Nikon Coolpix L · announced January 2012

The Nikon Coolpix L810: a very wide 26x zoom for $280 and four AA batteries

We found no other regional name for it; Nikon's US announcement and the UK reviews we read all use the L810 name.¹³

In early 2012 Nikon sold a 26x zoom that started wider than most rivals for $279.95. Reviewers praised the range and the simple controls, then split over how good the pictures were, and one counted how many of its full-zoom shots were out of focus.

Launched

January 2012

Launch price

$279.95 · £229.99¹⁴

Sensor

16.1 MP CCD

Lens

22.5–585 mm, 26×

Card

SD, SDHC, SDXC

Battery

4 x AA

Specs and sources

Meet the camera

The L810 was a budget superzoom built like a shrunken SLR. Nikon announced it on 31 January 2012 at a suggested retail price of $279.95, with a 26x lens covering 22.5 to 585 millimetres, a 3-inch screen of 921,000 dots, 720p video and AA-battery power.¹ Imaging Resource and TechRadar both give the lens range as 35 mm equivalents.²⁴ Imaging Resource gives a US availability date of 15 February 2012.² TechRadar listed the UK price at £229.99 and called the camera a family-oriented point-and-shoot, light on manual control.⁴ Expert Reviews, a few months later, quoted £197 including VAT.³

It weighed about 430 grams with batteries and a card and measured roughly 111 by 76 by 83 millimetres.²⁴ Nikon's announcement listed colours including black, red and blue;¹ TechRadar and PhotographyBLOG also mention blue and bronze versions, and PhotographyBLOG thought its bronze sample looked more brown than the name suggests.⁴⁵ TechRadar noted that there is no viewfinder, only the fixed screen.⁴

Why this one was interesting

A wide start to a long zoom

Expert Reviews called the 22.5 mm wide end a modest gain over the usual 24 mm and found it useful for landscapes and architecture.³ Cameralabs said most superzooms, such as the Canon SX500 IS, go no wider than 24 mm, and found only the Olympus SP-820UZ (22 mm) marginally wider, so the L810 was wider than most but not the widest.⁶ TechRadar liked being able to go from a landscape to a candid close-up in seconds.⁴

Two zoom levers and a one-touch movie button

TechRadar noted a zoom ring round the shutter button and a second lever on the lens barrel, so you can zoom with the right forefinger or the left thumb.⁴ PhotographyBLOG found the barrel lever most helpful for close subjects at full zoom,⁵ and gave the camera 4.5 out of 5 for ease of use.⁵ A one-touch record button on the back starts video from any mode.⁵⁴

Built for people who do not want to think

There is no manual exposure or focus, and menus offer little beyond ISO and white balance, Expert Reviews said.³ TechRadar described an Easy mode that strips the screen down, 19 scene modes and a Smart Portrait mode that detects smiles and blinks.⁴ Cameralabs added a seven-scene automatic mode and a 3D mode that saves .mpo files.⁶ For readers who want a pocket camera from the same year, see our Nikon Coolpix S3300 review.

What was lost

The L810 was a hard sell for anyone who wanted control. TechRadar said it is a superzoom for beginners and pointed hobbyists to the pricier Coolpix P510 instead.⁴ Expert Reviews listed no electronic viewfinder, no manual exposure or focus, and a screen that does not tilt.³ It also found the move from 14 to 16 megapixels raised noise more than detail compared with Nikon's own L120, whose pictures kept sharper fine texture.³

The dark: its weak point

Low light and noise were the recurring complaint, though the reviewers did not agree on how soon it started. TechRadar found no noise up to and including ISO 400, fine specks in shadows at ISO 800, and fair results at ISO 1600, where colour and contrast looked punchier than at ISO 800.⁴ PhotographyBLOG saw edge definition begin to break down at ISO 200, noise appear in darker areas and creep into the mid-range at ISO 800, and called ISO 1600 poor and best used sparingly.⁵ Expert Reviews described low-light shots as grainy and smudged, with grubby shadows and blotchy highlights.³ PhotographyBLOG's Night Landscape preset was too noisy, and a manually chosen low ISO in Auto was only marginally better.⁵

We found no free night or indoor sample from this camera that we could vouch for, so this page shows no low-light strip.

On eBay right now

Live listings for this camera, supplied by eBay and updated automatically. We earn a commission if you buy through them.

The little wins

How it drew the picture

PhotographyBLOG scored image quality 3.5 out of 5: clean, smooth results at low ISO, in-camera sharpening it called over-cooked, and traces of purple fringing in high-contrast areas despite the ED glass element.⁵ It also warned that the screen flatters the pictures: shots looked sharp on the camera but weaker on a larger monitor.⁵ TechRadar said colours were pleasant, sometimes a little cool, with 'Vivid' helping, but saw focus fall away towards the corners at 22.5 mm, noticeable mostly when enlarged.⁴ Expert Reviews found its best results in bright light at the wide end, even there noting that noise reduction turned foliage into green smudges.³

Photos taken with this camera, from Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture. We cannot tell the zoom setting or processing of these files, so they show range of subject, not a test.

Where it let you down

Autofocus was the sharpest criticism. Expert Reviews said about 30 percent of full-zoom shots came out slightly soft and another 30 percent were completely out of focus, and some scenes could not be focused at all.³ Cameralabs called it hesitant in anything but good light, with a small centre focus area, and timed start-up at about three seconds.⁶ TechRadar was gentler: powered up in two to three seconds, focus and exposure in about a second at best, though it varies.⁴

Video divided the reviewers. PhotographyBLOG called quality good and the sound superb,⁵ while Expert Reviews found a weedy soundtrack that picks up lens motor noise, ineffective stabilisation and jittery autofocus.³ Cameralabs added that recording took about 3.2 seconds to start with the screen black, fine detail was poorly resolved, and the CCD showed a purple streak when pointed at the sun.⁶ Handling had its own small complaints: Cameralabs hit delete and macro by accident on the protruding rear buttons and found the screen hard to read in sunlight,⁶ PhotographyBLOG thought the leatherette grip could turn slimy in warm weather and the build was not the best.⁵ Expert Reviews noted there is no orientation sensor and the self-timer is fixed at ten seconds.³

What the reviewers said in 2012

Cameralabs described it as the successor to the L120, and set it against the Canon SX500 IS, a more advanced and more expensive 30x model with PASM exposure modes and multi-area autofocus.⁶

The timeline

• 31 January 2012Nikon announces the L810 in the US at $279.95.¹
• 15 February 2012US availability date, according to Imaging Resource.²
• 9 May 2012Expert Reviews publishes its review.³
• 7 August 2012PhotographyBLOG publishes its review.⁵
• 11 October 2012Cameralabs publishes its review.⁶

Should you buy one now?

It suits someone who wants a lot of zoom in a camera with almost no menus and does not mind soft, noisy files or the occasional missed focus. It launched at $279.95;¹ what it sells for now is a question for the sold listings, not for us. If you want the pictures to be good first, the reviewers' advice points elsewhere. Before you bid, check these:

• The name. Search the full Coolpix L810 name. Cameralabs says it replaced the L120, so make sure the listing is for the newer model.⁶
• The batteries. It runs on four AAs, and four non-rechargeable cells come in the box.⁵⁴ Imaging Resource rates about 300 shots on alkaline, 450 on NiMH rechargeables and 740 on lithium.² Rechargeables on Amazon ↗. The AAs and the SD card share one compartment,⁵ so check that the door latches.
• The card. It takes SD, SDHC and SDXC cards.² See our memory card guide.
• The lens. The lens cap blocks the lens from extending and the camera warns you if it is on at start-up;⁶ test the full zoom both ways and look for soft corners at the wide end.⁴
• The ports. TechRadar lists HDMI, a combined AV/USB port and a mains input under a rubber flap.⁴ Check the flap is intact.
• The test shots. Take a few at full zoom in good light and check them at full size, since the screen flatters them.⁵

If you are wondering why cameras like this are being hunted down again, we tell that story once, in Pictures that never left the card.

See recent sold prices on eBay ↗Shop on eBay ↗AA rechargeables ↗

Sources

1. Nikon USA press room, new COOLPIX line announcement (31 Jan 2012: L810 at $279.95, February 2012)
2. Imaging Resource, Nikon Coolpix L810 specifications (sensor, ISO, battery ratings, card types, availability 15 Feb 2012)
3. Expert Reviews, Nikon Coolpix L810 review by Ben Pitt (9 May 2012)
4. TechRadar, Nikon Coolpix L810 review by Gavin Stoker (undated page, five pages)
5. PhotographyBLOG, Nikon Coolpix L810 review by Matt Grayson (7 Aug 2012)
6. Cameralabs, Nikon Coolpix L810 review by Ken McMahon (11 Oct 2012)

Photographs are credited under each one, all via Wikimedia Commons. Links to eBay and Amazon are affiliate links.