Nikon Coolpix L4 Review

The Coolpix L4 is equipped with a 3x Nikkor optical zoom lens with a 38 - 114mm (in 35mm equivalent) focal length coverage. The maximum aperture is F2.8 to 4.9 and it has a dedicated macro mode. When powered down the lens retracts and is protected by a builtin shutter, no lens cap needed.

The Auto focus is handled by a contrast detect TTL system with a focus range from 12 in. (30cm) to infinity in normal, 1.6 in. (4cm) to infinity in Macro mode (wide angle).

The built-in speedlight has a shooting range of approx. 0.4-3.0m/16 in. - 9 ft. 10 in. (W), 0.4-1.7m/1 ft. 4 in. - 5 ft. 7 in. (T) at ISO Auto, and can be set for Auto Flash, Red-Eye Reduction, Fill Flash, Slow Sync or Disabled.

The large 2.0-inch color LCD with 115,000 pixels of resolution serves as the viewfinder as well as for reviewing your images and movies and accessing the menu screens. In lower light conditions the LCD will "gain up" for better framing and provides 100% coverage. The screen is coated with a non-glare finish and offers a wide viewing angle even in the bright sunlight.

Controls on top are just the shutter release and the power on/off button.

Controls on the back: Upper right are the zoom lens control buttons. In playback mode these buttons serve as the magnify and index buttons. When accessing menus the telephoto button can call up Help screens.

The MENU button calls up and dismisses menu screens. The 4-way selector is for navigating menus and selecting pictures. In record mode pressing it "Up" selects the desired flash mode. Pressing it "Left" activates the 10-sec selftimer. Pressing it "Down" enables the macro focus mode. The center OK button accepts menu selections and enables image D-Lighting in playback.

The "blue arrow" button puts the camera in Play mode. The "trashcan" button is for deleting images. And the mode selector with positions for Auto, Scene and Movie.

The interface connector is a combination device used to connect either the USB 1.1 cable for downloading images to the host computer or connect the Video Out cable to a TV set. The video signal is selectable for NTSC or PAL. The USB cable can be connected to any PictBridge compatible photo printer for computer-free printing.

The Coolpix L4 is equipped with ~10MB of internal memory and a SD memory card slot, no card is supplied with the camera. Images and movies can be copied from internal memory to SD card or vice-versa. We recommend the purchase of at least a 256MB (or larger) SD card or your picture taking will be quite limited.

The camera is powered by a set of two standard AA batteries, alkaline, lithium or NiMH rechargeable type. Nikon includes a set of NiMH cells and a charger. Nikon claims the camera will capture up to 250 shots with alkaline, 600 shots with lithium, or 450 shots with EN-MH1 (based on CIPA standard).

An optional power adapter allows the camera to be powered from an A/C wall outlet.