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686 of 696 persons found the following review helpful.
By far the best choice!
By Steven A. Rosenow
For any individual looking at getting a decent, mid-level point-and-shoot with the look and feel of an SLR, the Nikon Coolpix L120 is by far the best choice, even with it is few shortcomings!
As a semi-professional photographer who primarily shoots film (but is tardily converting to digital) I always have held at least a digital P&S camera with me to get those “quick” shots that I can’t get because of the time involved in setting up the shot in an SLR. My former camera, the Minolta DiMAGE S414 had been getting long in the tooth and was starting to glitch. A friend gave me his Nikon Coolpix E5200 and I was without delay hooked on Nikon’s legendary imaging quality. However, the 5-megapixel sensor in the Coolpix E5200 was short of what I veritably needed, so the same friend who gave me the E5200 likewise let me try out his Coolpix L110. I was blown away with how well the photos turned out! In my quest to buy my own Coolpix L110, I had heard back in February that Nikon was freeing the Coolpix L120, with a 2-megapixel increase over the L110 and assorted new features. Having read the introductory reviews of the camera, it seemed like a sure winner, so I took the plunge on March 14th of this year and secured one for myself.
Instantly, I was hooked on it. Right out of the box, this camera is a winner! The settings, user-interface, the sleek design and the nifty zoom selector on the lens barrel makes this camera worth each penny. In the short time I have owned it, I have already taken approximately 1,200 photos with it; everything from nature, bridges, even the sun! (with a solar filter, of course). And with it is fantastic 21x optical zoom, I may photograph a car at more than a quarter-mile away and be capable to without doubt or question read it is license plate!
The only drawback I may see is that Nikon has left out the capacity to manually control your aperture and shutter speed settings (instead, leaving that for the Nikon Coolpix P500 which I was unimpressed with). However, those little shortcomings are overwhelmed by the simplicity this camera offers. Itching to get into Panorama photography, without the need for an highpriced SLR with built-in panorama stitching? Consider it done! With this camera’s Panorama-Assist feature (which overlays a little portion of the effigy onto the screen for the next shot to be composed), and the supplied Arcsoft Panorama Maker Pro 5 software, Panorama-style photography has never been more affordable. Looking to heighten photos with HDR-like color clarity? Consider that done, also! This camera furnishes with it built-in D-Lighting that preserves the color intensity of an effigy yet bringing out the details other than as supposed or expected concealed within dark shadows. Also supplied, incase you don’t want to edit your images in-camera, is Nikon’s own View NX-2, which not only includes D-lighting enhancement filters, it also offers a host of other image-editing capabilities!
In short, this camera has the contest beat! I would commend it (I have the black version) over anything else.
168 of 170 persons found the following review helpful.
A solid performer with a heap of minor quirks
By A. Oertel
I purchased the Nikon L120 with regards to a month ago in preparation for a trip we were taking to California. Although I was impressed by assorted of the features I read about, such as the extended zoom and pseudo-dslr design, I still had a lot of worries with regards to a couple of features such as the complaints when it comes to focusing and lack of manual controls. After shooting in regards to 200 pictures, I am happy to report that I will be keeping the camera.
I’ll address my worries regarding the reported worries others expressed. First was the concern over focus. At one point, the camera was having disturb focusing on a shot of the sea and horizon. Everything was blurry and only items within 20-30 ft. would be in focus. I tried assorted dissimilar modes, including landscape and beach, but it did not heal the problem. At that point, I decisive to just turn it off and turn it back on and that solved the problem. There will have to be galore issue with the algorithms which pick sure items to focus, but the old “off and on” trick fixed it and I had no other problems, even underneath similar circumstances. The other issue was of the lack of manual modes. Except for the focus issue, I had no difficultnesses with exposure underneath any conditions, inside, outside, bright lights, dim, flash, portraits, etc.
Now onto the good things. Battery life is very good. I took over 200 pictures with regular alkaline batteries. Although I had lithium batteries ready to go, it has not been necessary to use them. With battery life that good and the fact that it uses 4 AA batteries, I don’t think I”ll go to the expense of lithium batteries.
I in truth like the form element of the camera. The bulge on the right side is very handy and you may hold it securely with only a couple of fingers. Taking the lense cap on and off is annoying, specially when you forget to take it off after you power it up. However, it’s no more annoying than it was in the old days of analog cameras. Also with the plain old lense cap, there are no worries with sand jamming up exterior shutters. The camera is too huge to fit in your shirt pocket but not too huge to fit in a coat pocket or purse/backpack. I think it’s an adequate for the purpose compromise on size. Zoom is excellent. Seals which were assorted hundred yards away looked like we were right on top of them. I did not experience any shutter lag, altho I have not applied the camera in burst or sports mode yet. Video mode is regarding what you would suppose for a hand held camera. OK, not great, but works well sufficient for that quick video when you need more than a still camera.
To sum it up, I like the battery life, picture quality, good potpourri of modes, adequate flash range and fantastic zoom. The camera unquestionably has a few quirks but ones I decisive I may live with. I give it a solid 9 out of 10.
450 of 474 persons found the following review helpful.
Loved it – but returned it
By Keith in Dallas
Bought this camera and loved the ease of operation and picture quality. I also have the Panasonic DMC-FZ35, which is VERY complicated. I necessitated something simpler. I learned to use this Nikon after only 1 hour of reading the manual (compared to months still attempting to figure out the Panasonic). Was easy getting great pictures. Smile detection and Pet mode worked terrific. Unfortunately, my crucial reason for this type of hybrid camera, is for the comfortableness of camera and HD video in one unit. Video quality on this unit is well under average. I equated it to my Panasonic – no comparison. The Panasonic’s video was smooth and clear, the Nikon – grainy and jerky. I genuinely wanted to keep this camera for it’s ease of use and picture quality, but the poor video quality in the end caused me to return it. Until I find an easy to use camera with good picture and video, I’ll proceed with the months of attempting to figure out the Panasonic.
PROS: Ease of use, great pictures, smile detection, pet mode, easy to perceive manual, price.
CONS: Poor video quality
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