Nikon COOLPIX L120 14.1 MP Digital Camera with 21x NIKKOR Wide-Angle Optical Zoom Lens and 3-Inch LCD (Black) (OLD MODEL)

I read the reviews of this camera by previous buyers, and on websites for photographers who review cameras for a livingbefore I decided to buy this camera through Amazon. I got the camera at the best price on Amazon, with free shipping plus my creditcard rewards and a gift certificate too.I took it on vacation with me one week later and was amazed and very happy with the camera's performance. It's very easy to use and I am still trying out new things with it.I think the battery life has been great so far and I am fully satisfied with how it performs. The lense cap cover gave me some problems at first, not having to remove a cap from my old camera, I had to make it a habit to remove it first before turning on the camera. It is quiet and smooth as you turn it on, so taking pictures of babies and pets or wildlife is easy because it doesn't scare your subject.I am not an expert photographer, just a grandmother who wants good pictures of my family. My reason for buying this camera was the desire to be able to take good long shots at school functions of my grandchilden that are clear and of good quality. The smaller camera's I have had (that were easy to use)never took good pictures from a distance. The zoom is great and fast on this camera so you don't miss shots.The only drawback too this camera is the fact that it needs batteries. The last small camera I bought has a lithium battery and that battery has a long life. This camera is also a little heavy but that is outweighed by the quality of the pictures it takes. I Can't wait to try it on a tripod and do some family sitting poses.All in all, I would say, buy it and enjoy it. You won't be sorry!

I purchased the Nikon L120 about a month ago in preparation for a trip we were taking to California. Although I was impressed by several of the features I read about, such as the extended zoom and pseudo-dslr design, I still had some concerns about a couple of features such as the complaints about focusing and lack of manual controls. After shooting about 200 pictures, I am happy to report that I will be keeping the camera.I'll address my concerns about the reported concerns others expressed. First was the concern over focus. At one point, the camera was having trouble focusing on a shot of the sea and horizon. Everything was blurry and only items within 20-30 ft. would be in focus. I tried several different modes, including landscape and beach, but it did not cure the problem. At that point, I decided to just turn it off and turn it back on and that solved the problem. There must be some issue with the algorithms which pick certain items to focus, but the old "off and on" trick fixed it and I had no other problems, even under similar circumstances. The other issue was of the lack of manual modes. Except for the focus issue, I had no problems with exposure under any conditions, inside, outside, bright lights, dim, flash, portraits, etc.Now onto the good things. Battery life is very good. I took over 200 pictures with regular alkaline batteries. Although I had lithium batteries ready to go, it has not been necessary to use them. With battery life that good and the fact that it uses 4 AA batteries, I don't think I"ll go to the expense of lithium batteries.I really like the form factor of the camera. The bulge on the right side is very handy and you can hold it securely with only a couple of fingers. Taking the lense cap on and off is annoying, especially when you forget to take it off after you power it up. However, it's no more annoying than it was in the old days of analog cameras. Also with the plain old lense cap, there are no concerns with sand jamming up exterior shutters. The camera is too large to fit in your shirt pocket but not too big to fit in a coat pocket or purse/backpack. I think it's an acceptable compromise on size. Zoom is excellent. Seals which were several hundred yards away looked like we were right on top of them. I did not experience any shutter lag, although I have not used the camera in burst or sports mode yet. Video mode is about what you would expect for a hand held camera. OK, not great, but works well enough for that quick video when you need more than a still camera.To sum it up, I like the battery life, picture quality, good assortment of modes, adequate flash range and fantastic zoom. The camera definitely has a few quirks but ones I decided I can live with. I give it a solid 9 out of 10.

We've had a few different compact cameras - mostly Nikon Coolpix compacts - and have loved the simplicity of a camera that reliably takes good pictures without a lot of fuss. I've got cameras with more manual controls, but for most ordinary situations where we take photos with the family or outdoors on a walk the ease of a point-and-shoot compact is preferable. The problem is that many of these situations require a lot more zoom power than you'd normally get with a compact (but where it's sometimes awkward to lug a big camera with a long lens and a tripod). Sometimes you just can't get very close, but you still need to get good pictures, and you still want a camera that's convenient enough to carry in a small bag or purse. School plays, soccer games, swim meets, even birdwatching. We wanted something that was simple to use, fairly inexpensive, but had a bigger lens with more zooming power than our older Nikon Coolpix. This meets our needs exactly. One of the main reasons we bought this was for my wife, a volunteer at a local bird sanctuary on the beach. She wanted a camera that she could use to shoot bird pictures, that gave her some serious optical zoom (21x!), but that wouldn't be too heavy to lug around. We went to an elementary school graduation the other day, for example, and with this camera we were able to get closeups of our daughter even from the back of the auditorium.It shoots very good pictures (as in, much better than you can expect from a camera phone, but not nearly as good as you'd expect from a DSLR) and good quality HD video at 720p. The sound on the video is okay, but not great, so it's best for something you might include in a vacation album or something like that. I've been quite impressed by its macro capabilities - and by how easy it is to switch into macro mode for extreme close up shots of bugs or flowers and the like. Pretty much the only manual controls you get here are the zoom and the flash (as in, you can decide whether or not to zoom and whether or not to use the flash). Beyond that, it's got the adjustments you'd expect from a compact camera. You can select a scene type and the camera will make some adjustments for you, or you can set the exposure higher or lower than what the camera calculates, and you can select white balance as needed. We've been quite happy with it. (One minor irritation: if you turn it on and you've forgotten to remove the lens cap, you have to remove the cap and then turn it back off and then on again. My Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5 - the compact I tend to carry around, that doesn't zoom like this one - lets you just remove the cap and then press any button.)