Knowledge is power

I wrote last week about the hidden costs of digital camera buying inspired by my own adventure in purchasing such a device. After having more than a week to play with my new camera, I thought I write a brief review to tell you my experiences with it.

Before I start, I have to admit that this is my first digital camera and that I am not particularly knowledgeable about photography. So, read my review with a grain of salt if you will.

Now, lets talk about the Nikon Coolpix L12.

My first impression using the camera is that it is excellent. The user interface is well designed. It is simple enough that one can learn to use the camera in just a few minutes. And yet, it has a myriad of options that control the quality of the photos taken. For example, turning the camera’s build in flash on or off is a snap requiring only two keystrokes. Switching between taking a still photo or a video is also done using a single button. Erasing photos that are not well taken can also be achieved in a simple and intuitive manner.

I already mentioned that the camera can also take digital video. I have a 512MB memory card which I had to purchase separately from the camera; it can hold a total of 30 minutes of video captured at 15fps. I had the opportunity to use this function last week and I am impressed by the quality of the video. The camera’s 3x optical zoom also makes it a snap to zoom in/out interesting parts of the scene.

In addition, Nikon supplies the necessary software for downloading the digital data from the camera’s memory card to your computer. The software is called Picture Project. I installed it on a computer running Windows XP but it is also compatible with Windows Vista and Mac OS X. Once the installation is complete downloading photos to the computer is straightforward. Just connect the camera to the computer using the provided USB cable and turn it on. Windows automatically detects the camera and loads Picture Project. Clicking on the “transfer” button, it starts the download process which depending on the amount of data takes a few seconds or several minutes. Picture Project also has functions for editing the photos to make them look better but I had no need for this since I do all my image editing using the open source program called Gimp; this software is as powerful as Photoshop and it is available for free.

The only negative I have to say about this camera is that it doesn’t come with an AC adapter which means that you are going to be running through a lot of batteries. I suggest that you spend a few extra dollars to purchase rechargeable batteries like I did.

The Nikon Coolpix L12 cost me $190 plus an additional $70 for some necessary accessories. I have to say that I am very happy with it although I may be a little biased since this is my first digital camera. Nevertheless, I would recommend this camera to anyone.