because it is just impossible to mess anything up. If you want a camera that knows what you want and is soo easy to learn to use, get this one. It's worth it.

8 great camera!
So here's where I'm coming from: I'm big on photography enthusiasm (I would rate myself as a semi-serious to serious amateur), and very low on budget. I've owned a Pentax SLR camera before, as well as a few point-and-shoots.

I bought this camera last August after doing a lot of research both online and in magazines like Popular Photography. All the reviews raved about it, and boy, were they true! It's a wonderful camera for both the starting amateur (you can just set it on the Auto mode, and all you need to do then is point and shoot!) and the more serious amateur (you can make the camera all-manual by selecting the corresponding mode, or do speed-priority and aperture-priority). Still life and close-up enthusiasts will definitely enjoy the depth-of-field preview button, and everyone will benefit from Nikon's great series of lenses. One note there: this camera works with the Nikon "G" series lenses, which have no aperture ring -- aperture is set electronically from within the camera.

While I have exposed only a very few rolls of film with this camera yet, I have a friend who took hers to Norway, shooting in low-light conditions, from speeding boats, buses and what not, entirely in the point-and-shoot AUTO mode -- and the snaps look absolutely brilliant! Hats off to the light-metering system, which is better than on similar Canon Rebels etc.

There is one point to note however: while this SLR kit comes with the 28-80mm G nikkor lens, I bought a different kit, which had the 28-100mm G lens. I find the extra zoom of that lens makes it even better if you want to survive on a one-lens-only basis. The other lens I want to buy soon (since I'm somewhat interested in bird photography) is the 70-300mm nikkor G lens.

If you are considering digital cameras as well -- I decided to go for a manual SLR because there is no way you can get this quality of photos and this range of optical fiddling options at this low a budget in a digital camera. I would say that's easily two years away right now. I just get my photo lab guys to make me a Photo CD, so I can easily send the pictures I really like to all my friends to admire! ;)

In summary, I would say look no further -- Nikon's N75 is the best non-totally-professional SLR film camera out there for a price that fits everyone's pocket!

9 No defects, Great Camera.
The n75 is great. There is no defect with the camera. When you take the time to read the instruction manual it clearly states (in the "Shutter Release" section, pg. 30 at the bottom) that "when exposures remaining in the film becomes 5 or less, (the "film not loaded properly" icon) appears and blinks for 5 seconds in the viewfinder." Sure enough, when the exposures reach 5 or less, the icon appears everytime. The camera is amazing, with all the features you'll need, plus, in my opinion, it looks cool. I highly recommend this camera.

10 Nice camera with good features
I bought the N75 as a move back to SLRs from my Olympus digital point-n-shoot. I have some older Olympus SLRs but wanted auto focus and program to make it easier for my wife. I looked at both the N75 and Rebel Ti as springboards for buying some good lenses and moving up to digital SLRs when the price came down.

I'm very happy with mine and haven't had (or heard of) any problems with this camera other than the other reviewers. I've taken pictures in a variety of settings - Summer, snow (incl. snowing), indoors ,etc and they've all turned out great. I upgraded to the XR series of lenses and am Extremely happy with them. Now I'm just waiting to see what happens with D100 (and it's promised "little brother") and am seriously checking out the Fuji S2 Pro.

11 Not recommended!
I ordered the N75 (from another online vendor) and was very disappointed. When I got down to only 5 photos left on the roll of film the "film not loaded properly" icon flashed. I was shooting in the Aperature Control mode. I shot two rolls of film and both times, starting at the #5 photo (near the end of the roll) and continuing down to the end of the film, the error message appeared. It would flash 4 times and then disappear and I could take the next photo.

I received TWO replacement N75s from the other online vendor, hoping that I'd just gotten a defective camera. EACH CAMERA had the same exact error! I spoke with two differenct Nikon people about this. The first wasn't very helpful (he said, "with all due respect, ma'am, it doesn't matter if you tell me you've had 7 N75s with this problem, it shouldn't be doing it"...gee thanks! :-( ) The other person was nicer, but also seemed completely baffled that all three cameras, each with very different serial numbers, would have this problem. I'm wondering how many other N75s may have this same defect and perhaps the owners haven't taken the camera off AUTO setting... But I decided three strikes and the N75 was OUT!

I'm in the process of getting the N80...once I get all my credit card mess straightened out from the N75 orders, and would like to warn anyone to BE CAREFUL if you get this camera. I really liked it, but there was no way I was going to send a brand new camera in for servicing (as the first Nikon guy suggested).

12 Nikon needs to fix this!
I ordered the N75 (from another online vendor) and was very disappointed. When I got down to only 5 photos left on the roll of film the "film not loaded properly" icon flashed. I was shooting in the Aperature Control mode. I shot two rolls of film and both times, starting at the #5 photo (near the end of the roll) and continuing down to the end of the film, the error message appeared. It would flash 4 times and then disappear and I could take the next photo.

NOT RECOMMENDED!

13 Very good - but make sure you're comfortable with size
It is essentially a facelift job on Nikon N65 (marketed outside US as F65), and all the good things that can be said about N65 apply to this product, too: it's reliable, it's capable of fully-manual operation (although this can be a little fiddly and N75 will feel more natural in automatic or semi-automatic mode).

Quality of pictures, for the price, is stunning, and in the line-up of entry-to-medium level SLRs this is definitely the one to choose (for example, auto-focus speed beats Canon equivalent hands down; Canon Rebel 300 - marketed outside US as Canon EOS 300 - also looks decidedly like a cheap compact camera with a big lens on top).

For many, many users (including myself) it will provide all the advanced functions that they will ever want. Pricier "professional" cameras like N80 are of course more robust and may have a few extra features or even faster AF, but the difference in price will be so significant that you will have to be a heavy user to make a more expensive camera pay for itself.

The only reservation about N75 is the size: Nikon tried to make this camera as small as possible, which makes it more agreeable for delicate hands (or so they think). For someone like me, a person with bigger paws, it does not feel right - it is just not chunky enough to provide a good grip: a lightweight camera it might be, but still it is no compact thing which you could put in your shirt pocket. This is an important consideration: all the good features will bring you no joy if you feel awkward holding the camera in your hands.

14 Nikon N75 Fully Auto 35mm SLR capable of full manual
For the price ($299 w/28-80mm lense) it's a good deal. The camera has the features you'll want, depth of field preview, spot metering function, easy adjustment of EV in auto modes. I'm a fan of old school manual cameras, but it's nice to have something quick around too. I wish it had a shutter release cable connector, but it doesn't, most new auto cameras don't. There is a separate remote that can be purchased to fill this function. I also miss having a nice focusing grid of some sort in the view finder. I don't understand why this was lost when autofocus became the standard. Anyway most auto cameras (especially in this price range) don't have good focusing grids. Left in auto mode, it does a good job of exposure, even in difficult exposure situations. Autofocus works pretty good and there are features for selecting which item gets focus within the frame. It's a little cumbersome to select a different object for focus, and easier to just flip the switch to manual focus. This is only needed for unusual focusing situations. I've only ran a few rolls through it but I have no complaints and would recommend to anyone looking for an auto slr with a nikon mount.