Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix 3500 3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is my first digital camera, so I don't have anything to compare the 3500 to, but overall, this is a good, fun, camera and I'm glad I picked it up. It's easy to use, especially for a beginner. I was able to take pictures right out of the box. You can carry it around with you in your pocket, so it's easy to bring with you anywhere. The pictures it takes vary from exceptional to so so, in my opintion. The camera performs especially well when you have lots of light, giving sharp focus and stunning colors. If you are indoors in dim light, the camera has trouble focusing and the pictures come out somewhat grainy. I've really only used the auto settings, so I'm not really sure if the 12 scene modes that come built in are any good. This camera also suffers from really bad red eye problems. I've read it is because the flash is mounted so close to the aperture and this is a problem of any camera designed this way. I suppose it comes along with the compact size, which is well worth it. If you have good photo editing software, you can deal with red eye in most cases. I would recommed that you buy a bigger flash card than what comes with the unit. I went with a 250 megabite card, and I would have a hard time filling up a card of this size. You can take several hundred pictures at the highest settings. I like the rechargable battery that comes with this camera, but you have to conserve your shots and performance starts to suffer as the battery drains. So, I plan on buying an extra battery since I would hate to run out of juice at a crucial moment. So, if you're looking for a good point and shoot digital camera, I think you'll like this one, but you have to understand its limitations.

I have to admit, I read all of these bad reviews about this camera and I totally agreed - this camera bites. I kept taking blurry picture after blurry picture and was so frustrated that I put it down for several weeks before getting online and reading all these reviews. I felt vindicated that other people were having the same problem! But since I'm stuck with the camera, I decided to try to figure out how to make it work. What I found the real problem is, no one wants to take the time to READ the manual or play with it to figure it out, including myself. That's a problem with the whole "user friendly" stream-lining that's going on and I got caught up in it. I think the people that are getting the blurry pictures are like me, who immediately went to "scene selection" and picked out "party/indoors" for all of my shots. I thought this made intuitive sense and this is why I'm only giving this camera 4 stars instead of 5. You have to be in automatic mode ("A") to get clear photos. Maybe another of the scenes lets you take clear pictures - I haven't experimented yet. In short, don't use the scene selector until you've experimented with it so you don't miss that prized shot - keep it automatic. The pictures this camera produces are fantastic. It takes great night shots too.

This is a great camera for a person with some experience of digital cameras. You can just point and shoot with the auto focus in well lit areas, but when it gets a little dark, you have to play around with the scene modes to get a good picture. But it does take a great picture. The battery lasts for hours at a time. Even with it zoomed in all the way, its quality doesn't suffer. I recommend getting the 128mb memory card if you want to take a lot of the really high resolution pitures. If you are not going to take really high resolution pictures, save your money and buy the 2500 because you don't really need 3.2 megapixels than. That is the only difference between the 3500 and the 2500.

I've just read many reviews about this camera and am shocked about all the negative thoughts people have about this camera. I recently got this camera for christmas and I love it. You MUST read the manual if you want to play with the scene selections because Nikon implements many cool features that help you take good pics. However, my only real complaint is that many of those scene selections require you to use a tripod or to put the camera down so you don't move it at all.

Also...I've done this many a times, always check to make sure the lens is clean..because of the location it is EASY to get a finger print on it and then take a picture with spots.

I've taken some fantastic photos with this camera, had them printed through yorkphoto.com and no one could tell that I used a digital.

I only gave it 4 stars because some of the scenes require a tripod and the lens is easy to smudge.

As far as the red eye problem that everyone has complained about, I've found that this camera is no better or no worse than any other camera I have ever used when it comes to red eye. I'd say I am at about 50/50 right now...but I can edit them out later and there's no big deal.

Overall, its a beautiful camera and I would recommend it to anyone.

I received this camera as a gift from my boyfriend, and have been very happy with it since! I was able to use the camera right out of the box (well, after charging the battery for two hours and talking to my boyfriend during that time), and did not have much trouble focusing at all.

I have even taken pictures indoors (actually, all of my shots as of late have been indoors) and in various lighting settings. The only real problem I have noticed was that with ISO disabled, objects and people tend to be much brighter but when enabled they produced a fluorescent color on the image. In low light situations, I have found that the CP 3500 does not do too bad. My pictures did not come out too grainy, and they have been perfect additions to my personal album online.

The only other gripe I can think of, however, is the fact that people may want to purchase a secondary battery and a case.. as the CP 3500 does not come with one. Other than that, I found the Coolpix 3500 to be a very wonderful camera for a great price!

This is the first digital camera that I have ever purchased. The camera is good, except for the problem with red-eye. I read in a lot of sites that this is a problem because the lens is so close to the flash. If you don't mind going to the website or using the software it came with (which is garbage) to fix the red eye problem, then this camera is good. Other than that, I like the camera. It's worth the money and weight (its small). I agree with a few people who say to buy a second battery, it helps a lot!!

This is my first digital camera after a good market research by myself.why I decided to buy this?1.A famous professional's favourate brand.2.decent pricing.3.sleek design.4.good comments from salesperson.
Starting perfomance was disappointing .So later i took pictures after reading manual carefuly which explains different adjustments for different scens even with a manual mode.Then the pictures started coming very good.From my point of view the merrits of this product are
1.good quality pictures

2.moderate pricing
3.easy to transfer pictures without hassle.
4.good software back up
5.stylish design
The demerrits are
1.slow mode of picture capturing
2.not so user friendly without learning manual properly
3.must take out battery from camera for recharging.
*****summery If you are lokking for a camera for good quality pictures at moderate rate and a little patience to know it,you can go for it.This is realy a stylish one.

Takes pictures from variery of angles, bright screen, no need for viewfinder. Has many features of high-end Nikon cameras in the menu. Less color noise than 4Mpix Sony (P9)(when flash off). Overall very good camera.

This was my first digital camera. I have it for 6 years now. I got it for christmas in 2002. It still works perfectly. I have absolutely no problems with it. I have taken millions of pictures with this camera. As I am very into photography and took classes all throughout highschool as well as now in college. The only thing is that after taking soooo many pictures I did need to purchase a new battery. You must learn how to use a camera correctly before you give it negative feedback. My photographs, both indoor and outdoor got great compliments and prizes taken with this camera. Just this summer, I upgraded myself to a Canon REBEL XT.

After my eldest brother had bought this camera somewhere from online, I snagged it from him [for almost 2 years now].
It's awesome for self-portraits instead of stupid "mirror shots"; because you can swivel it around so that it's focused on you&you can see yourself on the screen.

It worked fine before, but when it's not in use for maybe a second, the screen goes blank as if it's on a "sleep" mode. Then I have to turn it off and on again just to get it started back up.

It has a video mode, but it also takes up A LOT of memory&it doesn't record SOUND. The videos only end up to be maybe a second long. Also what videos I did have, I tried to upload them to my computer, however they will not play. So it basically was a waste of time and space on the memory card.

It accidently fell once and the cause of that made it not turn on. Or if it did, it would freeze the screen. [So I gave it back to my brother, but he miraculously fixed it, so I took it back again].
And then after a while, it started doing the same thing. So I let it sit out for a while, hadn't used it in maybe a month and it's just starting to work like normal again.

The latch to open the battery/memory card broke because it's so difficult to get the battery out [I had to take out the battery everytime when the screen froze].

Overall, this camera is not worth 300-400$ as originally paid. If you're willing to shell out that much, you could easily get a camera with more megapixels. If you're going to pay 100-200$ on a used one, I figure it's that cheap for a reason. It'll break/malfunction w/in 2 years.

This stuff isn't cheap folks, do some research for a GOOD QUALITY camera&then look for the best deals [online/other retailers, etc.]