Wait! Don't Buy Just Any Digital Camera Till You Read This
Posted on 04. Jun, 2009 by chris campbell in Photography
I'm a firm believer in the power of choice. Choice in cars, choice in cable providers, choice in which movies I watch, and choice in how I live my life. Freedom of choice is in our constitution and charter of rights. I'm also a firm believer in keeping things simple, and there is such a thing as too much choice. Take digital cameras for instance. As of today, Amazon has 3,859 digital cameras (and accessories) listed ranging in price from $24,995.00 all the way down to $40.99. That's not choice, that's a frackin' nightmare!
The LCD on the A560 leaves plenty of room for improvement, especially when it comes to resolution and color reproduction. If your indoors and just looking to frame your subjects then the LCD is adequate. Outdoors can be problematic. The LCD is far too grainy to help with focusing your picture, and unless your shooting on a cloudy day, this PowerShots LCD will be pretty washed out. Fortunately, Canon had the sense to include an optical viewfinder with the A560. It gives you a better option for those sunny days.
Next, draw up a short list of the most important features for you. Here's a few to choose from. Megapixels (at least 5 or 6). Image sensor size (bigger is better . . . not megapixels, that's different . . . if the salesperson can't answer this, find another salesperson). Zoom lens (anything more than 12x or 70mm and you'll probably need a SLR). LCD screen (at least 2.5 inches and 230,000 pixels).
There are a few things I think about when looking for a digital camera. Some of them are here. Image stabilization (great for shaking hands and slow ISO settings). Face detection / auto focus ( not essential, but could save a few bad pictures). Battery performance (most cameras give a rating based on number of pictures you can take with one set of batteries). Flash recharge time (slow recharge times can result in missed pictures).
A typical complaint with pretty much every camera in this price range, and even $100 more, is the big lag time between taking pictures. Primarily caused by the flash recharging, and the camera taking a long time to save the last photo to the memory card. You can get faster memory cards, and stronger batteries, but they won't make much of a difference. Some of the faster memory cards cost almost as much as the Nikon Coolpix L11. Your better off just getting a better camera.
As if I haven't given you enough reasons to stay away from buying a Nikon Coolpix L11, here's a few more to ponder. Main settings dial is too small and susceptible to operator error. Night pictures or low light pictures turn out very grainy. The flash is not effective beyond a range of six feet. USB connector cable is non standard (micro USB). Older model Coolpix 2100 actually performs better. Color accuracy suffers on indoor pictures.
Have I said yet, that you get what you pay for. It's a truism with the L11, but that may be OK for you. I've heard from one customer, who only used disposable cameras, but didn't have enough room to pack 10 of them for an extended vacation. Their solution, was to buy a Nikon Coolpix L11. For the price, it does make a pretty nice disposable camera. Just so long, as you know what your getting, that's all that really matters. It wouldn't be my first choice in digital cameras, but for your purposes it may be just fine.
