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My Nikon CoolPix 885 Review

Pros: Light, small, sharp, easy to use, flexible manual controls
Cons: Wide angle not wide enough, no external flash capability, included 16MB memory is not nearly enough, short battery life.
The Bottom Line A good point-and-shoot camera to supplement my SLR.
Recommended: Yes

Scanning film is a pain.  Plus, my SLR is pretty big and heavy when I have a lens and flash attached.  So, Santa delivered the Nikon CoolPix 885.  It's everything my SLR is not: small, easy to use, lightweight, and it doesn't need film.  Also, unlike my SLR, it has one non-interchangeable lens, a lousy flash, slow auto focus, and takes a long time between shots.

I complain that it lacks interchangeable lenses, which isn't entirely fair.  I could buy add-on lenses, but that would kinda defeat the purpose for me.  If I need wider than 35mm, or longer than 110mm, I'll use my SLR. 

I find the flash next to useless.  Unfortunately, you need to use the flash a lot with this camera because the maximum ISO is 400, the maximum aperture is f/2.8-f/4.5, and it lacks any kind of image stabilization.  Part of the problem with the flash is that it doesn't have the intelligence that my 380EX flash has (E-TTL).  So, the flash almost always over-exposes the fur on my white cat.  Also, the flash surface area is very small and located close to the lens, which results in a 100% chance of red-eye when taking pictures of my ugly cat.  Red eye is not so bad with people, but cats have these huge pupils that reflect light back.  Often the red-eye is so bad with my cat that I can't even edit it out in Photoshop.  Also, the flash range is weak.

So, I wouldn't count on using this camera a lot in dim situations (which is almost all the time during the winter months here in Boston).  But, when it's sunny, this camera takes great photos.  The 3MP pictures leave plenty of room for cropping or making prints.  The LCD display on the back is very easy to see, even at an angle--in fact, I have never once looked through the viewfinder.

I'm used to a fully manual SLR, so I was pleased to see that I had a great deal of control over how the camera functioned.  All I really need to manually control is the aperture (which I control by putting into portrait mode, which uses the widest possible aperture), turning on/off flash, and putting it into macro mode.  Macro mode, by the way, works great.  It even auto focuses well.

Summary

If you're used to point-and-shoot cameras, you'll love this camera.  If you're used to lugging around a lot of SLR gear, you'll enjoy the size and weight, and the photo quality when you don't need to use flash.  It's still a P&S, though, ad has all the weaknesses you're used to.  Oh, when you buy the camera, also plan on buying more memory (about $70) and a rechargeable battery (about $60).  It goes through one 2CR5 after about 30 or 40 flash shots.

If you want a full, detailed review of this camera, check out these reviews:

• Digital Photo Review
• Imaging Resource
• Steve's Digicams