Design
If there was a phrase to encapsulate the feeling that overcomes us when being presented with yet another camera, engulfed in black, black and more black, we'd be inserting it here. On the top of the L100, there's muted metal tones that surround the power and shutter button, while the rest of the buttons at the back are black plastic to complete the goth-like look. There's a finger rest at the very top right-hand corner, nicely textured to provide adequate grip.
The L100 is definitely a superzoom from the outside and has the form factor of a very compact dSLR at 355g and measures 7.2x11x7.8cm. It sits comfortably in one hand, and is smaller than the "proper" superzoom of the Nikon range, the P90.
Features
Unlike its older, more advanced cousin the P90, the L100 doesn't have as much control over shooting modes. In fact, there's next to no control (don't expect shutter, aperture, manual or program priority here), instead you're presented with a selection of scene modes, movie mode and two automatic settings (fully auto or auto with some overrides).
The 3-inch LCD screen takes up most of the space at the back of the camera. (Credit: Nikon)
This camera is an alluring choice not only for its relatively compact size, but because it still has the punch of a 15x optical zoom, with a 28mm wide-angle lens and a 10-megapixel sensor. At the top, above the lens unit, is a pop-up flash (note there is no hotshoe) and the camera is capable of achieving up to 13 frames per second in burst/continuous mode.
The L100 uses four AA batteries which are loaded on the underneath right-hand side of the camera, giving a muscular, weighty feel to the body. There is no optical or electronic viewfinder, so the 3-inch LCD screen is all the more welcome.
Performance and image quality
The L100 has a couple of performance issues, most notably in regards to its autofocus. It was particularly slow, especially when we tried to lock onto a subject at close range and also when we were attempting to take shots in portrait mode.
Another issue was the lack of manual control, especially over the ISO. This means we had no way of testing how well the camera coped with noise except for observing shots taken on automatic settings. At an automatic ISO selection of 400 on a macro shot, there was a considerable amount of noise at full magnification. Colour saturation was relatively good, but a lot of the time the sensor blew out highlights in high contrast areas, so significant areas of detail were lost. The lens also displayed a moderate amount of barrel distortion at its widest end, just like the P90 did.
The burst shooting in sports mode was good but after having seen it in action before on the S630 we weren't particularly impressed, mostly because we only managed to squeeze out 29 shots in succession (at a lower 3-megapixel resolution), which fell just short of Nikon's quoted 30 frames.
Furthermore, in movie mode the L100 limits the extent to which you can use the optical zoom — we'd approximate it is only equivalent to about 3x when filming.
Conclusion
The L100 sits in a curious position amongst the superzoom crowd. It faces stiff competition from one of its own Nikon stable mates, the P90, which boasts a longer 24x optical zoom. It's also one of the only cameras currently available in that intermediate zoom range — from 12x to 15x optical zoom. Against the P90 it wins the battle on price, but in terms of control, the P90 is the clear favourite. Buy the L100 if all you want is a long zoom range with full automation — just don't expect the camera to be able to grow with you.
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