The COOLPIX L810, with its incredible image quality, great zoom range and ease-of-use, will bring you photographic enjoyment for years to come. The 26x zoom captures high-resolution images, shot after shot for a broad variety of views-22.5mm wide-angle landscapes to 585mm telephoto shots, capturing action near or far. Enhance the moment and start recording HD (720p) movies with stereo sound at the touch of a button. Plus, L810 uses AA batteries, so you’re never waiting for a recharge. ISO Sensitivity: ISO 80-1600,Auto (auto gain ISO 80-1600). Built-in Memory 50MB. Battery Life Details Photo shooting ( Alkaline batteries ), Photo shooting ( Lithium batteries ), Photo shooting ( NiMH batteries ), Video recording – 1.8 hour(s) ( Alkaline batteries ), Video recording – 5.3 hour(s) ( Lithium batteries ), Video recording – 3.2 hour(s) ( NiMH batteries ). 1 Year Limited Warranty.
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True story: Had my heart set on the Nikon D3100, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay that much for it. Rewind to my son’s 8th grade graduation in May. I didn’t have a camera at the time so I was using my cell phone which ran out of batteries by the time the graduation procession started. I was devastated. FORTUNATELY a good friend whose son was also graduating was sitting right behind me and she had a gorgeous professional looking camera. She offered to take pics of our son for me. When she emailed them to me the next day, her pictures were amazing! The zoom, picture color and clarity was so unbelievable! I HAD to know what the name of her camera was. She said a “Nikon Coolpix L810”. I quickly looked it up online and found it cheapest on Amazon. I ordered it on a Friday and got it on Monday! I’m in LOVE with this camera. I’ve been practicing taking photos with it outside my work during breaks and the pictures are just beautiful, the zoom is AMAZING. Now, it’s definitely not a quick point and shoot camera. You should ABSOLUTELY read the focus instructions VERY carefully before you use this otherwise your pictures come out blurry. BUT that’s not a camera issue, it’s a “you’re not focusing the camera correctly” issue. Lol. You need to press the button down only halfway to allow the camera to focus first, once the focus light turns green, THEN press it all the way down. Tricky at first but gets easy after about 5 pics. So take your time practicing with the focus and getting to know all its shooting modes and features before you try to use it for special occasions like graduations, weddings, vacations…etc. After you get used to it, you will be in love with it. The price for the quality of this camera is outstanding. Love the size of it too. Big enough to be taken seriously, but small enough to fit in a purse or bag for travel. Not heavy, but just enough weight to it to give that quality feel. It’s perfect!
Comes with: Strap, four AA batteries, USB cable, audio video cable, lens cap and software CD-ROM. Didn’t come with a carrying case but no biggie, found one on ebay for about $6 w/free shipping (Ebay item #380422196943)
I’m an old school 35mm guy and have also owned a digital Pentax for 7 years. It was time to upgrade so having the dilema between a DSLR and a Bridge camera I finally went with the Nikon coolpix l810. I did read the instructions as the happy reviewers suggested. You must pick the right type of scene for the type of picture your taking or use the auto feature if your not sure. Today while walking the dogs in the nature reserve I took several pictures with the auto feature and this was while holding two leashes in one hand and shooting the pic with the other. I got several pics I was happy with and when I have two hands the scene menu selection is turning out incredible pictures!
This is a camera you have to learn to use, but it’s like anything it takes practice. Also the software comes with a panoramic section. I spliced 3 pic’s together using this and “Wow” is all I can say. I haven’t done alot of editing yet but it is your standard type pic program not to complicated. Plus the 16 megapixel shows when you enlarge the pic’s on your computer screen very clear, I can’t wait to have my pic’s processed for framing.
So let me put it this way, this camera was a third of the price of a DSLR and I can shoot pic’s one handed. Need I say more!
I “upgraded” to the L810 from the prior model and am not overly happy with that.
Pros
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* the zoom is amazing
* the picture resolution is great as well.
Cons
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* the lag time taking a picture, especially when inside or in lower light areas, is absolutely not acceptable and reminds me of cameras I used 10 years ago.
* saving an image (to a Class 10 SD card), takes way too long.
* the lack of a manual focus makes it really painful as it constantly adjusts and the chance of getting out of focus pictures is pretty good.
* the focus problem is the same (actually way worse…) when taking videos. I filmed at my daughters graduation and 90% of the video is out of focus. Despite setting the camera to “continuous auto focus” mode.
* the USB connector cable is yet another “standard” size that nobody is using and that nobody has cables for. There is ZERO value in not staying with the established cable concepts besides them selling a few cables…
bottom line
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Try to borrow one before you buy it and check if the above mentioned issues bother you (as much as they bother me…). If not, it is a nice camera, not too heavy with some decent features. It even makes nice pictures if they are in focus.
I personally would not buy it again.
This camera is amazing. I recently went to a Pittsburgh Penguins game and was blown away by the quality of the pictures. I took a pro quality picture of the goal from the other size of the arena and I can see his eyes its so clear and crisp. Totally worth the price. One must figure out how to use it by experimenting. The pictures will be blurry if u don’t. This camera is not a simple point and shoot.
I was very happy to see this camera finally come out. I have been using it for about a month now and I am very happy. I read a review about the images being out of focus and I simply took the picture again with the flash on or with the camera on a different setting. The application that comes with the camera let you view the pictures with great clarity. I bought and would suggest the following 2 items to go along with the camera:
Nikon CoolPix L810 HDMI Cable – HD Video Cable for Nikon CoolPix L810, which lets me hook up to my tv in HDMI or even my computer through HDMI.
and
Energizer CHP4WB4 Recharge Smart AA/AAA Charger with 4 AA NiMH Batteries, along with n extra 4 pack.
Bottom line is I really enjoy this camera.
Okay first of all i love the 26x zoom and second i love the 16.1 mp. I recently went to the zoo and took pictures that were making professional photographers mad because of the clarity and at full zoom. Side by side comparison told me i did the right thing in purchasing this camera. And for those of you that think somethings wrong with the camera just spend some time using all the different scenes and adjustment’s this camera has. one more thing i really liked was the ability to just push the video button to record video instead of having to change modes…and it doesn’t matter what size sd card you have it will only record 29 min at a time, you can record multiple 29 min video’s…. take it as you will.
This is a fantastic camera for the money if you take a lot of stills. If you take a lot of actions shots, like kids in sports, etc…..don’t get it. It’s focus time and shutter speed are just too slow for action. Some of the other reviews saying all the pictures turned out blurry make me suspect they did not download the CD that came with it titled “Reference Manual”. If you read through it, and practice for a few days adjusting ISO and white balance, you’ll get fantastic photos. The physical paper manual in the box is really just a quick overview, and doesn’t provide much help, but the downloadable manual really does. This is indeed a point & shoot camera, but a little fancier, so you will have to spend some time with it. Don’t order this and expect to pull it out of the box and go on a trip the next day with it. You’ll be disappointed. I’ve had it a few days now, and I still have lots more to learn. It is very comfortable to hold, great grip, and great screen on the back. I’ll post an update after I’ve used it a bit, too.
****Update 11-27-12******
After using this a lot more, I have actually gotten really good action shots now too. It just takes some time to get used to and practice with. Brought this on a trip this past summer, great shots, and used it to take pictures of my kids’ summer sports activities, all action, also with great results.
So far, I have taken about 500 pictures with the original batteries. Can’t wait to see how long rechargeables actually last. I reccomend that you play with the scene selections. The “obvious” choice may not be the best choice. For example, I got the best results taking pictures of flowers with the food setting. The sport setting is good for general picts. The portrait setting is good if you want a softened look to your subject matter. I have not had the best of luck with the landscape setting. I was able to get some rather good picts of the full moon using a tripod and the night landscape setting. Better moon picts from auto and color select black and white. Was able to get picts of my son kicking a football, and it did “stop” the ball mid air using the sports setting. The burst mode in the sports setting is adequate. I do reccommend using a class 10 memory card, though. Write time even with a class six was annoyingly slow.
I will say that my outdated Fuji S700 was more fun to use since I could utilize shutter priority and aperature priority. I really enjoy the effects of tinkering with speed and depth in pictures. Still, I cannot argue with the sharpness of the images the L810 offers.
A great camera. Sort of midway between a point and shoot and a standard SLR but much much lighter in weight. I was able, while sitting at a ballgame, to get closeups of players in action. Even caught a ball in motion once. A tripod allowed me to shoot Venus clearly. I have another Coolpix and understand the focusing. This is light, easy to hold, the controls are so much easier than my older Coolpix, and the shots are just great. I’ve had a great time playing with it. It’s not a simple point and shoot however, you have to know something about cameras or take the time to really learn how this one works.
This camera was something that I was dying to get. I’ve had a very old, 8 year old in fact, Coolpix camera that still works but it’s so old that I hate using it. The time in between taking one picture and the next if you need the flash is horrendous. So I finally went on the search to revamp my camera owning. And I found the Nikon Coolpix L810.
I have to admit what I really wanted was something close enough to a professional photographers camera. I take pictures everywhere I go. Especially with my son. I also don’t buy photographer pictures, I tend to do them myself and they always turn out really well. But I wanted a camera that could take that even further. When I read that this camera could take pictures that were professional grade I was pretty sold. Not to mention that it came in colors. I love color choices! It just makes everything a little bit more fun.
Upon recieving it, I read the manual and figured out how to use it. It takes a little time to figure out exactly how to. Because you don’t just go clicking away like most cameras. You hold the capture button half way down. There is a small square on the screen that will turn green when your camera is properly focused. That is when you press the capture button down completely to capture a picture that is not blurred. You can ‘snap snap’ but sometimes you will get blurry pictures because the camera takes pictures so fast if you don’t focus you will get blur.
It doesn’t have any problems with the lens cap. If you forget to take it off a message on the screen informs you to turn off your camera, take the lens cap off, and try again. Which was nice because I have heard of people ruining their motor because they left their lens cap on. There are two places to zoom on the camera depending on how you hold it. On the top and on the side, which is really handy. It does take video though I haven’t tried that yet.
I was also worried about the size of the pictures. How much room they would take up on a memory card. I bought a 16GB card and haven’t had to stop taking pictures yet. In fact, I went to the zoo took over 80 pictures and still only came to 300mb. So I am extremely pleased with that as well. I have already recommended it to a friend that is interested in a nicer camera.
Definatly worth the purchase.