Customer Reviews

Nikon Coolpix L12 7MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Vibration Reduction Zoom

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

I bought this camera to replace my Olympus c720 Ultra Zoom (very disappointed with its performance, only 3 yrs old). I wanted a small camera that could take great pictures of children who DO NOT stop for the camera. This camera handles those situations perfectly and the size you cannot beat. I love the long movie time it gives you and the large viewing screen. The modes are easy and the menu is a breeze to navigate with just enough to add features and simple enough to change on the fly without losing precious moments.

The vibration reduction I have used only a couple times, not the best pictures-they come out VERY GRAINY!! I thought I would need it more to take pictures of the kids, I have better luck on the Auto mode or Indoor mode. The delay between pictures is slower than others, but the picture quality is great.

Overall, very happy. Would give it 5 stars but the delay between pictures and the hype of the vibration reduction mode disappoints me. I would buy another again despite these facts and am actually waiting to get some more in the slush fund to buy my husband one so we each have one!!

Very easy, light and user friendly for the beginner to slight advanced photographer!!

I purchased the L12 to replace my Coolpix 4600 so I could get sound in the movie mode. This works very well, and I'm more than satisfied with picture quality and battery life, and ease of use. The big problem is no viewfinder. I purchased this camera knowing that there was no viewfinder, but I thought I could get used to composing my pictures on the LCD screen. Unfortunately, the LCD screen is virtually useless outdoors on sunny days. You are reduced to pointing the camera and crossing your fingers. Forget about composition. It seems that most camera makers are eleminating the viewfinders in this catagory. I think that is a mistake. The old Coolpix 4600 zoom viewfinder is excellent.

I bought this camera and returned it the same day. The reason: when you take a photo, there is a really long waiting period before you can take another photo. If you're not using the flash, it's about 3 seconds, which is manageable, but still slow compared to other cameras. If you are using flash, be prepared to wait. You take a photo, then the LCD screen goes blank and the flash resets itself. You can do nothing during this time - you can't take another photo, you can't turn off the flash, nothing. And this goes on for 9 seconds (I timed it). This nearly 10-second delay between flash photos makes this camera basically useless when using the flash.

The camera otherwise seemed fine, but nothing spectacular. The VR wasn't that awe-inspiring and you can get more by buying a Sony Cybershot (which I did and am very happy with). The Sony, which costs about $20 more, takes less than 3 seconds between flash photos. It's the difference between capturing a good shot and missing it completely.

I just got the camera and first thing I tested was VR.
First I thought it was bad as the pictures were dark and grainy only to realize that this camera has another feature Anti-Shake - Don't use it for low light pictures. VR and Anti-shake are two different options that come with camera.
VR is great. I took picture of wires in a dark nook of my office cube at 2X zoom and without flash and VR, the wires looked blurred. Now I turned on VR, no flash, 2x zoom and the blur on the wires were gone, though pictures were not crisp it was bright and looked good to me. VR-wise this camera is as good as $300 ones, I tested couple of those in shops.

Other than VR, it's an usual Nikon, you can find plenty of professional reviews on Nikon L series cameras.

I felt this camera is faster than L3 that I owned before.
For $178, I give it 5 stars for value.

But 4 stars for performance, as the $300 ones will do better than this in terms of speed and options for exposure control.

My wife is the camera aficionado in the family. I've bought her good cameras, film and digital, and for birthdays, anniversaries, and Christmas.

Of course, sometimes I get to borrow those. I love her Canon digital SLR, and I can borrow it whenever I need to.

She's a schoolteacher and likes to take pictures on the fly. That's the reason I bought her a Nikon CoolPix pocket camera a couple years ago. At the time, the camera was fairly expensive. I like the idea of having one in the car, but I wasn't going to pay for one for myself.

Lately, with camera prices getting more purchaser-friendly, I decided to buy one for myself. I write a blogspot and occasionally go to conventions and other events where I've wanted to have a camera with me but forgot it.

One of the best things I love about my new camera is that I can shove it into a pocket easily. It travels well in the protective case and it's always immediately to hand when I want to take a picture.

Since it uses SDRAM memory cards to store the images, I can take quite a lot of pictures without having to change film, or carry film, or even worry about an extra memory card to carry along. I can also take a lot of images of one thing without worrying about running out of film or exhausting memory space.

The camera is simple point and shoot operation. What you see in the viewscreen is what you get. Even I can do it. The 2.5in. viewscreen is a dream to work with. I know immediately what's going to be in my shot when I take the picture. And reviewing the pictures I've taken is relatively simple. They show up in good detail on the viewscreen and even better on a PC.

Downloading to your desktop computer or to a notebook PC is simple. Just plug in the cord that comes with the camera and you're all set. All you have to do is name the file you're going to be saving your pictures to.

The camera takes really good pictures inside. It comes with a flash, but often doesn't need the flash because there's generally enough light inside the buildings I've shot pictures in. One drawback, though, is the long time it takes for a flash to process. That has been a little disconcerting, but I don't generally take action pictures so it doesn't matter in what I'm using it for.

The 4x digital zoom optical lens works great. When you switch the camera on, the lens spins out automatically. The auto-focus feature is simple to operate as well. I also like the fact that this camera runs on AA batteries that I can pick up anywhere instead of some special hybrid batteries that I have to find a photography or specialty store.

It has fifteen scene modes, a Best Shot Selector that automatically picks the best shot of a series of ten that you're taking, voice recording capability, video recording capability, macro shooting from as close as six inches, and image stabilization.

A professional photographer might want more out of a camera than this one provides, but the Nikon CoolPix L12 really fits the bill for someone who's on the go and wants to just take occasional shots to remember an event or post on blogspots.

Wanted a new digicam to replace my Nikon Coolpix 880 which was given as a gift. It worked well, but my main issue was it barely fit even in a large front pocket. I wanted something compact, <200 dollars, preferably cheaper. I decided to stick with Nikon since my 880 worked and held up pretty well, had a nice interface, and to continue using SD cards from my other electronic gadgets (PDA, GPS device, etc.). Nikon's L series has several Coolpix models to choose from that fit the bill. After some research, I've determined...... the L6 is old and inferior overall in specs, L10's 2" LCD could be bigger, and the L12 had the following over the L11:
-2.5" LCD vs 2.4"
-7.1MP vs 6MP
-21MB internal RAM vs 7MB
-automatic ISO of up to 1600 vs 800
-has Vibration Reduction (VR) mode (aka "no shakey" effect or Image Stabilization)
-one touch access to VR mode and Assisted Frame portrait mode (automatically recognizes faces and puts better focus on them)
-wider selection of image resolutions
-flash with range of 26 feet vs 11 feet

It appeared to be worth the extra money for those features.

As for the L12, for an advanced point & shoot camera, it's not too bad given its low price point (probably even lower since this review was written). My old camera had a plethora of manual controls and other features, but I never used them even when I did realize they existed, so the lack of manual controls doesn't particularly bother me. Navigating the menus and interface is quite intuitive, and you'll only need to consult the manual to find the few things that elude you or to check to if they're even there. The bulge on the side where you the 2 AA batteries go gives it more bulk when put in a smaller pocket, but it also gives it a better grip. Good when you want to take right-handed only shots. Battery life is above average. I got almost a month's use out of this camera on a pair of lithiums, and that's a month of rather heavy use, as that was a time period when I brought it with me everywhere to various parties and site seeing events while testing it. By my estimates, I took roughly 80 pictures a week and well over 3.5 hours of video for that month alone. I've also used the LCD screen a lot for exploring the menus, settings, and for photo/video playback. Granted less 2% of my shoots were without flash, but everything else, especially video recording are known to drain batteries quickly on a digital camera.

Some of the main features on the L12 include high automatic ISO settings, Vibration Reduction, larger LCD, and powerful flash.

The up to 1600 ISO setting sounds impressive, but without being able to set it manually to test it, it's kind of hard to tell if it's doing it's job well enough. You'll still want a tripod or to use the flash in quite dark conditions. It appears using Vibration Reduction, which is more or less image stabilization (done in the lens as opposed to software) does cause the camera to jack up the ISO. In medium lighting conditions, the VR does reduce blurriness found in photos when you think you held a steady shot, but then zoom in to find blurriness at 10x. In moderately-heavy dark situations, this is apparent since photos taken in this mode have noticeable grainy specks or noise to them, but they do appear crisp when zooming in. Another example, at night in a skyline view, most of what you see are lights for dots and some make of the building structure. Taking that same picture in a higher light situation will actually show the buildings and texture with more clarity. If pictures are still somewhat blurry, THEN VR would smoothen that out without compromising the overall picture. In short, VR is good to have, but it's not a "cure-all", especially in low light conditions.

While some compact cameras do have large as 3" screens, those won't be at available this price range, and that's usually possible at the cost of removing a lot of the hard buttons to make room for it, forcing you to do more stuff through the menus. The flash is quite powerful for a camera of this size. I can't measure if the range is indeed 26ft, but when used in an outdoor night setting, it does light up faraway objects with ease. However, using the flash causes the camera to "stall" for around 8 seconds, which you'll need to wait it through before you can take more pictures again or do anything else really.

In short, this camera has some nice ideas and features to it that set it a part from other cameras in its price range. However, their implementations could've been done better. If you take a lot of flash photography, the long flash recycle times will be a big letdown. If you want something that works well without flash in dark scenery, you'll want to look elsewhere, likely beyond an advanced point and shoot model. I'm not a big photo-nut. The majority of my shots are done in so-so to great lightning condition which shoots good photos most of the time, but still costed less than what many pay for even the better camera cell phones works for me.

I bought the L12 because I saw my son's L11 and I liked the camera. Both my son and I have problems with the lens that make the camera useless at this time. The lens went out and is stuck in that position (don't tell me to change the batteries, we tried). The screen says lens error, but it will not retract and will not work other than to tell us there is a lens error. This happened the second time I used the camera. My son used his a little more, but they were both essentially new cameras that died.

I bought this camera to complement a trip to Europe. It accompanied me constantly in a pants or coat pocket when on the go, and proved rugged, simple, and reliable. I used the auto setting 80% of the time - low light, bright light, cloudy days, rainy days, dark caves. Of the 600 or so pics I took, about 75% of them were keepers (mostly because I refused to use the flash and instead relied on the camera's auto ISO, high sensitivity, and slowed down shutter speed). My friends had $250+ cameras and this thing took pictures that looked virtually identical to theirs and at a $100 discount, PLUS with anti-shake (grainy pics), AND with a cheap looking design (less risk of theft). I used the fully automatic pic feature to good effect, captured a couple videos, took close ups and landscapes, and got one audio recording. Fast draw and shoot capability a big plus. Burned through about 3.5 sets of Alkaline batteries.

The one complaint I have is the low-ish frame rate on the medium video setting. My friends' $250+ cameras (sony, cannon pocket cameras) took camcorder-like videos while mine was a bit choppy on this setting. To be fair, on the highest quality setting the video looks just fine.

I dropped the camera twice from about a meter up and it doesn't even have a scratch, just some pocket wear from being toted around so much.

I highly reccomend this camera as a cheap all purpose pocket camera for people who don't want to mess around with ISO/shutter settings themselves. It's not only a good all around camera, but stacks up well against more expensive pocket cameras, with a bigger screen than them, and it takes better night time photos.

I could not be more pleased with this camera. It makes great pictures, is easy to operate, has everything I need to create great photos. The developed photos are just as crisp and clear as they appear on the LCD Screen.

This is a very nice camera, it take very nice pictures, better pictures than my canon A560 that I used to have. It's very light, small, with a big screen, and high quality

The only thing that I don't like is that it takes its time to get ready for the next picture once you take one, the video takes some time to come back again on the screen.