For anyone looking at getting a decent, mid-level point-and-shoot with the look and feel of an SLR, the Nikon Coolpix L120 is by far the best choice, even with its few shortcomings!
As a semi-professional photographer who primarily shoots film (but is slowly converting to digital) I always have kept at least a digital P&S camera with me to get those "quick" shots that I can't get because of the time involved in setting up the shot in an SLR. My previous camera, the Minolta DiMAGE S414 had been getting long in the tooth and was starting to glitch. A friend gave me his Nikon Coolpix E5200 and I was immediately hooked on Nikon's legendary imaging quality. However, the 5-megapixel sensor in the Coolpix E5200 was short of what I truly needed, so the same friend who gave me the E5200 also let me try out his Coolpix L110. I was blown away with how well the photos turned out! In my quest to buy my own Coolpix L110, I had heard back in February that Nikon was releasing the Coolpix L120, with a 2-megapixel increase over the L110 and several new features. Having read the first reviews of the camera, it seemed like a sure winner, so I took the plunge on March 14th of this year and secured one for myself.
Instantly, I was hooked on it. Right out of the box, this camera is a winner! The settings, user-interface, the sleek design and the nifty zoom selector on the lens barrel makes this camera worth every penny. In the short time I have owned it, I have already taken approximately 1,200 photos with it; everything from nature, bridges, even the sun! (with a solar filter, of course). And with its fantastic 21x optical zoom, I can photograph a car at more than a quarter-mile away and be able to clearly read its license plate!
The only drawback I can see is that Nikon has left out the ability to manually control your aperture and shutter speed settings (instead, leaving that for the Nikon Coolpix P500 which I was unimpressed with). However, those small shortcomings are overwhelmed by the simplicity this camera offers. Itching to get into Panorama photography, without the need for an expensive SLR with built-in panorama stitching? Consider it done! With this camera's Panorama-Assist feature (which overlays a small portion of the image onto the screen for the next shot to be composed), and the supplied Arcsoft Panorama Maker Pro 5 software, Panorama-style photography has never been more affordable. Looking to enhance photos with HDR-like color clarity? Consider that done, also! This camera supplies with it built-in D-Lighting that preserves the color intensity of an image yet bringing out the details otherwise hidden within dark shadows. Also supplied, incase you don't want to edit your images in-camera, is Nikon's own View NX-2, which not only includes D-lighting enhancement filters, it also offers a host of other image-editing capabilities!
In short, this camera has the competition beat! I would recommend it (I have the black version) over anything else. Nikon COOLPIX L120 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 21x NIKKOR Wide-Angle Optical Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LCD (Black)
I recieved this camera just a couple of days ago. Wow what a fantastic surprise! My two previous digital cameras were a Panasonic Lumix DMC-LZ10 which I purchased in 2009 for a bicycle tour. While the camera had a lot of good things going for it a couple of problems stuck out which I could not tolerate. 1st and foremost it was very poor in bad lighting and the flash did not compinsate. 2nd..it really needed to be held steady any movement created a blurry picture. Declining light only made the issue worse. My other digital is a Nikon Coolpix 4300 which I bought 6 or 7 years ago to handle an online website. I love that camera, great pictures. good in bad light, not much zoom capability but could deal with that. The big problem...It was designed with an odd memory card which is hard to get and did not hold as much as comparable cameras today. I still use this camera for my website.
Good luck with Nikon and poor luck with Lumix I decided to chance another Nikon. Wow again..quick focus, Holds a common SD card, great zoom capabilities, and best of all it opperates very well in poor light conditions, in fact I forced a poor light condition under my desk with no flash and worked beyond belief! Add to those good reviews the fact they have redesigned the zoom key and placed it on the left side on the lens (can you say 35mm like)long, long, long over due.
If your thinking about one...make the plunge. A+A+A+
I couldn't wait until this camera was released and it was worth the wait! I love how it looks, the bronze is beautiful, and it sits well in my hand. It felt comfortable from the very first holding. I like how the lens cap attaches--can never get lost, but not in my way either. Easy to use right out of the box. After reading the comments on it's predecessor the Nikon L100 and L110, I did two things immediately. I used fresh lithium batteries instead of the ones it came with, and I, after a few too many blurry photos, upped the ISO. The photos are fabulous so far! I am enjoyed playing around with the black and white setting and got some stunning results, just from sitting in my chair indoors, focising on ordinary items and my dog in my living room! I'm having fun experimenting with the different settings in the menu and recently took some very interesting night shots on my street. Macro is stunning. I found some great cases at Target and Walmart, but the one I bought fits so nicely is a small Lowenpro, it was under $20 with room enough for the camera with strap, and a little pouch for an extra set of batteries. I cannot comment on the video, as I have not used this feature yet. I've only had this bronze beauty for two weeks but so far I am very impressed! - Digital Photo - Blueproton - Like It - Digital Frames'
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