Customer Rating: 
Summary: Does not age gracefully
Comment: When I first got this camera, I loved it. It was fast, clear, compact. I recommended it to my mom and she got the same camera.
I dropped it one time and the battery case broke. It stays closed... but just barely. When I came home on Christmas break, I saw that my mom's had broken in the exact same way. So I think that's a definite design flaw. It also slowed down considerably within weeks. The time that the flash took to recharge was excrutiating. I missed so many good photo ops because of how long it took between pictures. The batteries also die very quickly in this camera.
It is also difficult to find a good setting for indoors. Most of my indoor pictures are really blurry or I look like I'm glowing white from the flash... there didnt seem to be a good in between. Outdoors, it did work ok. I took some decent shots on it.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this. It's frustrating, and created a bad image of Nikon for me. Even if they do have some nice cameras, I'm switching over to Canon now.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I hate it
Comment: This camera is junk. The lens jams, the shutter time is slow and the time between shots with the flash is super slow. The pictures are often dark with a funny hue. The focus is not great either. The only time it does okay is outside in full sunlight.
Customer Rating:
Summary: not that thrilled
Comment: Over the years I have bought and used several different digital camera. This one would have to be my least favorite. If you are taking daylight photos outside it is decent, but if you want to take photos anywhere else forget about it. The photos I take in my own home are all too dark, even with the flash. The dusk/dawn setting is completely useless. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is; maybe the flash is just too weak. Forget about taking anything at night. The photos will not come out at all. The overall picture quality is not all that impressive. Also, the battery life is poor. In general I really wish I hadn't bought this camera. It was a waste of money. I am very disappointed in Nikon. Next time I'll but a Canon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good for outdoor pictures
Comment: Nikon L3 Highs
*Sharp, colorful outdoor pictures
Nikon L3 Lows
*Battery life is horrible, I had to switch to Energizer E squared to fix this
*Focusing takes roughly four seconds
*Flash photography leaves foreground overexposed and background underexposed, even after I adjusted the stops.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Slow
Comment: I had a Nikon Coolpix 3100 and it lasted me 3 years. It held to be very durable after I had dropped in may times (all on accident) and even stood to being passes around and even having a cup of Coca-Cola spilled on in. Finaly I had to retire it though for no other reason that it was just warn out. When I did retire it I decided that I still wanted a Nikon. If my old one had stood up to all of that surely the newer one would as well and then some.
Wrong! The battery life is a joke, Lithium E2s hardly last in there and you get no where near the same amount of pictures for the batter life as you would other cameras. After a picture is taken the screen shuts off and you have to wait of it to wake back up before you either take another picture or view the one you just took. I was so thankful that I had the warrenty from Best Buy on it because after only having it 2 months the lends shutter broke and it had not been dropped or anything of that sort. It was not covered by the manufactures warnety but it was with Best Buy. It does take amazing pictures but in my opionion it is not worth all the hastle it takes to get the camera to wake up and do what you want it too.
Summary: Does not age gracefully
Comment: When I first got this camera, I loved it. It was fast, clear, compact. I recommended it to my mom and she got the same camera.
I dropped it one time and the battery case broke. It stays closed... but just barely. When I came home on Christmas break, I saw that my mom's had broken in the exact same way. So I think that's a definite design flaw. It also slowed down considerably within weeks. The time that the flash took to recharge was excrutiating. I missed so many good photo ops because of how long it took between pictures. The batteries also die very quickly in this camera.
It is also difficult to find a good setting for indoors. Most of my indoor pictures are really blurry or I look like I'm glowing white from the flash... there didnt seem to be a good in between. Outdoors, it did work ok. I took some decent shots on it.
Overall, I wouldn't recommend this. It's frustrating, and created a bad image of Nikon for me. Even if they do have some nice cameras, I'm switching over to Canon now.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I hate it
Comment: This camera is junk. The lens jams, the shutter time is slow and the time between shots with the flash is super slow. The pictures are often dark with a funny hue. The focus is not great either. The only time it does okay is outside in full sunlight.
Customer Rating:
Summary: not that thrilled
Comment: Over the years I have bought and used several different digital camera. This one would have to be my least favorite. If you are taking daylight photos outside it is decent, but if you want to take photos anywhere else forget about it. The photos I take in my own home are all too dark, even with the flash. The dusk/dawn setting is completely useless. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is; maybe the flash is just too weak. Forget about taking anything at night. The photos will not come out at all. The overall picture quality is not all that impressive. Also, the battery life is poor. In general I really wish I hadn't bought this camera. It was a waste of money. I am very disappointed in Nikon. Next time I'll but a Canon.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good for outdoor pictures
Comment: Nikon L3 Highs
*Sharp, colorful outdoor pictures
Nikon L3 Lows
*Battery life is horrible, I had to switch to Energizer E squared to fix this
*Focusing takes roughly four seconds
*Flash photography leaves foreground overexposed and background underexposed, even after I adjusted the stops.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Slow
Comment: I had a Nikon Coolpix 3100 and it lasted me 3 years. It held to be very durable after I had dropped in may times (all on accident) and even stood to being passes around and even having a cup of Coca-Cola spilled on in. Finaly I had to retire it though for no other reason that it was just warn out. When I did retire it I decided that I still wanted a Nikon. If my old one had stood up to all of that surely the newer one would as well and then some.
Wrong! The battery life is a joke, Lithium E2s hardly last in there and you get no where near the same amount of pictures for the batter life as you would other cameras. After a picture is taken the screen shuts off and you have to wait of it to wake back up before you either take another picture or view the one you just took. I was so thankful that I had the warrenty from Best Buy on it because after only having it 2 months the lends shutter broke and it had not been dropped or anything of that sort. It was not covered by the manufactures warnety but it was with Best Buy. It does take amazing pictures but in my opionion it is not worth all the hastle it takes to get the camera to wake up and do what you want it too.