Nikon COOLPIX L810 16.1 MP Digital Camera with 26x Zoom NIKKOR ED Glass Lens and 3-inch LCD (Black) (OLD MODEL)

I was simply looking for a camera to take good photographs and maybe even try my hand at some professional photography in the near future. This camera is a great product to start with. it does not shoot in RAW but the image quality is just as great to work with. The learning curve is pretty low, which is a good thing, there are many preset features for different shooting situations, from all-purpose shots to sports to fireworks/night shots. As I mentioned the fireworks mode, it would be good for me to note on this particular setting the camera's shutter speed is at its max of 4 seconds. I make mention of this because I know some folks may want to try their hands at light painting. Four seconds is more than enough to get a word or 2 in and with enough practice and experience you will be creating perfect light painted images each time. It must also be noted that for optimum performance natural daylight is the best time to take photographs with this camera, the images are shot at its best, crisp and clear. What I like the most is the ability to get just the right amount DOF needed for commercial product photography. Once you have proper lighting and a tripod or anything that will keep your camera steady, most if not all your shots will be near perfect. For what it's worth, the 720p recording works fine. My only gripe with it, is that the autofocus does not work on items that are within 1-5cm of the lens. I guess I may need to try a macro lens and see if it would make a difference. Other than that, for general video recording it works just fine. All in all, for it's price and size the COOLPIX L810 is worth the buy. It will be the perfect gift for any budding photographer.

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)

My Wife is Sooo pleased with this camera and I couldnt be happier considering I bought a "used" L810 from Amazon and saved about $100. The camera was factory reconditioned and was, in my opinion, absolutely Brand New! Not a scratch on it and there was NO way to tell it had ever been owned before. The camera itself is very user-friendly with a ton of different "scene-modes". So if youre a point and shooter you have many different choices of pre-tuned settings for any lighting condition or setting imaginable. 16 megapixels produces very crisp pictures and should more than please any amateur or enthusiast and Nikon produces some of the best values on the market. Youll love the menu, the camcorder controls, the zoom, the audio when taking video and the feel and look of the camera. Its the perfect size and feels really good in my hands....not too big but alot better than a flat square point and shoot. We got the Red version which is a beautiful deep wine color that is better looking than any black camera we've ever owned, and I would totally recommend this color as people will notice it. Anyway, the camera is really great and the deal we got was incredible. Happy Shooting......

**updating a year later and changing from 4 stars to 3 stars. This camera is extremely slow when taking pictures. You also have to hold down the button in a particular way or it will not take the photo at all. The lens cap is still an issue for me. There is an error message and delay in turning on if you forget to remove the lens before turning camera on. This I do often, and I knew it was going to my downfall for shooting with this camera. *I have one of the first Coolpix cameras made, but it does not work anymore because of an internal flutter problem (I haven't tried to send it in for repair). It turns on, but I only get a screen that looks like lines jumping vertically. With that being said, it took the most amazing pictures in all types of lighting: concerts, fireworks, Christmas lights, laser lighting, etc. I really used and abused that camera. I am disappointed in Nikon because it appears that the cameras are being made cheaper and of lesser quality than in the past. love this camera. i am giving it 4 stars though because the time it takes to take a photo is annoying. It is especially frustrating if you are taking pictures of babies or nature. the blue color is beautiful. the zoom feature is great. make sure you take the lens cap off before turning on the camera. I definitely see this as the future downfall of this camera for myself. i have always turned on my cameras before removing the lens to get ready. You will get an error message and instruction to turn off your camera and then remove lens cap if you accidentally do this. the black and white scene setting takes great photos.

First Impression: Great looks and many settings, oh my! Out of the box this camera looked quite capable, which is what I expected, already having a Nikon that was my main camera. Side zoom, dedicated record button are all great pluses for it, and opening up the side panel, there it was, mini HDMI that can spit out your 3D photos onto a capable device. Wow! Design and Case: Nikon made it look like a DSLR, as many cameras in this class do to be able to have a large zoom and bigger, well, everything including the screen, flash, microphones, and even four batteries in the hand-hold. The blue glossy plastic looks great and can hold up to scratches relatively well. Buttons are well placed, although there is one to let the flash up, meaning you better remember to release it on a dark shot, because it doesn't automatically. Lens cap is basic, you might have to finagle to get it on. The hand hold is rubberish, very nice to your hand and your shot. Tech: You can choose the type of batteries you put in in setting for better efficiency. Zoom in two places is a little overkill for me, but some may like it. Stereo mikes really don't make to much of a difference considering they are an inch from each other. Buttons are basic, you will recognize the symbols from your first digital camera. Screen is great quality with what looks like a high ppi, size is just right. Shooting: Simple as ever if you want to take a picture, no settings, no filters, auto everything. It's called auto mode, and it's for the people who just don't care and want a good quality pic. But oh you can do so much more! Straight up modes also include portrait (recognizing faces), scene (I'll get into that later), and easy auto, where it picks a scene for you. Scenes: Very good ones to pick from, most have special things about them such as; in sports mode, it takes three, food mode you change the tint. Panorama assist is dreary along with it's brother, 3D. On both, when you take a picture, it shows the out line of the edge of it that you have to line up with your surrounds, which isn't as easy as it sounds. UI and Settings: Hit that little menu button and it will take you to different settings depending on the mode you were in. Some are obvious, white balance, megapixel count, ISO, filters, and how many shots to take on a click. But that's just the shooting menu. When you cruise onto movie menu from the side, again, even easier than shooting. Go to set up and you open a big can of worms. Anything you possible want to change about the camera is found on three pages of options. Those intimidated by technology are warned to leave them be. Those who like cameras, dive on in. I recommend going over every setting and figuring out what it does, so in the future you know. Things like Eye-Fi upload, vibration reduction, and motion detection are wonderful. Overall the UI is straightforward as long as you know what it all means, as navigation is easy. Recommend for anybody

I did a lot of research before buying this Nikon. I saw negative as well as positive reviews and when I finally bought it I thought I hope I'll like it or I'll just return it if it has a problem. I ordered it on Monday at noon and it was delivered Tuesday at 10 thanks to Amazon and the prime shipping. When I got it I immediately started testing it. I'm a beginner but I like pretty pictures with a good quality and easy to use cameras. This camera is very easy when you put it on auto mode. The macro is unbelievable. The quality is awesome I love it. I also went out at night and my pictures are really good. I tried the zoom at night and the quality isn't there, most of my photos where blurry. But the zoom is nice during the day with very clear photos even from far away. I still have a lot to explore in this camera but I am already very happy by the quality it procures for the price I paid. I recommend it for people like me : Beginners who like an easy camera taking very clear photos but definitely not for someone who's really into photography and who wants an almost professional camera because this is not it!

I've had this camera for almost two months and have had the chance to take photos under different conditions. Even without the flash, the camera takes clear and relatively bright pictures indoors though the colors tend to be more towards the yellow part of the spectrum (this may be caused by the incandescent lighting rather than the fault of the camera). Turning on the flash will make the pictures appear more to a white tinge. There are two automatic modes: auto mode and easy auto mode. I'm not sure why people would need two. There are settings for all sorts of different conditions like landscape (with panorama stitching mode), portrait, close-up, snow, fireworks, museum, etc. I haven't tried all of them yet but judging from the quality of the pictures I've seen, I expect them to be outstanding too. The camera takes high quality 720p movies. The only problem that I've found is that the file size becomes very large. During playback, the sound and video become out of sync after several minutes. Again, I think this is a problem with the QuickTime movie format rather than the camera. I wish it had a feature to save movies in MPEG-3 or -4 formats. One of the things that has amazed me is that how long the battery life is for the camera. It takes four AAs but lasts more than my earlier digital camera. In my older camera, I would need to replace the two AA batteries after taking 50 pictures. I've taken more than 100 with the new camera so far and the power level is still above 75%. Another nice feature is that the camera will show a warning message if you attempt to turn it on with the lens cap still in place.

I use my new camera for work (print advertising business) and it does an excellent job out on location. I have used it for studio shots as well as portraits and action shots. I bought this in June 2012 after a long search for features and value of numerous cameras. My first shots with the L810 have now printed in our magazine and they look great. I'm sure that's the 16 MP resolution quality coming through. It is easy to use and has a lot of settings. I was amazed at the resolution and quality of the pictures in low light with the flash off. This is my second Nikon camera and I debated buying a more expensive body only model so I could use the lenses I already owned. But I was looking for something fast and easy and this fit my needs without time consuming lens changes or need for a big bag to carry them in. The 26x Zoom is very good and is quick to auto focus when panning in and out. Uploading to computer is easy after quick software install. 3 inch screen is very clear and makes it simple to do a fast review of the picture I just took and make adjustments for next shot without having to wait until I load to computer and possibly need to go back for a re-shoot. I didn't buy this for the video mode since I work for a print magazine but my initial trial with video is very good. I only wish I'd waited a couple of days because Amazon dropped the price $20 just after my order date but that's just my bad luck and makes it an even better deal for others. I still can't believe you get Nikon quality and all of these features for 200 bucks.