Nikon Coolpix L100
Digital Camera Review
Mar 05, 2009
- By Marianne Schultz
2.7
The new Nikon L100 ultrazoom is sober and professional-looking camera compared to the brightly-colored Nikon compact models. With a 15x wide-angle zoom lens and a $279 pricetag, the 10-megapixel L100 is an intriguing addition to Nikon's product lineup.We had the chance to take a pre-production sample for a test drive at PMA in Las Vegas, and here's what we discovered.
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UPDATE: our full review of the L100 is now live.
Design & Appearance
The L100 has a very no-nonsense look to it in a solid matte black with only a few chrome-look pieces here and there. In general, the L100 is a very professional-looking camera that won't draw any undue attention compared to brightly-colored point and shoots, though it won't get you quite the same amount of street cred that a DSLR would.
Size & Handling
The L100 is 4.3 x 2.3 x 3.0 inches (109 x 58.4 x 76.2mm), and it weighs 12.5 oz. (354g). Compared to the tiny point-and-shoot cameras available these days, the L100 is a bit portly, but it's definitely not unwieldy and isn't heavy enough to tire you out after carrying it all day. We found it fits nicely in the hand, with well-placed areas for your fingers and thumb and good balance overall.
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| Front and back views of the L100 in hand |
Menu
The L100's Menu button gives immediate access to the Shooting and Set-up menus, and you can navigate through them with the 4-way controller and its center select button. We found the menus to be very straightforward; very few menu items prompted us to seek out the manual to find more information.
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| The Shooting menu |
Ease of Use
Although it's in the ultrazoom category, the L100 is really a point-and-shoot at heart and offers the straightforward automatic and preset scene modes you'd find in a compact camera. All you need to do to get to them is press the Scene/Mode button at the 11 o'clock position relative to the circular 4-way controller, and bam! Pressing the Menu button while you're in any automatic or scene mode will bring up a shooting menu that shows what you can change in that particular mode, as well as the global settings menu on a second tab.
