Used it for a wedding last week with great results (color, focus and exposure).
Most of the functions are pretty easy to use w/o consulting the manual.

I prefer that this has fewer manual controls than the flagship 7900 because this is marketed as a Point n' Shoot and ease of use was one of the major things I was looking for.

One MINOR quibble, the chrome-like vertical strip on the right-side front grip is set too close to the lens; it doesn't let your fingers (at least mine) rest as comfortably or hold the camera as securely as the 7900....like I said, minor.

I had considered the Canon SD-500 which is pretty similar as far as capability but decided on the the Nikon because it has what Consumer Report calls a "Secure Grip" (bulge on the right-hand side that helps you hold on to the camera).

Great build quality and great results...can't ask for much more.

I love this camera, haven't had it that long but it takes great photos, is very compact and is a Nikon. The supplied AA batteries should be of the rechargeable type, though.

This compact camera is far easier to use than my old HP Photosmart 3.2 and my Canon 2.0, with easy to learn features. It has it all, including `fireworks' mode! The best are the various `tones' you can give your pictures. Just look at all the technical specifications here and you'll be amazed! I like that I can video in three different modes with great sound and that I can film in so many different modes (headshot, distance, fireworks, nightscape, backlight, etc.) that you can never screw up. Plus it is 7.0 pixels which is really incredible even when you crop half a photo! Unlike most small cameras, the buttons are easy to navigate. It also comes with all the extras you need (listed in the specifications). Don't settle for anything less than 7.0 pixels, as within a year anything 5.0 or under will be obsolete. I love this little thing and bought all the accessories it didn't come with (which were few). You can also purchase a waterproof case for SCUBA and snorkeling (down to 130 feet!)

I just received the camera yesterday. I took it out of the box, installed the batteries and took a picture from the office window of the Chrysler Building (NYC). Excellent is all i can say. My co-worker says, "it looks just like a postcard".

I purchased my Nikon camera a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. The pictures are very clear. If I take night time pictures, you can really see the people clearly. I took the camera with me when we hiked up a mountain. I was at the top of a waterfall looking down at the members of our party that decided not to climb to the top of the waterfall and was able to use the digital zoom to take an awesome picture of those people below. I also was able to take a closeup of a flower that we found along the hike. My friend's camera wasn't able to take a picture as close as mine. The minivideo feature is very good. The length of the videos is much longer than other cameras that I have seen. I have not had a single complaint about this camera yet.

excellent picutre,user friendly,easy to transfere pictures from,uses alkiline battery is really handy.

wel i bought this camera to take pics of my newborn nephew and i love it!!!! it takes very clear pictures and has awsome modes..
the only problem is that the zoom isnt very outstanding
all i can say is that this is a great camera for the price..

This camera's auto focus needs improvement. 30% of the pictures were blurry. There are too many options to pick from to get a good picture. If you are not completely still when you take a picture, you will get a blurry picture. Color distortion is a regular occurence. I thought the name Nikon stood for something but this camera proves me wrong. Not recommended.

This camera takes very blurred photos in most settings and modes. It also eats through AA batteries amazingly fast. I like the feel and ease of use of the camera but these benefits are far outweighed by the aforementioned cons. I am sending this camera back to Nikon.

I purchased this camera in May of 2005. It takes great pictures, when they come out. I have taken numerous pictures that have come out blurry (because of the settings it was on-- and not using a tripod). All of the settings are nice features to have, but often you can't even use them if you are lacking a tripod (pics are blurry), and thus resort to the regular setting (which still takes good pictures). My other complaint about this camera is that it eats through batteries like there is no tomorrow. If you don't use rechargeables every week, then they will be gone by the next time you turn on the camera. Further, my regular AA batteries only last about 2 days of picture taking (about 40 pictures in all).

As for the pros: This camera definately takes great pictures (better than a lot of my friend's camers) the majority of the time, which have all been crisp and clear. I have used 80% of the different settings, and they all work pretty well (minus night settings because of no tripod). I would highly recommend this camera, but caution about the ongoing cost of AA batteries.

As with any camera, there are lots of pros, with just a few annoying cons that may greatly impact your decision, if they are important to you.

I hope this helps.

I bought the Nikon Coolpix 7600 for Christmas and decided to return it. It takes pictures of very impressive quality and the buttons are straight forward and easy to use. BUT, there is a significant lag time when you take a photo with flash, at least 5 seconds. That does not seem like a lot but when you're trying to take pics fast, you don't have the 5-7 seconds. MOST IMPORTANTLY: it drains batteries like a tank drains its gas tank. It's unreal, I used brand new batteries and they were
DONE after 25 pictures. (Some other camera's batteries can last up to 400 pics). Anyway, it's a great camera but the engineers at Nikon haven't thought it through.

I bought this camera on December 2005 from amazon.com. I've used it for family pictures, night shots, even surgery pictures (I'm a surgeon) and I'm very impressed about the quality pictures this "little toy" makes. I had a little doubt about this camera because of the "blurry" critics, but this only happens when you use the camera without a tripode of a flat surface in the circumstances in which the instruction manual tells you that it's necesary. About battery life... get some good rechargable ones and problem solved. I also recommend the 1GB SD memory card... you'll be very happy. Thanks amazon and nikon for such a good product

Before I bought, I read these reviews. Lots of peopls like this camera. Some said it's great when you learn the shooting modes and scenes. A few say it takes very blurry pictures. I figured those people just hadn't mastered the features, and that it would be fine. It seemed great when I played with it at a retail store. I was WRONG.

This camera is incapable of taking indoor pictures of subjects that move! INCAPABLE! I don't just mean shutter lag when the flash is being used. I can live with a little shutter lag. But when the camera does fire, if the flash is used and the subject moves even a tiny bit the shot is lost to BLUR. I bought the camera to take pictures of my kids, so even with all the things it does well I consider it a total waste of money. There are children of family and friends who I have lost all opportunity to photograph because they were wiggling, and entire events (like birthdays at Chuck E Cheese's) where I have not one single usable shot. (Hold still?? Yeah, right.)

I think the problem is that there are NO MANUAL CONTROLS. You can force the flash on or off, and that's it. There is no way to manually set the ISO, which could improve pictures of moving subjects. Even my old Olympus 1.3 megapixel camera allowed me to set the ISO and take usable pictures of my kids (if they were still in the frame after a very long shutter lag). I am shocked that this camera, made by a company with such a good name, has such a major shortcoming. The camera does have some nice shooting scenes (read another review if you want the positives. I concede that it has some great capabilities in some shooting environments, most of which are outdoors.) But you are required to use the scenes as is, and there is no way to adjust them. I tried the Indoor/Party scene many times, and there are famiy gatherings, class parties, etc. where almost every shot is unusable due to the people moving and being blurry. The shots that I do have are posed, stiff, and unnatural, because everyone had to hold still through the shutter lag and the shutter release.

So you still think it's my fault, right? Like there must be something I missed? (I thought that for so long. I should have returned it and got a refund. Instead I kept it for 8 months and lost $300, since I ended up buying another camera.) When I took the camera to my kid's class Christmas party, I tried several options. The auto mode sucks- you get dark AND blurry. Sports scene is great outside, but try it inside and your pictures are just black. So I used Indoor/Party scene with the flash off. This gave me pictures where the kids aren't all blurry, but which require LOTS of editing in Photoshop. I had to adjust the levels and lighting. Then they were so grainy and noisy that when I printed I got hair that looks like yarn. So I had to reduce the noice by a very high factor. This softens and blurs the overall look of the picture noticeably, but at least they were finally worthy of printing.

My friend has a Sony Cybershot. and she's never had this problem. Pictures of her kids come out just fine. So I went back to the reviews and chose a Canon PowerShot A620. Many Canons have a shooting scene called Kids & Pets, which is optimized for photographing moving subjects. You can manually set the ISO, white balance, and other functions to optimize for your environment. Right out of the box I was able to set the Canon and take good pictures of my kids playing inside the house. Only after buying and playing with the Canon did I realize how much better the interface is, and how poor the Nikon's interface is. You shouldn't have to leave a shooting scene and switch the dial to Set-Up mode to adjust the camera's settings. WHY, NIKON, WHY?

I see the Nikon Coolpix 7600 is still being sold for big bucks. If you want a camera for outdoor pictures, stiff portraits, or landscapes and scenery, then you may consider it. Some of its shooting scenes and features are very cool. But if you have children and you want natural pictures for their scrapbooks, please believe me and others who are warning you that this camera has a MAJOR defect. If you don't want to spend a grand on an SLR then leave Nikon alone and read reviews of Canon, Sony, Kodak, and Olympus.

The problem is not the camera, the ISO settings, or even Nikon. The problem is that your kids are blurry to begin with. My recommendation, is to take pictures of other kids, and digitally place your kids faces on the pic. If that is too difficult, a visit to a local pediatrician, will provide the antibiotic that corrects this.

I placed 4 stars for the camera, since I am only 80% sure this will resolve your problem.

Tried this camera because of the positive reviews at the time. It is an OK camera for carrying around, due to its' small size, and takes decent landscape pictures. However, its' macro ability is non-existent. That is one of the main reasons I buy a camera. My favorite cameras for that feature are Olympus, and I am about to buy a new one. I gave the Nikon 2 stars because it is compact and I carry it with me every day so I can leave my more valued cameras safe at home.

I did a lot of research on the internet before buying the Coolpix 7600. There were good and bad reviews of it on all the different sites but I spent some time at the stores looking at all the different cameras and this one just felt right. I have owned it now for about a month and it works wonderfully! I am not sure what that other mother/teacher was talking about because I get great shots of my kids and pets even as they run around the yard. There are many settings so maybe she just has not set the camera to work right for her needs. You do need to read instructions before using a camera!

It has many settings and comes with great software to help compose, fix, and arrange your files. My favorite feature is the panarama one! You can set the camera up on a tripod and then take mulitple pictures of a room or whatever. Then after downloading the pics into your computer, the software helps you put all the pics together to make a panarama picture or even a 360 of the room you are in! It creates a movie of it and you can post these on the internet and share them with friends and family. This is great for people who need to show off rooms or locations... travel agents or realestate agents could use this feature.

One comment I saw a lot of was battery use and so far, I have been taking pictures and movies for weeks now and I am still using the batteries that came with the camera! I was expecting the drain to be horrible from what others have said but so far, I have done about 200 pics and about 10 small movies on the one pair. I did invest in rechargeable ones but so far have not needed to replace the original pair yet.

The camera has many settings and it almost takes the worry out of how to set a picture up. My only challenge with the Coolpix is the movies that I have taken are okay but not like a video camera. Movies outside are much better than movies inside due to the amount of light available. And if it is windy, the sound gets garbled. But I did not buy it to take movies... that was something extra in my opinion. If I want movies I use my camcorder... Otherwise, this has been a great buy for me and I am very happy with the Coolpix 7600!

I already had a nikon coolpix 2500 that has been great and wanted to upgrade to a camera for several reasons - 1) more megapixels and 2)use of (2) AA batteries in lieu of a proprietary battery (the batteries for the coolpix 2500 are shot and I dont feel like shelling out $ for new ones). I got the coolpix 7600 last month and I like it so far, esp for the price (just over $200). The camera can use various formats of AA batteries, including rechargable Ni-MH batteries. My only beef with the camera so far is that there is a slight lag time between photos when you are using the flash - I assume this is because it uses AA batteries and it is recharging the flash. At any rate aside from this it's a nice little compact and light camera - has many nice features and because of the low price I am not afraid to take it with me when travelling.

I purchased this camera back in December. I am a professional photographer and was looking for a camera that I could carry all the time. This camera is small and light and easy to use, yes. But, the camera is so very slow and the focus is very touchy. By time the camera gets ready to shoot, you shot is gone. Forget the action shots, impossible. I am now looking to purchase the Sony cybershot and sell this one on Ebay.

This is the first digital camera I have owned and I have been very pleased with it so far. I was recommended this camera after my cousin purchased it and fell in love with it. I saw it online for a very reasonable price and decided to buy it. As a beginner to cameras I have found this compact little Nikon super easy to use. It is pretty much self explanatory once you start to play around with the buttons. 7 Megapixels really make the picture quality BEAUTIFUL and I have already gotten compliments on some images I have taken. I would honestly say the only negative thing I can say about this camera is that it DOES take a while when you are using a flash. This camera takes awesome still photos of people in any type of lighting, but I can say that night-time action shots can cause some trouble. I took action shots of my dogs using sports mode and they came out amazing. I posted them in the sample photo section of this page. I am going to try and figure out how to get the camera to take better action shots at night, but other than that I am pleased with this tiny little 7MP camera. It is a great deal for a camera with such a sharp image quality! I would say this camera may night be the best choice for people who want to take a ton of night-time action images though, so keep that in mind. Also, I am not too fond of the battery situation. I wish there was some sort of recharging dock for this camera so i didn't have to recharge the batteries every time I use it.

This is my first digital camera. I am realatively pleased. The features to price ratio is great. In fact, Amazon's price beat most all competors, if you're shopping. I will agree with a previous reviewer, this is not a great one for action shots.. the delay throws me off. Or maybe there is a setting for action that I haven't gotten to; I'm certainly still learning. I've had pretty good luck with the photos that I've taken: mostly just macro-stills for website stuff. I can see that a larger screen might be more desirable. All in all, I wouldn't choose anything else.

Well I have read many of the reviews on this camera and I find some of the negative reviews are misleading. I bought this camera about 3 months ago and I have no problem so far. The only problem I had was that it drained the batteries quickly but it was my fault not the camera's. I bought a Sony recharger recently and I took about 450 pics with flash before the batteries ran out. So I wonder how can people say that this camera eats up batteries. Check the recharger.

About the picture quality, no complaints at all. Macro mode also works very well. You need to know the technicalities of the camera before you use it. I think problem of moving subjects can be rectified by half pressing the shutter release butten to start focussing and then take the pic. Or use Continuous mode so that many pics will be taken. That is of course without flash. camera takes a second or less to focus which will miss some moving object or cause shake. If you shake the camera pics will be blurred in any digital camera. I will recommend this camera to anyone.

i think this is a good camara for that price. 7 mega pixel for under 250 is a good deal. more over it has got good features like the red eye reduction ,image enhancement, macro mode. easy to operate. i took approximately 80 to 90 pics using AA batteries with the display off. i mean the pictures are very crisp. i am happy with it.

I purchased this camera to photograph my artwork. It takes excellent, high quality, pictures. I'm still working on the close up aspect but have only touched the surface of what it can do. You can use it to just snap and shoot, as it isn't complicated.

I bought this camera at a very high price at Best Buy. The picture quality is good, but like others, the batteries drains out very fast. I have to make sure I have extra batteries all the time. Also, it takes a little longer for the camera to get ready after every picture.

The auto focus feature doesn't always get into focus immediately. The video feature stinks, it is literally a series of photos being taken, and when played back on computer, it's so grainy it's hardly worth bothering with. Outside photos are fantastic, but, inside photos tend to be grainy. I'll be buying another brand the next time around. I do like having to use AA batteries, but have to replace often. Sheesh, I guess I like this camera a lot less than I thought! I think I'll go back to Kodak.

i purchased this camera while pregnant with my first child. i purchased it because of the economical price, the high number of megapixels, and the zoom lense. i have since regretted the purchase of this item very much. first, the quality of the pictures is poor. many of my pictures turn out blurry. i use the appropriate setting and don't shake or anything like that. still, the pictures consistently turn out blurry! and it's really not noticable until the pictures are printed 5 by 7 or larger. secondly, i get a lot of red eyes. my final complaint is that there is a really long delay between takes--which is terrible when taking pictures of a baby! the camera takes about 15 seconds to save each picture. i would not recommend that anyone buy this camera. that being said, it's a fairly popular digital camera and i have 3 friends with this camera who have no complaints. if you're using it to take pictures of adults--it might work just fine. but with a baby who can't stay still--it's not a good fit.

I bought this camera about a year ago and I love it. True, it has its downsides, but it is an overall great camera. It took me a while to figure out the different settings with pictures and the movie settings (I didn't know how to change the video quality for the longest time), but now that I have the hang of it, taking pictures and videos is easy. This is a great little camera that I take everywhere with me.

Bought this for my wife about a year ago. I already had an old (ca. 2001) Nikon CP995 (3.1MP, 4x zoom) so was expecting the same kind of usability. The CP7600 is not as good, despite boasting 7M pixels. Here's my take on it:

Pros:
* Uses AA batteries, so no expensive replacement battery pack to buy
* Very small and light - fits in a pocket or handbag
* Lots of features - zoom lens, panorama, sunset, etc.
* Optics are better than my CP995 - less purple fringing.

Cons:
* Chews through batteries like crazy - even 2300mAh NiMHs don't last long
* Slow start up time and auto-focus
* Very easy to get blurry pictures on anything above 3MP setting unless there's lots of ambient light. Annoyingly, this even happens when using the flash.
* Auto color balance can be a bit screwy sometimes. I have had to use the manual setting and then forgotten to take it off. Lots of pink or blue pictures. Grrrr!
* Easy to knock the mode wheel off setting and get an unwanted setting, or half-way between settings - whereupon the camera complains.
* LCD is good resolution, but very small. If you have the info display on (necessary to remind you not to leave the camera on some weird manual setting) you can hardly see your subject matter.

Esta camara es lo maximo por excelencia, he tenido Pentax, Sony, HP, etc.... Pero simplemente esta camara es lo mejor que podido comprar, es muy liviana con muchos modos preconfigurados y una altisima calidad en las fotografias.

La volveria a comprar otra vez.

Alexander Rivas
El Salvador

The camera came with 2 alkaline batteries. They had a short life maybe 6 pictures. Purchased rechargeables which took about 40-60 pictures and movies(I deleted so many practicing, it's a fun camera!). The pictures were really sharp compared to my previous 2mp camera. Really like the movie clip quality and sound. Fit in the palm of my hand(camera only, no case) and the strap is a very handy. Easy to upload pictures. Haven't used all the features. I am very pleased so far. I gave a 4 because I would like to have had a larger lcd. But,I chose the quality rep and the great price.

Great pictures but it is a battery killer. Eats batteries up like there is no tomorrow. Did not use the video feature because of this problem.

I am liking this camera other than the slow shutter speed. I am also having a bit of a problem getting the pictures not to blur (yes, I read the instructions). Other than that, I do like the picture quality. Especially used with the Epson printer.

This camera was great when I first got it. Shortly thereafter, it started having a "Lens Error" when I would try to turn it on. I have always been very careful with this camera, but I now get the error every other time I try to use it. Apparently this is a big problem with many different Nikon cameras - even higher end ones. It is very frustrating. I tried to contact Nikon to get this problem fixed when the camera was still under warranty, but never got a response from them.

Yes... this camera is not perfect but it can take GORGEOUS pictures if you just read the manual. I too personally miss and dislike the fact that there is no ISO setting but, like other manufacturers, these settings have been created in the consumer icon driven menu. There is a reason why there are over 2 dozen different modes to shoot pictures with to address the needs of most situations. It has a "sports" setting which will allow you to take pictures of objects in motion and even get a quasi "film" capture where the shutter will shoot rapid pictures in succession of 16 frames (fit into 7MP setting if you have it.) It doesn't work perfectly all the time but it usually does. Most of my pictures are gorgeous and all my friends say so.

Regarding the battery life - these people are either not charging their batteries or are not bright enough to own a camera. I could EASILY squeeze out 100 pictures of my 2 batteries and usually more. These claims about 40 pictures and then it conks out - ridiculous. I don't believe many of these reviews any more and wonder if people are just plain vacuous or they have another camera from another brand so the reviews are mindless bashing.

Regarding the autofocus, almost all of these cameras don't focus quickly. I had a Minolta which was the same. Get an SLR if you don't want to miss your quick baby shots. With an autofocus you'll win some but will also be frustrated for quick shots.

For general purpose use, this camera is very good. It's small, uses double AA standard size batteries (none of those non-standard expensive Canon brand), standard SD card (no expensive proprietary Sony memory sticks) and is easy to hold in your hand. This camera is fantastic if you just learn how to use it. The 7MP photos enable you to blow up the detail in pictures which is rather remarkable. Like any camera, it's not perfect but at the $300 I got it for it's really been fantastic. My next will probably be an SLR and at least I know and have read about what I'm getting for my money.

The camera is great, it is perfect size, fits in the palm of your hand and takes wonderful pictures.
Well worth the purchase, I would recommend it to anyone.

I bought this camera because I own other film Nikons, and unlike other cameras in its category, this one has a glass lens. What a mistake! First, the camera uses up batteries like crazy. You also have to tell it what sort of batteries you're using (alkalines, rechargeables or lithium). I've never seen the number of pics the instruction manual says I can take with one set of new batteries, close to 50 is my record. Carrying an extra or two extra sets of batteries is a must. It takes a very long time to focus, and when the camera is done doing that, the shot is no longer there. I've lost plenty of shots of my kids because of this. The flash takes an eternity to recharge, which means more lost shots or impatient people just waiting for your camera to recharge the flash, while the owners of Panasonics and Canons are done taking theirs.
As packed as this camera is with features (panorama view, red eye reduction, architecture setting, portraits, sports mode, the whole works), it's focus delay alone makes all of them useless. I'm returning to my film Nikons.

I gave this camera one star because it worked perfect until the store warranty ran out. Then the lens stuck (on this mint condition camera).
I did a google search for "coolpix lens stuck error" and realized that I will have to buy a different brand. I would recommend searching Google before purchasing any Coolpix camera.