Nikon Coolpix L11

Full review

You shouldn't ignore budget cameras just because of the price tag -- some offer surprisingly good picture quality for very little money. The Nikon Coolpix L11 is one such camera, a 6-megapixel point-and-shoot that produces very acceptable pictures, with a price tag of less than £90.

Design
With its simple, relatively compact design, the Coolpix L11 won't win any beauty contests. Its control scheme is direct and simple, with a large joypad and buttons that feel comfortable even for big-thumbed users. The mode slider and zoom rocker feel rather narrow, but they can still be manipulated easily.

The 176g, 28mm-thick, plastic-bodied camera uses two AA batteries for flexible power. While alkalines are plentiful enough, we recommend buying a set of rechargeable NiMH batteries instead. If you plan on shooting with any regularity, these more expensive, rechargeable batteries will pay for themselves very quickly.

Features
Given the sub-£100 price tag, the Coolpix L11 is clearly designed for the frugal rather than the fancy. The 6-megapixel camera sports a 37.5mm-to-112.5mm-equivalent 3x zoom lens and a relatively small 61mm (2.4-inch) LCD screen. While its hardware hardly impresses, however, the camera offers some surprisingly useful features.

The L11 includes Nikon's In-Camera Red-Eye Fix and Face-Priority AF. In-Camera Red-Eye Fix supplements the camera's red-eye reduction flash mode with a processing system that removes red-eye after the photo is taken. Face-Priority AF detects and tracks faces in photos, and adjusts focus to stay on those faces, instead of just the closest subject. Both features come standard on most Nikon Coolpix cameras, but are still handy for casual shooting.

You should probably steer clear of the L11 if you want a great deal of control over your photos. Like most budget cameras, the L11 automates almost every aspect of its operation. Besides white balance, exposure compensation and a handful of scene presets, you can't change any image settings on the camera. Despite these few options, the L11 does offer a manual white balance, granting slightly more flexibility than most budget cameras' presets.

Performance
For such an inexpensive camera, the L11 shoots surprisingly quickly, outperforming even its bigger brother, the Coolpix L12. After only a 1.8-second wait from pressing the power button to taking the first shot, the camera could snap off a new photo every 2.2 seconds with the flash turned off. That wait increased to 4.6 seconds with the onboard flash turned on.

The shutter felt responsive with our high-contrast target, lagging only 0.7 seconds. It performed significantly worse with our low-contrast target, lagging 2.2 seconds. Burst mode also performed admirably for a budget camera, taking 14 full-resolution photos in 9.2 seconds for a rate of 1.5 frames per second.

Shooting speed (in seconds)
(Shorter bars indicate better performance)

Typical shot-to-shot time

Time to first shot

Shutter lag (typical)

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W35

1.7

1.4

0.4

Samsung S850

2.1

2.1

0.5

Nikon Coolpix L11

2.2

1.8

0.7

Olympus FE-230

2.4

2.5

0.9

Nikon Coolpix L12

2.4

2.5

0.7

Image quality
Besides its decent performance, the L11 offers very good image quality for a budget camera. Its lens produced only minimal distortion, with telephoto shots coming out nearly distortion-free and wide-angle shots manifesting only minor barrel distortion around their edges.

Since the camera lacks manual ISO controls, we couldn't perform our full regimen of noise tests. What we did see, though, impressed us. Whether outside under partly cloudy skies or inside under tungsten and fluorescent lights, the L11's shots stayed almost devoid of noise. While some minor image artefacts crept up around fine details such as small-print text, the majority of the camera's pictures came out clear and crisp.

Conclusion
With relatively quick performance and surprisingly nice photos, the Nikon Coolpix L11 makes a fine choice for anyone looking for a simple, inexpensive camera. Its few manual settings will disappoint more advanced photographers, but as a basic, affordable point-and-shoot it's enjoyable to use.

If manual controls are extremely important to you, consider the Samsung S850. It's more expensive than the budget-priced L11, but it's still one of the most affordable cameras available with manual exposure controls.

Additional editing by Nick Hide