Nikon CoolPix L100 user reviews

Pros A nice point and shoot camera. Large LCD. Love the Zoom. Looks professional.

Cons The battery controversy. Can you or can you not use rechargeables.

Summary A mistake I see some wanta be professional digital photographers make is that they get sucked into buying cameras that are beyond what they really need. First, This camera is meant to be for beginners like me. Second, this camera is for people who got another professional life and don't have time to get a degree in photography, but like taking good photos. Don't laugh at me, but I think this camera has to many functions.... just joking.
But the biggest issue with this camera is Nikon attempt to discourage the use of rechargeables. My old camera die leaving me in it's will, tons of chargeables. I ignore the manual and the threats by proffesional reviewers and threw some Ni MH rechargeables in the L100. It worked !!! It worked great !!! It doesn't damage or hurt the camera. So why did Nikon .....What were they thinking about? They lost a lot of sales because of the "don't use rechargeable batteries campaign." Somebody should lose their job. The only reason I bought this camera is because I'm hardheaded. I didn't listen to the professional critics and reviewers. And because of that, I saved a lot of money. Now this camera is not going to make the top ten Digital Point and Shoot because of the battery blown of of proporsion controversy, but a little secret. You get a lot of bang for the bucks. Use rechargeables in this camera.

Pros 15x zoom, nice handgrip, rechargable batteries with firmware 1.1,

Cons With a 15x zoom I'm not surprised you sometimes get fuzzy pictures.

Summary Now with the firmware update this camera is greatly improved. For those with 1.0 firmware you can download the firmware 1.1 from Nikon's website.

Pros 15x zoom; Many features; Large LCD screen; Simple to use; Great grip / feel

Cons Uses 4 non-rechargeable batteries; ISO not adjustable; Pictures are often soft and / or grainy; Macro not reliable

Summary I recently bought this camera, expecting it to be amazing (darn you Ashton Kutcher). The store wasn't able to let its buyers try out the product first, so I got it with the assurance that I could return it... and I think I will.

At first glance, the Nikon CoolPix L100 looks pretty sophisticated, with its large lens and "barrel." Admittedly, the chunky barrel aids in grip, making this camera comfortable and easy to hold. The drawback is that, because of the lens and its inability to retract, it is hard to fit into a camera bag. Instead, a strap IS provided so that you can hang the camera around your neck, but in my opinion, I wouldn't want to walk around with a vulnerable camera (mostly because I'm not the most graceful human in the world).

Getting back on topic: now, with this sophisticated point and shoot camera, you would expect this to at the very least have an adjustable ISO, right? WRONG. The ISO "adjusts" itself, but it often does it in vain, causing pictures that shouldn't be grainy to be grainy. This was probably the biggest blow for me, but I tried to jump back up and look at the other features of the camera.

There are a lot of features, including portrait and landscape, but they are all almost totally "preset." Meaning, if you set the camera to portrait but also want a flash with that setting, it doesn't flash. This is nice for people who don't want to mess with their camera, but I like to get more creative with my photos. I found this practically impossible with the Nikon CoolPix L100.

Even the Macro, a feature I like to use often because of my many close-ups of nature, is unreliable. Sometimes it will focus correctly, but most times it won't.

It uses non-rechargeable batteries right now, but I heard this summer (Summer '09), it will change, so I won't go on about this.

The zoom is good, but because of the mediocre picture quality, it isn't too much of a positive. After all, what's the point of the zoom if the picture is not nice and bright, is very grainy, and is unfocused?

This is a decent (and ONLY decent) camera for beginners. It doesn't require messing around with, but that's partly because it just doesn't ALLOW it.

I would NOT recommend this camera to someone looking to be more creative in their photography. The curious camera mind would definitely not be satisfied with the limited control this camera offers. It is not recommended for high-quality pictures either - of course, it is just a point and shoot, but even then there are better quality point and shoot cameras.

The Nikon CoolPix L100 is the literal meaning of "Point and Shoot."

Unfortunately, that isn't a compliment.

Pros Occasionally, when the planets align, a really beautiful clear-cut photo is produced.

Cons Most of the time the camera is slow to focus. when put onto macro mode, photographing still object - it still struggles. Slow to turn off and perform most functions. Colour recognition is terrible. Anything yellow or orange is ruined every time.

Summary I am an amateur photographer. I previously owned a Fuji finepix, I use these types of cameras to do the work for me on a good auto setting that I can play with if I'm feeling bold, and also for their large optical zoom. If I was a pro I would by an SLR, if I was dis-interested in learning some manual functions I would have bought a point and shoot. My fuji served me well but finally died of old age. I thought I would try a nikon. Never again. This camera frustrates me to the point that I will either bin it or give it away. It is very slow to react. slow to turn on, slow to turn off and terrible at focusing. I could not believe how hard it is to focus on macro mode (and I tried off) - in my experience these cameras should leap to do these simple tasks for me - all I could think of was I may as well be spending time manually focusing an SLR at the rate and poor quality the Nikon took to focus. I like to photograph people, pets and animals. It is terrible at acting responsively when quick moving kids or animals are concerned. I missed so many shots because the Nikon could not focus quick enough in easy light conditions. It struggled to produce clear pictures in indoor lighting and the flash made many great photos look terrible. It seemed to have a problem with any yellow or orange hue. For instance a lassie dog a friend owned always came out orange, it could not correctly produce it's sable, brown, russet and orange hues. I tried to use this camera in different settings and lightings only to be consistently dissapointed in the results. I wondered if it was I who was not using the camera correctly, but I bought this camera because I am well aware I do not understand advanced manual settings, and when I put it onto "auto mode" I expect the camera to be doing the hard work for me - My fuji finepix certainly did. That is the standard I was expecting and the Nikon did not deliver. This camera was not capable of anything but the easiest, most still of shots and even then the colours were often out or the flash was like using a disposable camera from the 90's. Just really really dissapointing and regretful purchase. I hope other users got more from it than I have. I cannot think of a single photo it has produced that has been clear and sharp with correct colouration. It's only benefit was it's translation of colours sometimes produced a more entertaining photo than the object in real-life. But personally I would rather do this myself in photo shop and have a choice in the matter. Yes, I did spend a lot of time trying similar photos on different settings and functions with no real improvement. I would like to state though I am an amateur photographer, but I am astounded that my talent has dropped so significantly by simply using a different brand of camera.