You can set light sensitivity either automatically or manually from ISO 64 to ISO 400. Metering options include eight-point multisegment, spot, and center-weighted. When darkness falls, a beefy flash unit illuminates your scene from about 1 to 15 feet at the wide-angle setting and from 4 to 17 feet in telephoto mode at ISO 100.
The C-765 Ultra Zoom beat the performance of its more expensive cousin in a couple of areas but fell down in others. The most obvious difference was the time needed to store a TIFF image on the memory card: 21 seconds vs. the C-770 Ultra Zoom's 12 seconds. Its wake-up time of 5.7 seconds, however, was almost a half-second faster and its shot-to-shot times were better. That was particularly evident with the flash, where the junior Ultra Zoom was able to snap off a shot every 3.8 seconds, almost 2 seconds faster than its counterpart. Without the flash, we were able to take a shot every 2.2 seconds. In low-speed burst mode, we got off three full-resolution shots in about 1 second; that time was cut to 0.5 second for the same trio of pictures in high-speed burst mode, with resolution reduced to 640x480 pixels. You won't need to recharge the lithium-ion battery very often; we got 542 shots, half of them with flash, on one charge.
We got the same good image quality with this camera as with the C-770 Ultra Zoom: consistent exposures; rich, detailed shadows; and highlights that didn't wash out easily. This camera, however, offered just 320x240-pixel, 15fps movies with adequate sound. If you're looking for 640x480, 30fps clips, spend the extra $100 and get the C-770.
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