Nikon Coolpix L3 > Reviews > A Great Little Performer.

Author's product rating:   

Picture Quality	Excellent
Range & Quality of Features	Average
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Overall Look & Design	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Great photos, compact size and simple to use .
Disadvantages:	For the money, there aren't any .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I lost my Canon Powershot on the first day of a recent holiday in Paris. Having spent half a zillion quid on the holiday, my budget to replace it was limited, so I bought a Nikon L3.

Although the L3 boasts 5 megapixels I didn't have great expectations of the results, due to the relatively short zoom lens and small size of the camera.

The L3 uses SD digital media cards, which are available in different speeds and capacities. I bought a 1Gb Ultra 2 card, which could be considered mid range. The camera announced that this card would accommodate nearly 800 full resolution photos. It's fair to say that there is some 'lag' while the camera renders the image, even using the Ultra 2 card. I didn't find this to be a problem, as I wasn't shooting continuous sequences. If you see this lag as being a problem to you, an Ultra 3 SD card will reduce it, as the write speed is considerably faster. There is of course a price premium for the faster cards.

Opening the box, I found the instruction book, which is well worth a read. Also all the necessary leads to connect the camera to a pc, together with the batteries and charger. A few hours later the batteries were charged and the camera was ready to go.

The first photos were taken at night at the Eiffel Tower. The tower was festooned with lights, and to the naked eye was a breath taking sight. It's jolly high you know? Standing beneath the tower, I took several photos looking straight up. The lcd display of these photos didn't look too promising, but a bit of adjustment using the pre-programmed settings and things started to look better. I also took several panoramic shots from the top of the tower. Again I didn't expect much of a result, but took several shots using different settings. Sometimes the camera anounces that the shot is out of focus, and offers to delete it, clever huh?

I won't bore you with the entire tour, but in all we took over 200 photos. These included indoor and outdoor, night and day, close up and panoramic.

On arriving home, I downloaded the photos to my pc, and was delighted with the results. The Eiffel Tower was rendered exactly as I had seen it, the panoramas are brilliant, and the indoor pics of the wife are excellant. The results far exceeded what I expected for £100 camera.

To sum up, this is a small, lightweight and simple to use camera. It produces outstanding results and doesn't cost a fortune either. Unless you're a budding David Bailey, this will definately do.