Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)With the standard proviso that tech stuff always gets better and cheaper, I highly recommend this new camera model for the low price. I have only had it for two days, since Nikon didn't warranty my broken LCD screen on my L4. Please do be careful with the fragile nature of these electronics! I didn't drop it or abuse it, and it apparently broke in my pocket within a padded case!
Back to the L10, most everything is better than the previous, low end, L cameras, with improved sound, and what is great for me, voice recording capacity, outside of 20 second voice memos attached to a particular photo. While digital voice recorders are cheap for PCs, I have a Mac and previously, only iPods with accessories, or other costly recorders, can create sound files to be then imported to your computer and then burned to CDs. With just a 512 MB card, you can record for hours.
The image quality is a bit bluish, some color cast that hopefully can be corrected with software. The sharpness looks O.K., and for the price, it's fine for me. This makes a great back-up camera, as I use another more expensive L series camera. On the road, I can't afford missing a great scenic shot, or hundreds of those.
The L10 is smaller and slimmer than the L4. It carries well in your pocket. It has slightly simpler buttons and controls. The lens retraction is quicker on shut-off, and the zoom is rather abrupt. Other new, handy features are characteristic of the planned obsolescence of most tech items. Goodies that will have you wanting to upgrade!
It will remain to be seen how durable this camera turns out to be, but I have high hopes. I intend to be more careful, and never subject this beauty to shock or any possibility of drops.
Speaking with a tech support rep, you need to have nickel metal hydride batteries with more than 2000 mAh worth of power, in lieu of what they recommend (Nikon-approved rechargables). Some of my Ray-o-Vacs aren't.
I'm using only the approved SD cards, but they now support up to 4GB cards. That's great if you can trust the card not to fail--why I buy several in smaller capacities, and therefore don't have all my eggs in one basket. You'll get enough memory, then at 4 GB, for probably then, a few thousand photos storage.
One major thing they can work on are the streaks that still appear in movie mode when faced with bright reflections or sun. Not as bad in earlier L's, these don't appear in final still images, but are seen in movies. You then have to remember not to shoot movies outside of evenly lit scenes. My older Coolpix cameras didn't have this problem. The movie quality is pretty good, but a bit down from my movies using my L5. Shooting movies of a train, the bells and horns are much clearer sounding than the earlier models.
Despite what the ads say, I can find no VR feature on this model, and nothing about it in the manual. Unless it is enabled all the time, which it seems to be not, you may wish to wait till this excellent feature becomes standard on all models. For more serious photographers, VR is included on the higher end, new L's.
Also, I see nothing about ISO capability to 800, but I haven't yet tried night or low light scenes. One telephoto came out blurred, with no blur warning, there.
All in all, this is fantastic technology, all at a highly affordable price, and although Nikon isn't the top rated brand as it used to be, I'd get this as a first, around-the-home and back-up, digital camera, if you haven't owned a good one yet.
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Nikon Coolpix L10 5MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical ZoomThe Nikon Coolpix L10 combines an array of high-quality components, including a 3x Zoom-Nikkor lens and a bright 2.0-inch LCD screen with in-camera image-improvement features, housed in a lightweight, compact, yet elegantly-finished body. It boasts a powerful 3x Zoom-Nikkor lenses with a focal range equivalent to that of a 38-116mm (35mm equivalent), providing the freedom to zoom in for tight personal portraits or out to capture expansive outdoor scenes.The CCD delivers higher performance within tighter dimensions, greatly adding to the camera's compact form and portability while offering a generous effective megapixel value of 5.0, ensuring the refined image clarity that users have come to expect from other members of the Coolpix family. The Coolpix L10 also features 15 specially programmed modes to automatically handle focus, exposure, white balance and other adjustments that help you take great pictures easily.
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