Nikon Coolpix L100

Resolution (4.50)

The L100 scored poorly on our tests that look at the resolution of the images it captures. We test three separate things here: distortion, sharpness and chromatic aberration. And there were problems with all three: the images had significant distortion across the zoom range, they were consistently soft and fuzzy and there was distinct chromatic aberration on all of our test images.

Overall, the samples below show what a disappointment the performance of the L100 is; the images at the widest zoom are acceptable, but those in the middle and at the telephoto end are extremely soft and fuzzy. More on how we test resolution.

Distortion (5.2)

Distortion is where straight objects become curved: we’ve all seen photos where lamp posts at the edge of the frame get bent because the lens distorts the image. We saw quite a lot of this with the L100; the images it took were distorted by a seriously disorientating 3.23 percent at the wide end of the zoom range, by an unpleasant 1 percent in the middle and 0.58 percent at the telephoto end. This is a disappointing performance; we expect some distortion, but the over 3 percent at the widest end of the zoom range is way too much: it turns straight lines into curves.

The L100 has significantly higher distortion than the comparable cameras, which means less attractive images.

Sharpness (4.62)

We were also disappointed with the sharpness of the images that the L100 took; we found that despite the 10 megapixel resolution, the images were soft and did a poor job of reproducing fine detail. The images were sharpest at the wide angle setting, but were much softer and less attractive in the middle and at the telephoto end of the zoom range.

Chromatic Aberration (3.16)

We found the same issues with chromatic aberration; all of our test images had some aberration, but it was particularly bad at the telephoto end of the zoom range, where some images had a very noticeable color fringe around sharp edges, and a soft haze to colored objects.

Quality & Size Options (7.08)

The L100 provides a number of options for shooting images at different resolutions (shown below). At the highest resolution, there are two image quality settings: high and normal. Images can only be saved as JPEG files: there is no option for saving RAW files on this camera.

Image Stabilization (3.24)

The L100 includes two modes that try and reduce blurriness in images: Vibration Reduction and Motion Detection. The latter works by trying to increase the shutter speed when it detects movement, while the first shifts the image sensor slightly to try and correct for camera shake. We found the Vibration Reduction mode to be moderately effective, as it did reduce some of the blurriness in images taken on our test system with it enabled. However, it was much less effective than the stabilization systems used by other cameras, and did a much less effective job than other, more expensive cameras. Our tests look at the performance of the image stabilization systems with the camera shooting at a shutter speed of 1/30 of a second. More on how we test image stabilization.

Stabilization Comparisons
Nikon L100	Canon SX120 IS	Kodak Z950	Panasonic DMC-ZS3
Stabilization Off
Stabilization On

As you can see from the images above, the L100 images with the Vibration Reduction on are slightly sharper, but the difference is nowhere near as pronounced as the other cameras.