Product Reviews

The average price of a digital camera continues to fall, but few of the big manufacturers venture far below £100. Nikon is an exception, with three models currently available for less than £80. The L14 is the latest and most highly specified, with a 7.1 megapixel sensor and 2.4in screen. The plastic body and use of AA batteries are more in keeping with the budget price, but the former keeps the weight down and the latter gives long life. Nikon claims 1000 shots using a pair of AA Lithium batteries, and we managed 779 from high-capacity nickel metal hydride (NiMH) cells. This is partly because the screen dims after five seconds of inactivity, but that didn't pose a problem in use.

There's

ADVERTISEMENT

a straightforward collection of controls, with the navigation pad doubling as buttons for the flash, self-timer, macro and exposure compensation. A Menu button reveals resolution, white balance, continuous mode and colour options (such as black and white), but that's it for photographic controls. There are no ISO (sensitivity), metering or focus options, and no manual focus or exposure. These aren't significant drawbacks in a basic point-and-shoot camera. Face detection is available, but it's slow to track faces and only affects focus, not exposure. The L14 is pretty slow to switch on and take a picture, too, but performance is otherwise acceptable at around 2.5 seconds between shots, or one second in continuous mode.

Casual users on a tight budget may be happy with a restricted set of controls and middling performance, but they shouldn't settle for mediocre image quality. Sadly, the L14's pictures were borderline. In bright lighting, it took well-exposed photos with pleasing colours and reasonably sharp detail. But most indoor shots without the flash suffered from high levels of noise or blur due to long exposures, and sometimes both.

The L14 is a decent camera, but Nikon's 6 megapixel L11 and Panasonic's LS60 (see pages 122-125) cost even less and take better photos.