1 Easy to use with average results
Overall an average camera. I would expect more from a trusted name like Nikon. At times, photos come out over-exposed. Generally, images are sharp and clear. Camera is light-weight and very easy to operate. Camera must be held still to get the sharpest photos. Sometimes daylight shots come out grainy. A good camera if your expectations are not too high.
2 Miserable camera from great manufacturer
I got this for my wife based on my extensive experience with Nikon's pro gear. It is a complete and unmitigated failure. All shots are over-exposed. Lens is not sharp. Tons of flare in adverse lighting situations. You have to teach yourself to hold the camera steady for a good long time to allow the (slower than molasses in January) autofocus to lock onto the subject. Once it is done acquiring what it feels is critical focus it renders perfectly out of focus pictures every time. It appears to focus five feet in front of the object. Close up pictures are off center and the parallax adjust in the viewfinder does not adequately compensate. I own a rangefinder camera so I am aware how to use this feature, it just does not yield accurate results on this camera. This camera is a bad train accident. I had no idea that Nikon was capable of such a travesty. It is not clear how some of the early reviews of this product were positive. Either the reviewers had different samples and Nikon changed their production technique (substituting ED glass with coke bottle bottoms) or the reviewers were paid plants for Nikon USA or they lack any redeeming photographic skill. It is interesting that all recent reviews are abysmal. Nikon really dropped the ball here. The camera didn't have to be great to satisfy me; it simply takes horrible pictures and is in every way unacceptable.
3 Disappointed
I bought this camera expecting it to replace an olympus stylus epic zoom 80. The nikon had everything going for it: more zoom, a diopter adjustment for use without glasses, the nikon name, etc. After the first roll of film I discovered many of the pictures were very off center and I often had to press the button several times to get it to take a picture. I thought I could compensate for that with my 10+ years of hobby-photo experience, but after the second roll of film I realized it wasn't worth it. Even zoomed out it seemed that pictures were off center. Several times I missed the perfect picture because the camera didn't take the picture the first time I pressed the button. The graphic quality of the picture may be great but that doesn't make up for the off center composition and missed shots.
4 Not Nikon-like Quality
In spite of the ED glass lens, which is supposed to render superior colors, this camera is not any good. It seems unable to focus properly, except for when the infinity focus option is selected. Also, most shots from a couple of test rolls came out overexposed, even under unchallenging lighting conditions. Aesthetics and ergonomics are nice. Controls are intuitive and easy, but what good do they do on a camera that is otherwise useless? Yes, I know it is not an F4 but my advice is to look elsewhere. I thought I was going to replace my Olympus Stylus Epic. No way.
5 FORGET TAKING GOOD PICTURES!
This camera is the worst! I had a Pentax for years and was "sold" on this model at the store. Big mistake. Forget having crisp closeups except once every 14 or so photos. If you want big shots where the focus is on nothing this is the camera for you. I'm trading this one in for another Pentax IQZoom. Don't buy it - you'll regret it. It's so slow you'll miss some of those priceless "don't miss" moments.
6 EASY TO USE AND MANY OPTIONS
What a camera! It has many options - timer, red eye reduction, slow sync shutter (for night shots), date imprinting, panorama mode, infinity, wide-area, and close-up focus, and more! The 120 mm zoom is greater than most other cameras in its class. Nikon's ED lens technology produces sharp, brilliant photos. You can just point and shoot or use the focus, flash, and zoom options.
7 Forget close ups!
I purchased this camera on the recommendation of a camera store owner because of some special lens it supposedly has. It doesn't take any better pictures than other cameras I have owned and it is sooo difficult to get it to focus on anything! I had a baby recently and most of my early pictures of her are completely blurred because of this camera's inability to focus, especially close up. I'm going to return it and trade it for a Pentax which always takes close ups well. I agree with the shutter release delay everyone else is having a problem with also.
8 Great for a beginner
I'm a beginning photographer and I wasn't quite ready to buy a manual camera yet, but I wanted a quality camera. This camera came highly recommended from several sources, and so I decided to give it a try. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I have had no trouble with it and I have never experienced the problems that they described. I have taken some wonderful pictures with this camera and I do recommend it. It has gotten me ready to upgrade to a manual SLR 35mm camera.
9 "lite touch" makes it difficult
I had read some great reviews of this camera (on amazon)before I bought it, but now I see why the rating has changed from a 5star to a 3star. The lite touch seemed like an attractive feature, but its a pain. Its fine if you dont need to use the flash, but most of the time you have to keep clicking and watching an internal light go from green to red green to red. If you press for too long, you cant take the photo - if you dont press long enough, the photo opp. is gone (this has happened to me MANY times. Save the... dollars and go with a pentax.
10 misses every shot
To think that I sold my Yashica t4 super for this is truely depressing. When I use this camera, I push the shutter button at just the correct moment only to have the camera hesitate anywhere from 1/2 second - 5 seconds. Sometimes it never does take the photo. With the zoom extended, the problem worsens. My friend bought one also and has the identical problem. I am now online to buy a replacement after only 3 months with this dog. Honestly, its the worst possible camera you could buy. Its a shame to see a once great camera company- Nikon- produce such junk.
11 Perfect camera to blame for bad photos
I just want to echo some of the earlier comments about this hi-tech piece of junk. The shutter delay is about 1/3 to 1/2 of a second, guaranteeing that you'll miss every shot that's not a still landscape. And that's when you can get it to let you take a photo. As others have noted, sometimes it's difficult to get the camera to let you take a photo in the first place. My grandfather's instamatic of 35 years ago took much better pictures than this camera.
12 Horrible!!!
I got this camera as a gift after my fuji discovery was stolen last year. I was expecting my second child and not in the mood to take pictures until she was born 6months later. Needless to say I should have taken pictures with this camera sooner, because it was too late to return it! The pictures are horrible! The camera does not focus fast enough to capture those split second funny faces a newborn makes... I am very dissappointed in this camera. All of my pictures are blurry and of nothing significant. If I could I would return this camera in a heartbeat. I am now buying a new camera and giving this one to my three year old to "play with".
13 nikon 140 is a "not ready to take picture camera too")
I recently looked through your comments and decided on a Nikon despite the one comment about it being not ready to take shots. So, I got the Nikon 140 (very similar to the 120). I agree completely with the person who wrote about the 120 missing all of his shots. I tried the 140 at a graduation. I missed so many shots cause it couldn't focus. Another complaint - even when it did focus, the shutter delay was so extreme that the kid had left the podium before the shot was taken. I got lots of pictures of kids walking away from the podium. I'm going to look at the Pentax the other reviewer mentioned and the Minolta 150. The Nikon is going back to the store ASAP. I haven't even seen the pictures it takes but was so frustrated using it that I really don't even care how they turned out. I missed almost every shot I tried for anyway.
14 The "I'm not ready" camera
I just returned this camera after two weeks of usage. It was *much* worse than my last Pentax point & shoot. The autofocus on this camera is terrible--I probably missed 10 Christmas and son's birthday pictures because the autofocus claimed it couldn't focus. (In darker areas, it uses a dinky white light to try to focus with. It didn't work well.) The zoom is also slow and jerky. And the worst part is the huge delay between the time you push the shutter and it taking the picture. I missed several other photos because the camera took a picture after the action had ended. The flash reach and recharge time was also poor, though all the new point and shoots seem to take a long time to recharge the flash.
We just replaced this camera with a Pentax IQZoom 120SW. Better zoom, better autofocus, shorter shutter delay with about the same size and weight.
15 Great little p&s camera
This camera was recommended to me by my brother, who is a hobby photographer. He knew I didn't want to spend lots of money on an SLR camera and a bunch of lenses and accessories. It has turned out to be a great buy!
The pictures turn out great! You can really tell the difference that the ED glass makes. This camera has a shutter speed down to 2 seconds... nice for shooting night scenes on a tripod. The viewfinder is very clear and accurate. Battery life is great, even if you play with the zoom a lot. I get about 12 rolls of 24 exposures on each lithium CR123. There are a few features I don't use, such as panorama mode and time/date stamp. Also, there is an infrared remote available for about (dollar amount).
My last camera was an Olympus Stylus. This one edges it out slightly on image quality. I highly recommend this camera.
16 this might be important to some people
(...) (A local retailer's) website quotes, "Lens: 38mm f/5.3 - 120mm f/10.5, 7 elements in 5 groups (ED lens and aspherical lenses are used)."
17 A comment on the lens
I haven't tried the camera yet myself, but I did some research on it and wanted to make a comment on the lens.
Normally, I prefer point and shoots with lenses that don't exceed 3x, and preferably more like 2x, because with long telephoto range lenses there are just too many optical compromises that must be made, and that affects the sharpness of the lens.
However, this lens contains 6 elements in 6 groups, and most importantly, uses plastic aspherical components, a recent innovation in these cameras that is sure to make a difference. The new Minolta Freedom Zoom 125 also has this.
I am probably going to buy one of these little gems myself. For now I'm continuing to research the different compact point-and- shoot models out there, but if I had to make a decision right now, I'd go with this one, and I've probably looked at at least three dozen different cameras at this point.
18 Nikon Lite Touch 120
Just bought the camera, takes photos that are good as anything made by anyone, really cool camera, simple, well done, and beautifully designed, results really blew me away. The lens is ED, and it shows, this is a keeper. Just operating it, is fun, its very quiet and smooth as silk. Whatever you want to do, I think this camera will do it very well, cannot praise it enough. Have had many cameras in my lifetime, this is about one of the best and you dont go broke buying it, lots of applause to Nikon for the job they did one the Lite Touch 120.
19 Nikon Lite Touch 120
Just bought the camera, takes photos that are good as anything made by anyone, really cool camera, simple, well done, and beautifully designed, results really blew me away. The lens is ED, and it shows, this is a keeper. Just operating it is fun, its very quiet and smooth as silk. Whatever you want to do, I think this camera will do it very well, cannot praise it enough. Have had many cameras in my lifetime, this is about one of the best and you dont go broke buying it, lots of applause to Nikon for the job they did on the Lite Touch 120.
20 Great Quality with Compact Size
This is really cool camera I had never used before. I used 400 Kodac film to develop and I had took many places and many weather conditions. Every shot was fine and great. It's terrafic state of art creature of Nikon. If you would like to take a photos of your children with Nikon-quality, this is most nice choice, I think. P. S. Use 400 film.. It's important..... from the professional
