Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix L14 7.1MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Zoom (Pink)

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I've been toying with the idea of getting a digital for years but I wasn't sold on the picture quality, (without spending a great deal of money) and I'm frankly a film snob. I have a vintage Fuji SLR and a Canon Photura which both produce great shots but are cumbersome to chase the kids around with. I wanted something easy to set, with minimal buttons so my kids could use it as well, but with a quality worth printing at least a 5x7 with. The specs are well detailed in the description so I'll just go general. I found the camera very intuitive. I haven't looked at the manual but all the modes are easy to figure out by the 'press a button and see what happens' method. Editing on the fly is quick and easy, the video I took looks as good as a minidv tape, the pictures blow up well. It fits in my front jean pocket or in a small matching Samsonite hardcase I found for $4. With a 2 GB card I can do 30 minutes of video or about a thousand pictures. This camera is advertised as long life batteries and so far I've done about 200 photos and 15 minutes of video on the supplied batteries. One negative is the shutter time - when using flash mode it is s-l-o-w. You can't catch something quickly, you're going to get three or five seconds after you think you are. However, turning the flash off made this shutter as fast as my Photura, (if not as fast as my SLR) but still had a lag time between shots. It's a trade I can live with since the multiple exposure settings make it easy to compensate for not using the flash. The design is excellent. I'm left handed and a lot of things designed for one handed use annoy me by placing buttons where a left handed user will hit the wrong ones. Although there are three buttons on the top of the camera, I had no problem at all with this. The kids are very interested in the stop motion feature. While I got this as a snap shot camera for my own use, it would be an excellent choice for an 8 year old's first camera. I spent a long time (about a year) choosing between a Nikon, Canon or Kodak model. I think the Nikon was the right way to go for ease of use, results, and visual styling. Couldn't be happier with it.

I'll start by saying that this is a GREAT, maximum bang-per-buck 'point-and-shoot' compact digital camera. I conducted a LOT of research before I decided on the 'Coolpix L14', and it is one of my best purchases ever. I've been using an old Fujifilm 'Finepix 2650' (2 megapixel) for a few years now, and it's served me well. I wanted a more compact, simple to use and intuitive brand-name (like Nikon, Canon, Sony, etc.) digital cam that took high quality pictures in 'auto mode', and still had some advanced features and options that I could use in a 'manual mode' for even more control of the shot. I also wanted a camera that would use both 'AA' batteries, and high-capacity rechargeable 'AA' batteries, if I so choose. This camera takes both, and the batteries last a lot longer than many other cameras that I researched (Nikon claims about 1,000 shots with 'Energizer e2' lithium batteries), owned, or borrowed. The LCD screen looks sharp and crisp as well, and I like the 'face finding' and 'red eye fix' technology too, and they both work quite well. In addition, I tested it's video abilities as well, and the audio/video look and sound seamless, although you really need to get a 2GB card to get any meaningful length video out of this cam. The pic transfer software also works perfectly with my Windows XP PC, with no glitches. In summation, for the price, this cam is a truly GREAT buy, and it looks GORGEOUS in blue too (classy, expensive look)! Hope this review is helpful.

Hello,

I purchased this camera 2 weeks ago. I was very skeptic about it but i gave nikon another try.
I had an old 2.5MP from nikon I loved, so i bought the Nikon L1 and hated it to death it was garbage - slow, worthless video and so on.
I returned it and purchased the canon with 6MP..it was nice but i still missed the old nikon.
After going back and forth i decided i give nikon another try - i love it !

The Nikon is quick even with Flash but you need to know which setting you need for what type of pictures.
I work in a daycare and tokk pictures of kids today i caught them in the position i pressed the shutter...awesome.
Took a picture of my daughter playing with water and you can even see the single water drops when she splashed.
the macro is awesome - you can see every single detail

It has a little shutter lag when you take pictures in low light
also when you just to far away and the object is moving. but thats ok.
you can however adjust this yourself and yes after reading the manual you can take awesome pics and FAST !!!

The video quality is like TV or DVD...i have an samsung camcorder 8mm tape and the nikon takes better quality video..and my camcorder is only 2 years old.

You can use up to 4GB SD Cards and the battery life is long.
I took at least 1 hour of Video and maked the rest of my 4GB out with Pictures and I am still on the Batteries that came with the camera...

If you just want to take some camera out of the box and shoot
this might not be the one but if you dont mind going through the manual for 30 min, so you know what you doing you will get rewarded with
awesome pictures, awesome video and of course a reliable brand with little costs.

I am back with Nikon and i love it !!!
All i can say this camera has no negative side effects for me since i went throught the manual and know what i'm doing and yes i am not a geek or anything like that, just a mom and a daycare provider and i was able to manage it.

if you want a real good camera for less
this is the one, is not only small and handy but very light.
It can easy fit in a pocket and no one would know.
and besides that it looks nice and shiny,
BTW you can see the display in direct sunlight.

I am still discovering the camera and with each day I love it more!

I just recently purchased this camera, and after using it for only 5 days I have decided to return it primarily because the image quality is very poor. The images are soft and washed out, not sharp and crisp like I have come to expect from Nikon (I have the D80 as well). The menu system is very primitive but it is still functional. The only good thing about this camera is its very low price. But, I feel that this camera is a bad value, even at this price. I have decided to pay 50% more and buy the Canon SD1000. The images from my old SD230 (3 megapixels) were much better than with this new Nikon (7 megapixels).

The Good:
- low price
- light and small
- takes AA batteries

The Bad:
-soft pictures
-washed out color and general haziness of images
-very long delay between pictures (especially with the flash)

The best thing about this camera is its video capabilities. Full screen, 640x480 video with good color and low light performance. You MUST add at least a 2gb card to take advantage of the video options.

My experience was much the same as TechnoGeek's. Almost every picture I took was blurry. Outdoors it takes fairly decent shots, but indoors it is extremely finicky. I poured over the manual and tried every combination of settings, but I could not get the camera to take consistently clean pictures. The action settings seemed to have no effect. Just taking a still photograph indoors with the flash usually came out blurry. The manual even warns not to press the button too hard, saying otherwise pictures could come out blurry. (!) With the flash was always better than without, but at no point could the pics hold up against a family member's Olympus FE 180. Worse still was how slow the camera responded, taking 3-7 seconds to save a picture. The voice recorder would have been a very useful option had the camera taken decent pictures.

I've hasd this camera for about ten days now and after a couple of days I'd already put a pretty troubled review on the UK Amazon site with three stars (I wanted to be generous) And I can see what the two negative reviewers are on about; I've had those problems as well. But getting into this camera more now I find that I'm carrying it everywhere as it's pocket sized, and taking pictures all over the place. But to get the best you need to use the programmes - there's 5 settings for pictures and 5 for white balance. The settings bring the best out of daylight photos or indoor electic light pictures. The picture programmes get the camera set up for automatically getting the right settings for a portrait or a landscape. The camera takes it's best pictures in good lighting and without or not much of the 3x zoom. Low light is difficult, even with the flash it's not great - just OK - same as any inexpensive digital camera - not great, just keep it real steady. But at this price, what do you expect from a quality manufacturer like Nikon (- a press camera at a disposable price? Not going to happen is it?) Take a look at the photos I've put on the UK Amazon site with my UK review of the Nikon L14.

Given it's price and the pretty good photos I've taken once I got used to it, I think it deserves somewhere between 3+ and 4.

Update - Well in the end I sent it back to Nikon to have the focusing sorted - it came back a couple of weeks later a Little better so I gueaa this is the best it can get. Anyway at the price it's not too bad - it's the least expensive of all the cameras we have in my family

I hate to say this, but I own three of these cameras. I was attracted to them because of the long battery life, for I take a lot of pictures, and have two employees that also take lots of pictures of our work. I wish I would have tested the first one out more before I bought two more of them. You see, one camera on its FIRST day of use crapped out with a lens error, rendering it useless. After doing a search on the net about the Nikon L14 lens error, I come to find out it's very common. I had no idea how common, until it happened to the 2nd one, this one only have about a week's use on it. I did send the first one back to Nikon and it is covered under a one year warranty. I'm sure they'll cover the 2nd one, but I have no idea if the camera will actually be fixed to not happen again, or if this is what I'm in for. If so, you can count on one year's worth of use out of these cameras. After the warranty runs out, I doubt that it would be worthwhile to pay to ship them and pay to have them repaired. I'm really disgusted by all this. I always thought Nikon was a quality product. When two out of three fail, that's a bad sign. I'll start using the third one and see how far we get with this one. I thought to just resell them on ebay after they return from repair, but I can't do that to someone. I wish Nikon would give me my money back on those pieces of junk and take them off the market, because they are bad news.

this camera is very very amazing. the panoramic option is incredible. the only thing that makes this camera not perfect is that after you take a picture it takes a little over 3 seconds to process it which isnt a problem at all im just impatiant

I purchased this camera for my ex-wife. She is very happy with the quality and ease of use with this camera. she has been sending me pictures that look very good with high quality

Nikon does not make poor cameras, easy to use camera that is small and fits easily into the shirt pocket.