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Review of Nikon Coolpix L110 digital camera

September 6, 2010 By Michael R Erb Leave a Comment
Nikon Coolpix L110 digital camera

Nikon Coolpix L110

Several months ago I purchased the Nikon Coolpix L110 camera. Since then I’ve taken thousands of photos and hundreds of videos with the camera. It has proven to be quite a capable camera in its price range with many strengths and few weaknesses.

Specifically regarding strengths of this camera, the Macro mode is fantastic. If you enjoy taking close-up photos of flowers, bugs, fine detail of artwork, etc, you will enjoy this camera as it takes excellent macro photographs and allows you to get extremely close to your subject. The L110 also has an amazing 15x optical zoom. A 15x zoom is equivalent to a 420mm lens and this lets you really zoom in tightly which makes it great for wildlife photography, travel, sports and nature photography. Image stabilization helps you get those zoomed shots by helping reduce hand-held camera shake. Don’t forget to turn off image stabilization if you are using a tripod. Image stabilization is only to be used when hand-holding the camera.

THE 720p HD video capture of the L110 is surprisingly good. While most camcorders in the under $300 price range only provide mediocre at best still photography capabilities, the L110 which provides excellent still photographs also produces excellent HD video. The larger form factor of the L110 makes taking videos a lot easier too compared to holding a smaller camcorder.

On the not so great side the L110 audio quality leaves a lot to be desired. And low light performance, particularly video, is not very good. In low-light situations you will see a lot of graininess in the video and the frame rate seems to drop as well. Still photography is possible in lower light situations since the camera does have a flash. But if you are looking for manual control of your camera’s aperture, shutter and ISO, you will be disappointed in the L110 as there is little manual control available.

I’ve posted a fairly complete review of the L110 on Amazon. If you read my review on Amazon, be sure you also read the comments as many people have asked questions that I’ve attempted to answer as best I can. A lot of information not in the review is presented in the comments. I have also produced this hands-on video review.

Here are some representative photos taken with the Nikon Coolpix L110…

Filed Under: Featured, Product Reviews, Video Reviews

Review of Planet Bike Superflash Tail Light

August 21, 2010 By Michael R Erb Leave a Comment


When I’m cycling, I’m most concerned about traffic coming up from behind me. I want to do all I can to ensure that distracted motorists will be able to easily see me. To help make sure this happens, I always use a tail light.

One of the best tail lights I’ve found for cycling is the Planet Bike Superflash tail light. It is extremely bright and can easily be seen even in bright daylight. At dawn or dusk, it is incredibly noticeable.

Typically the light will be mounted on your seat post or attached to the back of an under-seat bag. It runs on 2-AAA batteries and battery life is excellent. I easily get a season out of one set of batteries. It’s diminutive size belies it’s amazing performance. The superflash is about $20 and available from Amazon.com

Here is my complete video review of the Planet Bike Superflash Tail Light…

Filed Under: Cycling, Featured, Video Reviews

Review of Ultra Light Bike Mirror by D+D Oberlauda

June 23, 2010 By Michael R Erb Leave a Comment

I have a love/hate relationship with cycling mirrors. Most of the ones I’ve tried, and I’ve tried quite a few over the years, just haven’t worked out well. I think I’ve finally found one that works pretty well and is fairly flexible in where it can be mounted.

On my road bike I found three areas where it seemed to be good. I mounted the mirror in three different locations; At the end of the bottom of the bars, around the brake hoods and just below the brake hoods on the handlebar. My video review will demonstrate these three positions.

The mirror is very light, weighing about 2 oz. The light weight of the mirror makes it less prone to vibrating. The mirror surface is convex which results in a distorted view and that makes it hard to judge distances using the mirror. However the convex shape gives you a wide angle of view and seeing approaching vehicles is much easier with this type of mirror.

I paid about $25 from Performance Bike and think it’ll do the trick for me.

Some of the other mirrors I’ve tried but didn’t like for various reasons were the…

CycleAware Reflex Mirror: This is a helmet mount mirror and it vibrated quite a bit. Also, it was always getting whacked out of shape when I’d take my helmet off. I found it difficult to adjust and the mirror gives a very small field of view. It takes some getting used to.

Blackburn Road Mirror: This mirror has a bracket that mounts over the brake hood. I didn’t like it. The mirror vibrated and the extra thickness around the brake hood just bothered me.

Everyone will have their preference, but right now I like the Ultra Light bike Mirror by D+D Oberlauda. I got mine at Performance Bike.

Here is my video review…

Filed Under: Cycling, Featured, Video Reviews

Sylvania Light Flute – LED task light

February 3, 2010 By Michael R Erb 11 Comments

Sylvania light fluteOsram Sylvania Products Inc 72261 Led Light Flute – SilverWhile strolling the aisles of BJ’s the other day, I discovered this great LED task light called the Light Flute. It’s made by Sylvania and it is just one of the coolest LED lights I”ve seen. What makes it so great is its overall design and functionality.

The case of the light is made of anodized aluminum which is light and strong. It feels very sturdy and the end-cap unscrews to reveal the 3-AAA batteries that power 4-white LED lights. The innovative mounting base allows for several different mounting options… magnetic, adhesive and screw mounting.

The slender light is 8.5″ long and about the diameter of your little finger. It can be mounted just about anywhere and is great for mounting under your desk when trying to re-route cables. It could also be used as emergency lighting, as an under-counter light, closet lighting… the list could go on and on.

The Light Flutes were sold as packs of 2 for about $17 at BJ’s and are also available from Amazon.com.

I haven’t had them long enough to comment on how long the batteries will last, but LED lights are generally pretty efficient so I would expect a minimum of 10-12 hours of continuous light and perhaps much more. I’ll update this post once I have a better idea of battery life.

UPDATE: Several people have told me that they can’t figure out how to remove the cap in order to replace the batteries. I”ve made a short tutorial to demonstrate how to remove the cap. Here is a video of how to remove the end cap of the Sylvania Light Flute.

Filed Under: Featured, Gadgets, Product Reviews, Video Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,
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