Hello everyone, how are you all doing, boy do I have some news but that will have to wait. For today’s post, is a follow up review of my camera NIKON L21. It was a gift by M last year after my birthday.
When I started blogging, I thought just using my Nokia Xpress Music camera phone was fine but then I started cringing, that I needed a better camera for some pictures don’t give the justice/credit for it. And with M surprising me with my very first digital camera made me sooo happy.
The NIKON L21 is comparatively a basic digital camera out there, you point and shoot. Maybe adjusting the exposure settings or color effects is the technical/ hardest part, but everything else is easy breezy.
Here are basic specifications: taken from the box for full specs you can find it in their site here
- Megapixels : 8MP
- LCD : 2.5 lcd
- LENS : 3.6X
- Batteries : double AA batteries * I use the energizer rechargeable batteries (the green one)
- Easy auto mode
- Vibration reduction
Kitty says:
Having it for 7 months now, I can now give a decent thorough review.
For a point and shoot purpose, it serves it’s purpose very well. Of course, NIKON is know for it’s high performance lens and for a basic camera you get quality lens and results for a budget digital camera.
Familiarity? it was easy breezy even for a first time digital camera owner/user. Adjusting settings are pretty easy and basic too.
It has different modes:
1. Easy auto mode
2. Personalize – portrait, landscape, sports, night portrait, party/indoor, beach/snow, sunset, dusk/dawn, night landscape, close-up, food, museum, fireworks, copy, backlight, panorama assist.
3. Smart portrait
4. Movie
5. Auto mode – color options: standard color, vivid color, black and white, sepia and cyanotype.
So that’s it for that part, now I feel really as in reallllly bad for my camera, when I attended a friend’s wedding, my camera fell, TWICE! yes it fell. Clumsy me, Initial reaction was that I thought my camera broke into pieces already. But I was surprised that it was still alive –whew! that was a relief, goes to show how sturdy it is right? The camera slipped from my hand because the strap that came with it was loose. There was practically no scratches nor cracks and image results were still the same. Talk about being clumsy and a sturdy camera eh? haha.
Battery
I was able to test the battery life of my energizer rechargeable batteries when M and I had our first trip in Tagaytay last year. And was pretty impressed, when we arrived my battery wasn’t charged but it was 50% half full, as soon as we arrived, I started taking pictures the whole day. Overall with constant use, the battery life lasted for 2 days.
When charging, I noticed even when charging overnight it doesn’t reach to a hundred percent, only 80% but it’s still pretty good. Perfect for travel use.
Having a small screen and using batteries like mine makes battery life last longer.
Video Quality
I was able to take videos using the L21 and it’s actually easy to use and easy to upload in youtube too. It’s hard o to explain how the video quality is, so I’ll just show you how it looks like.
Here’s my first video I took
The video is clear and it didn’t seem to have grainy parts compared to the recent video I posted (below). Probably because of the wedding incident
My Gripes about it?
Eventually, I needed a wider angle lens, I kept complaining that the L21 has a small screen. Yes, it may have a landscape assist but I find it a hassle to have landscape photos edited with the software. I want instant panoramic view in my lens.
And so, a 2.5 LCD is way too small. Most of my pictures with M are close-up and it’s too bad we can’t include the background. Here’s a sample
that’s the whole part 2.5 LCD covers, it’s pretty small right?
Under low light conditions even when using the indoor option is bad (Iopted not to use flash). Here’s a sample:
I didn’t experience any long shutter lags up to date, and as soon as you take the picture it doesn’t take long to view it too as compared with M’s Samsung es30. I made a versus review of the NIKON L21 V Samsung es30 here.
Also, there was one time when my camera was making funny faint noises. I’m thinking it has something to do when my camera fell.
Considering the price, I don’t expect much setting wise. But now it goes to show that I need more. A wider angle and more settings to play around with. I still love this camera of course since this was a gift. I intend to keep it, but for now, I’m in search of a much better camera.
Overall rating: 
Till then!
Meow..Meow…
