Nikon's new L10, L11 and L12 Coolpix take it low-end

Nikon is beefing up its L Series ("L" stands for life, dontchaknow) and while the specs pale in comparison to some of Nikon's other new offerings, there's plenty to love here for the point-and-shoot set. The L10, L11 and L12 sport 5, 6 and 7.1 megapixel CCDs respectively, with 3x Zoom-Nikkor lenses and a full quality movie mode. The L10 and L11 can muster a mere ISO 800, and the 2-inch LCD on the L10 is positively cro-magnon, but the L11 picks it up a bit with 2.4-inches. We wouldn't be caught dead with anything less than the L12, which adds in optical image stabilisation, a 2.5-inch LCD and ISO 1600, but the $120, $150 and $200 price tags make all of these compact shooters quite tempting to the low-frills, no-budget types. All three should be available near the beginning of March.

Gallery: Nikon's new L10, L11 and L12 Coolpix take it low-end

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[Brian @ Feb 20th 2007 12:14AM]

A high ISO on a camera isn't necessarily a good thing. Increasing sensitivity (using ISO 1600 vs. ISO 800, for example) can often add a ton of unwanted noise to an image. Unless the camera has a lot of high-end stuff in it to handle the noise, a high ISO isn't always such a great thing.

[Ky @ Feb 20th 2007 4:21PM]

"...quite tempting to the low-frills, no-budget types. "

Do you by any chance mean the "no-frills, low-budget types"?

[matt @ Feb 20th 2007 9:47PM]

although the first commenter is correct in that most camera's have a large amount of noise at high ISOs, Nikon has done wonders with high ISO technology. the D200, for example, has literally no visible noise at ISO 3200. Yes, this is only a consumer camera, not a pro DSLR, but Nikon is very quick to implement higher end tech into it's digicams. Vibration Reduction is a good example of this.