You'll have to rely on the LCD for framing shots, which can make steadying the zoom lens a little frustrating and can result in a lot of blurry or missed shots. The LCD is bright enough for use in direct sunlight, however, and the high resolution helps sharpen images and text. If you use a flash at all, the one on the L has to be raised manually.
On the bottom is a locking door covering the SD card slot and batteries. The camera uses four AA-size batteries. You can use alkaline, NiMH rechargeables, or lithium.
Nikon includes alkaline batteries, which will last for up to shots; using lithium batteries should last for nearly shots. NiMH rechargeables are rated for up to shots. Shooting performance, particularly shutter lag, is better this time around and the LCD is excellent given this camera's place in the market. However, despite a higher-resolution sensor, photo quality doesn't improve--it's very good with lots of light, but barely passable in low light and indoors without a flash.
That, unfortunately, hinders the usefulness of its 21x zoom lens. Still, for those looking for a simple camera with a long lens, the L is worth checking out. Find out more about how we test digital cameras.
Joshua Goldman. The L has mediocre photo quality above ISO As long as you have plenty of light, the Nikon Coolpix L is a nice camera for snapshooters in love with long lenses. Sample photos: Nikon Coolpix L Shooting speed in seconds Shorter bars indicate better performance. Nikon Coolpix L 1. Olympus SPUZ 2. GE X 3. Typical continuous-shooting speed in frames per second Longer bars indicate better performance.
GE X 1. You can also manually alter the monitor brightness using a five-level adjustment located in the menu. The LCD's resolution was immediately evident when I zoomed to check focus on the first image I captured. It was clearly in focus, as the very sharp screen showed. Colors displayed on screen are relatively faithful to the captured file, and the contrast is good. The viewing area is wide, and maintains contrast and visibility almost directly overhead and off to each side.
The screen's only real downfall is its performance in extremely bright conditions; the LCD washes out easily and makes it difficult to compose your images. This is consistent with many competing cameras on the market, though it's nonetheless disappointing, since there is no electronic viewfinder to switch to in bright sunlight.
The Nikon Coolpix L's long, 21x optical zoom lens telescopes out from the camera, and covers a vast mm equivalent focal range. At 25mm, the lens starts at an impressively wide view. At mm, the telephoto end of the lens captures views that would cost significantly more on a DSLR. The allure of an ultra-zoom camera is the caliber of lens you can get for a fraction of the cost you would pay for the SLR equivalent. However, this range is not without its tradeoffs. The roughly two-stop difference across the focal range means that you will need about four times the light to match the exposure when zoomed-in all the way, or the camera will need to boost the ISO or slow the shutter speed to compensate.
The decline in lens speed is quite common among ultra-zoom models, though it results in noisier images, with a much greater likelihood of motion blur in telephoto shots. Wide and tele. Ranging from mm, the Nikon L's zoom is pretty impressive. Autofocus is a core issue on the Nikon L when the lens is fully zoomed in on a subject.
At max zoom, you can feel the focusing mechanism struggle to lock in on a subject. I'd say upwards of 20 percent of the shots I took at full zoom were out of focus. In movie mode, the Nikon L's optical zoom remains active during video recording. There is a noticeable focusing lag, however, when zooming in on a subject during video capture.
It takes a second or two to catch-up when panning or tilting the camera, and is often unsuccessful at retaining focus when moving in on a subject. Nevertheless, in our testing, the full AF shutter lag was really fast, 0. Vibration Reduction. With a long 21x optical zoom lens that extends to mm, Nikon has wisely equipped the Coolpix L with a fairly robust, five-way vibration stabilization VR system to help ensure telephoto shots are free of hand-shake.
The Nikon L's VR design combines sensor-shift technology and electronic vibration reduction to maximize effectiveness. The system is active in both still and video capture, though the movie mode uses the electronic VR exclusively.
Sensor-shift VR is quite effective and makes a marked improvement when shooting telephoto shots without a tripod, though accurate framing can still be difficult. The electronic VR system on the other hand doesn't work that well for videos at full telephoto.
The control layout on the Nikon L is only slightly modified from the typical ultra-zoom design. If you've used a digital camera in the past seven or so years, you're going to know how to handle most of these controls.
As noted, there's an additional zoom toggle on the side of the lens barrel, or you can use the zoom control that surrounds the shutter button. Also included is a dedicated video record button to immediately engage video recording. The Nikon Coolpix L sports an array of fully automatic shooting modes intended to streamline the photography and video experience. Those looking for Manual, Shutter-priority or Aperture-priority exposure modes should look elsewhere.
Let's examine the design and intent of some of the camera's core settings. Easy Auto mode seems to have detected Fall colors and added a little punch to the trees in this shot, to good effect. Easy Auto Mode. Switching the camera into its Easy Auto mode configures the Coolpix L to bear the burden of exposure, focus, white balance, ISO, and determine the purpose of the shot.
Unlike the L's more traditional Auto Mode, the Easy Auto setting reads the scene and selects the Scene mode most adept at capturing that particular shot. We found the setting is not as effective as the full Auto mode in use, producing more erroneous color and focus than the Auto setting.
Auto Mode. Auto mode on the Nikon L offers user control of image size and compression, white balance, exposure compensation, focus, ISO sensitivity, color options, macro options, self-timer and continuous burst settings, though white balance and ISO sensitivity can be set to Auto.
It's like Program AE mode on other cameras. Images captured in Auto mode produced more consistent color and focus -- particularly at telephoto settings -- than photos shot using the Easy Auto setting. After experimenting with the Easy Auto mode and designated Scene settings, I found myself leaving the camera in Auto and letting it do the heavy lifting for me, with pleasing results.
Smart Portrait. Just switch into Smart Portrait mode and the camera will use face detection to locate the subject. It places a yellow box around the subject, which follows them as they move in the frame. As soon as the camera detects the subject smiling based on movements in their mouth and facial muscles , it immediately snaps a picture. You don't even need to press the shutter button.
The mode is surprisingly effective. Sport Continuous. Capturing action sequences is a tall order for point-and-shoot cameras. Nikon includes a dedicated Sports mode on the Coolpix L that shoots 20 consecutive images in a burst, at a rate of This degree of speed is rare in point-and-shoot digicams; however, the L's pace is a bit misleading.
Nikon drops the image resolution down to 3 megapixels and pushes the ISO, which ultimately sacrifices a great deal of image quality to reach the stated speed. The image parameters across the burst sequence are fixed; similar to the camera's panorama mode, the Nikon L locks focus, exposure, and white balance across the sequence to maintain a constant look.
While it's laudable that Nikon includes a solution on the L to record rapid action, the Sports Continuous mode should not be mistaken for a true burst setting. Many cameras on the market allow you to speed up capture rates at the expense of picture quality and file size.
High-speed full resolution burst sequences at baseline ISO sensitivities are generally relegated to pricier cameras; shortcuts to achieve this result are just that. The L's full resolution burst mode is rated at only 0. A Panorama setting is included among the L's selection of Scene modes, located within the Shooting menu. ISO sensitivity: Auto [W]: 0. TTL auto flash with monitor preflashes. AA Alkaline: shots. AA Lithium: shots. EN-MH2: shots. Compatible With. Learn more about the ViewNX-i.
Learn more about the ViewNX 2. There are relatively few external controls on the Nikon Coolpix L The top plate features a power button and the shutter release, surrounded by the zoom lever - and that's it. The flash is now raised via a small button to the left of the housing, but it's still one of the few things that the camera will not do for you automatically.
Just behind the flash are a pair of microphones designed to record stereo sound when shooting movies. Most of the L's rear panel is taken up by the three-inch LCD screen, whose resolution has been increased from , to an excellent , dots.
The L s screen retains an anti-reflective coating, which makes it perfectly usable for framing your shots even in direct sunlight, an important virtue given that the L has no eye-level viewfinder of any sort.
As for image review, this is something you will still want to do in the shade of your body rather than out in the sun. The layout of the rear controls is almost the same as on the L, with a few minor differences. The movie record button, marked by a red dot, has been made larger and moved to the top of the rear of the camera. This button means you don't need to select a dedicated movie shooting mode from the menu, but can start filming whenever you want.
Unfortunately, it still takes the Nikon L a couple of seconds to actually begin recording a video clip after you've pushed the movie record button. There's now a more ergonomic rubberised area where your right thumb naturally rests to help aid your grip on the camera. One thing that sets the Nikon Coolpix L apart from the competition, especially at this price point, is that you can use the full extent of the optical zoom while filming.
Zooming is slower than in stills mode, but that's actually a good thing - most videographers like to zoom slowly. A side benefit of this is that the sound of the power zoom is not really picked up by the microphone. Note however that the image is likely to go out of focus when you zoom in or out, and the L's AF system adjusts quite slowly. The other rear-panel controls are the same as the ones found on the L, including a Shooting Mode and a Playback button, a standard four-way navigation pad, plus the indispensable Menu and Delete buttons.
The navigation buttons give quick access to four oft-used functions, which thankfully include exposure compensation. The other three are the macro, self-timer and flash modes, although as noted earlier, you have to manually raise the flash in order to be able to use the latter. A centred OK button is used to confirm changes to settings. You can switch from Playback to Record mode simply by lightly tapping the shutter release, so you don't have to use the dedicated Shooting Mode button although you can if you want to.
Frustratingly, as on the L, you still have to enter the main menu to access the ISO sensitivity settings - there's no dedicated button for that - and you have to be in Auto mode to make that menu option available. Also note that you still can't control the other exposure variables, i. This is reserved for the more expensive models in Nikon's compact camera range. In these modes, you typically get access to the flash and self-timer modes as well as exposure compensation, and with some, the macro mode as well.
The camera has a panorama assist feature too, which is also found among the scene modes. It works like this: you take the first picture after applying the flash mode, self-timer, macro and exposure compensation settings as required, and then the camera superimposes a third of this photo on the live image.
This helps you compose the next shot with a decent amount of overlap for easy stitching on the computer. You can repeat this step until you have taken enough photos to cover the scene. The camera locks the exposure, white balance and focus at the values set with the first shot.
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