Nikon Coolpix L28 Review: Continuing on with their need for presence in every level of photography, Nikon have released the Coolpix L28, a straight forward digital compact camera designed purely for the beginner to photography . It features some impressive tech inside it considering it's position in the marketplace .
There’s nothing more ideal than a simple point-and-shoot if you want an easy-to-use digital camera for casual shooting and 4x6 prints without spending too much. The Nikon Coolpix L27 and L28 are two budget point & shoot digital cameras out of the 17 models that Nikon launched around a month ago. The L27 has a 16.1 megapixel sensor, which is a common feature these days. At a whopping 20.1 megapixel, the L28 has the highest resolution in its class.
To top all that off, the L28 takes 2x AA batteries to power it. The batteries slot into the bottom of the Nikon Coolpix L28 along with the memory card and the physical size of them is what makes the bulge in the front. The 5x optical zoom lens sits flush into the body next to the batteries, so that it's more centrally located on the body. A small flash is located in the far reaches of the camera's corner. The top plate has been kept minimal with only two buttons that control power and the shutter. The latter has a zoom ring wrapped around it which, when tested, we found it to be a little unresponsive.
The back of the Nikon Coolpix L28 has been reserved for all the other buttons. The 3 inch LCD screen sits slightly to the left to make more space for the buttons. At the top is a dedicated video record button which will start video recording at any time without having to select the video mode first. Below this are two buttons: The left button opens up a small menu which will scroll through the afore-mentioned auto modes. The icon of a lady is for the Scene modes, of which there are 18. The icon will change when a different mode is chose.
The Main menu is split into three sections: Camera, Video and Setup. The Camera section only has four options for resolution, white-balance, burst mode and colour options with no ISO setting. The white-balance has a manual setting to it. The Video section has only two options for resolution and focus modes. The Setup menu is by far the most expansive with 17 options from formatting the card.
The L28 isn't built for speed and in the standard continuous shooting mode, it can take around 0.6fps. The biggest problem is afterwards as the camera processes the images and saves them to memory. It takes another 25 seconds just to do that. The other two continuous shooting modes are BSS and Multi-Shot 16 which will drop the resolution to 5 megapixel, take 16 shots in a second and save them all as one image as a tile effect. Start up time from cold is a little faster than the average of 2 seconds at around 2.3sec. That's with the camera getting switched on, focusing and taking a picture.
Pressing the blue arrow button will take you into the Nikon Coolpix L28's playback function. The images are full screen with the shooting information around the edges of the screen. After a few seconds, the info automatically turns off. The information is the basics such as the date, time, image number, position on the card , resolution and battery power. The amount of information can be altered in the Main menu under Monitor settings. Zoom out and the images will become thumbnails so you can navigate faster, but the images are obviously harder to see.
In the box, along with the camera you get a couple of AA batteries, USB cable and wrist strap. The documentation consists of a warranty card and quick start guide. It's in multiple languages, so don't dissuaded by it's size. The full manual comes on the CD that's also in the box. The CD also holds ViewNX 2, a simple editing and tagging software program, powered by ArcSoft, for your computer.
The user interface of the L28 is pretty straightforward. The lack of too many controls explains this camera is for those who want a no-nonsense point-and-shoot. Even if you’re a novice, you’ll get used to this camera in a matter of minutes. Most probably you won’t need to refer to the user manual at all.
Price: 5950/-INR
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