Digital-Camera Reviews

This is a great product, and you can get it, along with any other products on Amazon up to $500 Free! Participate in a special promotion and get a free $500 Amazon Gift Card at this web site: nocost4u.info/amazon

I bought the L4 as a gift for my young photobug nephew nephews to replace an older camera I'd bought for him a few years ago. He's delighted with it, and why not? It has excellent resolution (4MP), good color, Nikon quality, good battery life and easy to navigate menus. It uses AA cels, which means batteries are always available. As for me, I was happy with the excellent value for the price.

With 4MP resolution, this camera can easily produce images that can be blown up to 8x10 or 11x14- more than enough to satisfy 99% of the camera buyers out there. If you never blow up pictures beyond 4x6 or 5x7, you could pay two or trhee times as much and still not get better images. For web use, it's more than sufficient; you could crop away 80% of an image and still have more than enough resolution for a page-sized web image. Builders and others needing to document work will find it a useful accesory that can be kept at hand in a small belt pack.

About the only thing this camera doesn't have is instant shutter response, something that you still need to pay about $500 or so to get. But for general purpose family use, for kids learning photography, and even for the artist on a budget it's an excellent choice.

The only drawback was that the camera did not come with a carrying case. The only dissapointment was when I, much to my dismay, found out that the internal memory only holds 9 pictures. Otherwise, so far so good. My last camera was a Samsung 1 megapixel and it stopped working after a year so I bought the 4 year insurance plan just because I am a bit jaded after that experience. No matter how many megapixels camera you order, keep in mind that you will have to edit the size in order to email them to people. So, the mega, megapixel cameras appear to appeal to those people who will actually print the pics or view them on their TV's. When I tried to upload some pics to myspace and yahoo mail and I discovered that I had to edit the size of the pics down to 50%; each and every one. good luck.

I was looking at a more expensive camera but was recommended the Nikon Coolpix L4. I am so glad I took the advice and bought it. The Nikon Coolpix L4 is a great value. It is simple to use and has all the basic functions you could want. Try it you'll like it.

I only bought this because I lost the charger that came with my camera. It has a "fold out" AC power plug that makes it easy to pack for trips and does it's job well. It's simple and charges fairly quickly, just like it's supposed to.
Nice to have a device that does it's job well and that's it.

the charger charges the batteries just as the original that came with my camera does. The battery doesn't seem to last very long and doesn't work when it is very cold but that probably has nothing to do with the charger.

This is a great product, and you can get it, along with any other products on Amazon up to $500 Free! Participate in a special promotion and get a free $500 Amazon Gift Card at this web site: nocost4u.info/amazon

i bought this second hand off someone on ebay, this thing keeps messing up, i have to keep formatting it every two seconds which erases all the data that i put on it!!

I am not at all pleased that Amazon charged me for the return shipping of this item.

I packaged the item and paid for the shipping at my post office. I did not use your return sticker with the postage included.

I have contacted you regarding this overage and to date I have not recieved a response.

I am not happy and due to this incident I will probably not order through you again.

My sister and I like our camera cases ok. They are a tad bulky but do the job.

I needed a case for my Nikon Coolpix L1 and this case was the perfect fit. I had read reviews that it would be too small but I didn't run into that problem. The camera fits great and there is room in the extra pocket for a set of back-up batteries. I was very satisfied.

It has work flawlessly since I received it. No problems yet.

I bought this card for use with a PSP and it works great. Not much else to say about it.

Listen carefully Sony hires SanDisk to make their MemorySticks so really your paying for the little painted letters S-O-N-Y. but if you like that sort of thing.

I'm a high school student and this lens is a little pricey, but I have found that this lens was totally worth the money. Based on the amount of time it spends on my camera alone, this lens was worth the money, but when you factor in the image quality, the good focal lengths, and the image stabilization, it becomes apparent that this lens was more than well worth the money. All focal lengths are sharp, and the zoom range is perfect. 28 is wide angle enough for most situations, and except for when you're shooting sports or wildlife etc., 135 is plenty of telephoto. Along with this, I have the 70-300mm IS (without diffractive optics) lens (which was another $400ish) and that covers almost the entire range one might need. This lens lives on my camera (VERY VERY VERY rarely comes off) and is terrific. If you don't have $1500 to spend on a lens, this is a high quality lens, for a moderate price and is highly recommended.

It is absolutely wonderful! The pictures you get from it are amazing and the IS feature really helps.

I've had this lens for a month or so now and I am extremely pleased with it. In all lighting situations it has performed excellent. The IS really does make a pretty noticable difference. It was well worth it.

This is a great product, and you can get it, along with any other products on Amazon up to $500 Free! Participate in a special promotion and get a free $500 Amazon Gift Card at this web site: nocost4u.info/amazon

I bought this recorder for recording my music jam sessions (frown if you want all you geeks with high-end Boss and Edirol stuff). I spent over two months researching to find the cheapest recorder that recorded highest quality possible for live music recording. This was it. I recorded live from the built-in mics, I also recorded using my Mackie mixer's stereo output and plugged it directly into the mic jack (had to turn my mixer's output way, WAY down!) I burned CD's of my recording and passed them around to my friends. Hands down, this was the cheapest way to get the word out. Who cares it wasn't 24 bit 96 kHz pro recording? You can't find anything to do that under 400 bucks. Get this, get a WMA to MP3 converter (you may already have it) and you can upload your songs to whoever, etc. etc.

Now for the bad news. It's so small, I lost it. I used to carry it around in my waist pouch. I used it all the time. Recorded my music lessons, on-the-spot song ideas, and so on. It must have gotten dropped off somewhere inadvertantly. After looking for it for a couple of months, I'm afraid I have to buy another one. I can't live without it. Or, maybe they'll up the specs to 48kHz stereo and higher frequency response for the same price (I can dream, can't I?)

Out of the box this pocketsize digital voice recorder by Olympus lets you record over 8 hours of material, however you can tweak things to get more juice out of it. Still, if you want to record interviews (for instance) for later semi-professional use (or even re-use, as in the case of an audio podcast) this little one MORE than does the trick. And when you are ready, just plug it into a USB port in your computer and pull the audio files from it much like you would from any other portable storage device.

So far, I've only encountered one "issue" with it (and it's not something you cannot circumvent easily by throwing the files at a file conversion utility). It generates WMA files for every audio track it creates. Since I could care less about these Microsoft audio formats (I prefer my audio tracks to be in MP3 or AAC formats), I ended up tossing the files into iTunes, which did a nice job of converting them back into MP3s. Other than this minor inconvenience, getting this d.v. recorder/player has been nothing but joy!

I agree with most of the positive reviews people have written here. This is a very good phone. However, there's more you need to know before you shell out your hard-earned cash for this phone.

First, I will describe negative things that other reviewers have not adequately covered. I do not mean to discourage you, but just to help you know what you're getting into. Then, I will share some tips I've learned that will help you get more from your phone, and maybe save a few bucks.

Yes, the phone has tons of features, but using most of them costs extra.

For example, to use the built-in MP3 player, you must do one of the following two things:

1) Purchase songs from VCAST ($1.99 per song!!! Twice as much as iTunes!)

2) Move songs from your computer to the phone, which requires that you purchase a $30 "Music essentials kit". This kit contains a USB cable, drivers, and stereo earphones.

If you want to use your own stereo earphones or headset, you must purchase a $15 adapter from Verizon, because the built-in earphone jack is not the standard size.

Enough about the MP3 player, let's talk about the videos. You can download music videos and clips from your favorite TV shows (and there are MANY TV shows with clips available). This is especially good for shows like The Daily Show and Colbert Report, because a 2 minute clip contains something complete. With a show like Lost or Desperate Housewives, a 2-minute clip is not really enough. The quality of these video clips is impressive for a phone. But here's the rub: To use this feature of the phone, you have to pay an extra monthly fee ($15 for the most common plan), PLUS an extra fee for each music video!!!

The phone has a web browser that is similar in quality and functionality to the web browsers on most phones. Using it will cost you an extra $5/month, or "free" if you have the $15/month VCAST subscription.

The selection of ringtones included with the phone is PATHETIC. This is LG's most expensive phone, it really should have more ringtones (and less embarrassing ones!). Of course, you can download ringtones from Verizon's "Get It Now" service - for an extra fee. And if you read the fine print, you are not BUYING these extra ringtones - you are RENTING them - you have to pay the fee once every year to keep using the ringtones you download! Ripoff.

Here's one more negative:

The screen on the front of the phone, while of course much smaller than the main screen when you open the phone, still has plenty of room to show useful information when the phone is closed. However, when someone calls you, their caller ID information only appears on the bottom line of this display - and in a VERY small font. While I don't encourage anyone to use their phone while driving, let's face it, most people do. And this makes it hard for people to see who's calling them while they are driving. (Or working out at the gym, or doing whatever.)

I've described a lot of negatives or extra costs here, and I don't mean to make you think this isn't a great phone. It really is a great phone.

And the thing about the extra costs is not unique to this phone or to Verizon. Most hi-end phones from most carriers have similar extra costs for using their fancy features. Unfortunately, most reviews of these phones don't give the prospective buyer a sense of the true costs of buying and using these phones.

I've learned some cool things about this phone that can save you a few bucks. Much of this applies to other phones, as well.

First, this phone has Bluetooth. If your Windows computer has bluetooth (most laptops come with it), download the free program "bitpim" (google to find it). Bitpim lets your phone communicate with your PC. For example, you can edit your phone's address book on your PC. I find it much easier to use my PC to add email addresses to each of my contacts than to enter their email addresses on the phone. You can also import any JPG photo from your PC into Bitpim, which will transfer it to your phone. I love the photo caller ID feature of the VX8300 (which most mid-range to high-end phones have), and bitpim makes it easy to get lots of photos on the phone. Bitpim also compresses the photo and lets you crop it so that it is the right size for your phone's LCD screen, and doesn't take up much of your phone's memory. Bitpim is a reliable program, free of spy-ware and viruses, and will not mess up your computer or phone!

Next, ringtones. There are several web-based services that allow you to create your own ringtone from any song in your collection of music CDs or MP3/AAC/WMA files. You upload the song, and the service allows you to select exactly which portion of the song to use as your ringtone; then the service emails the ringtone to your phone. Most of these services charge $1.50 per ringtone, which is less than Verizon charges for their ringtones.

The service I recommend is called MYXERTONES.com, because they start you off with two free ringtones, and only charge $6 to buy 5 ringtones. They also give you other options for getting more free ringtones. And they don't put spyware on your computer or phone, or have pop-up ads.

Another tip. Get a microSD card, but don't buy it from Verizon!

If your computer has a card reader, you can load photos and MP3s directly onto the card from your computer, then install the card into the phone. Card readers are cheap - Amazon and Best Buy have a variety of inexpensive ones.

Do not buy the microSD card from Verizon - they charge WAY TOO MUCH!!! For example, Verizon charges $50 for a 512kb card. I just purchased a 1GB card from an online retailer for $20 after rebate.

If you want to use your phone to listen to songs, the phone's internal memory will only hold a couple songs, so you really need this card to use the phone's MP3 player functionality.

Last tip: Some reviewers have said this phone will only play songs in the WMA format. That is what the manual says. However, you can set the phone to play MP3 files as well, using an undocumented command. To do this, press OK (to access the main menu), then press 0, then enter all 0s for the service code, then scroll down to "music settings" and select "MP3 Enable". Don't worry that this feature is undocumented, you won't mess up your phone, I promise! Me and lots of other people have done this.

Why would Verizon hide the fact that this phone can play MP3 files? My guess is that Verizon probably has a commercial arrangement with Microsoft, which gets a fee every time you purchase a song in WMA format. Verizon has designed the phone so that you have to use Microsoft Windows Media Player 10 to manage and transfer music to your phone, and Windows Media Player 10 has one-button access to an online music store that sells songs in WMA format.

I got this phone as a gift for my birthday. It is my first cell phone (never had much use for one), and it looks rather expensive. People have already noticed my phone and asked to look at it. The features are great and the setup was easy. I didn't consult my manual more than a couple of times. The only downside is the awful ringtones. I had to pay a couple of bucks and now my phone rings to AC/DC's "Back in Black."

So it's time for a new phone. I see tons of ads for the Razr and it sounds like a heck of a phone so that is the first phone I check out. Hmmm, looks great, very stylish. But, I don't care for the way it feels in my hand. So I go online and start checking out reviews for it and other phones. Someone suggest the LG VX8300. I check this out. Wow!! It may not look quite as stylish as the Razr but it's a great, feature packed phone. And the reviews tend to be much better than the ones for the Razr. So I got the VX8300 and couldn't be happier with it.

Yes, Verizon cripples it in numerous ways but there is lots of info on the net to get around this. I love this phone. Great reception, call quality, music sounds decent considering the size of the twin speakers. The odd size headphone jack is a problem but Amazon sells a Headphone Adapter for $3.99.

The 1.3mp camera is great compared to older phones with vga. No, it won't replace your brand new 7mp camera but the pictures are clear and look good.

The phone comes with mp3 playback disabled but it is simple to enable. Follow the instructions given by Ron in his review. It works and doesnt harm your phone in any way.

Get the micro-sd card.There are many places you can get a card at a much lower price than Verizon. With it you can transfer music and pictures from your pc to your phone and vice-versa. You can also play your videos from your pc but you will need a conversion program. I use "3gp converter". Search the net for it. Put the videos on your flash card and show your home movies away from home. Keep in mind that the screen is tiny and not meant for a large audience. But it's great for its size.

Yes, the ringtones that come with the phone leave much to be desired. There are many ways to get new ones, both free and paid. Once again, search the net.

[...].

These filters were very inexpensive. I got three. Two of them seem alright, not as clear as I would like, but sufficient for lens protection. The third clearly had something wrong with its threads cause it just wouldn't screw on straight.

It is better to save the camera's real lens which can be replaced with this filter being broken than the expensive lens behind it. This is a real "lens saver".

I get at least a UV filter for all my lenses. That's the cheapest insurance you can get for you lense. Protect it from possible scratches and banging against objects. Haven't really seen a major difference between the brand filter and the Tiffen filter. I would just go with the cheapest filter to be found for you lens.