Customer Rating: 
Summary: Not the best camera - DEFINATELY the best value.
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: NIKON L12 LASTS ONE WEEK
Comment: I bought a Nikon L12 and it lasted one week - just died! I sent the camera back to Nikon. They refuse to replace my camera or fix it. Don't buy any Nikon products. I bought it because of its AA battery capabilities because its hard to find electricity in many outback places - but after one week all the batteries I tried did not work. Buy a Canon Product instead - I own two digital PowerShots and they work great (just buy an extra rechargable battery).
Customer Rating:
Summary: good Pictures Faulty Lens
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A nice, user friendly camera, especially for it's price range
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Easy to Use Camera
Comment: What I like about this camera it was very easy to use. I loaded the disk in the computer and was downloading the pictures with in 15 mintues. The only thing I did not like was the fact the flash is really bright and came make the pictures look washed out and you are taking a picture of a white item. However it picks up detail that my other camera could of never done
Summary: Not the best camera - DEFINATELY the best value.
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: NIKON L12 LASTS ONE WEEK
Comment: I bought a Nikon L12 and it lasted one week - just died! I sent the camera back to Nikon. They refuse to replace my camera or fix it. Don't buy any Nikon products. I bought it because of its AA battery capabilities because its hard to find electricity in many outback places - but after one week all the batteries I tried did not work. Buy a Canon Product instead - I own two digital PowerShots and they work great (just buy an extra rechargable battery).
Customer Rating:
Summary: good Pictures Faulty Lens
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A nice, user friendly camera, especially for it's price range
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Very Easy to Use Camera
Comment: What I like about this camera it was very easy to use. I loaded the disk in the computer and was downloading the pictures with in 15 mintues. The only thing I did not like was the fact the flash is really bright and came make the pictures look washed out and you are taking a picture of a white item. However it picks up detail that my other camera could of never done
Nikon Coolpix L12 7MP Digital Camera with 3x Optical Vibration Reduction Zoom Reviews: Page 3 of 5
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |