Nikon Coolpix L100 Mega Zoom Camera Review



Although a camera’s controls and features are obviously very important, the quality of images that the camera can produce is obviously crucial as well. Since we couldn’t perform our standard ISO testing like we do with other cameras, we’ve included various test shots below with information about the ISO the camera chose for us. You'll notice the L100 doesn't necessarily stick to the standard ISO stepping rules. In other words, the camera can choose ISO settings such as 484 or 97. Regardless of which ISO the camera chose for us, we noticed that many pictures weren’t quite as sharp as we would have preferred. Colors were also a bit off, though it’s not so bad that you couldn’t adjust the colors in an image editing program. Most of the noise and lack of sharpness were most noticeable when viewing the photos at 100%. If the images were printed at a standard 4x6 inch print size, that noise and lack of sharpness would be much less visible.

 
ISO 80

 
ISO 400

 
ISO 484

 
ISO 97

 
ISO 80

 
ISO 400

 
ISO 120

 
ISO 400

 
ISO 400

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A 15x optical zoom certainly gives you a good variety of shooting options from wide to telephoto. To give you a better feel for what a 15x optical zoom can do, here’s a comparison:


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Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer grew up around technology. From an early age, she was curious about all things related to computers. As a child, Jennifer remembers spending nights with her dad programming in BASIC and taking apart hard drives to see what was inside. In high school, she wrote her senior term paper on her experiences with building custom computers.

Jennifer graduated from the Jeffrey S. Raikes School of Computer Science and Management at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. After college, she began writing full-time for various PC and technology magazines. Later, she transitioned to the Web. In these roles, Jennifer has covered a variety of topics including laptops, desktops, smartphones, cameras, tablets, and various consumer electronics devices. When she's not playing with or writing about the latest gadget, Jennifer loves to spend time with her family, capture memories with her camera, and scrapbook.

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