Is the Nikon L840 any good?
Or should I just get the Canon SX410 or SX400?
Among the cameras in that category, I would say the Nikon Coolpix S9900 has an advantage of having manual controls.
No. Yes.
My guess is your choices are based totally on cost.
Here is a link that shows how those cameras features compare, head to head.
You will notice that the Nikon has features the Canon cameras do not.
* Built-in wireless with NFC (can be controlled by a smart mobile phone)
* Has a much higher number of shots that can be taken on fresh batteries (590 for the Nikon vs under 200 with either Canon)
* The Nikon can shoot in Full HD video with stereo sound, the two Canons are limited to HD and mono sound only
* If you like to machine gun your subjects, the Nikon can shoot continuously up to 7.4 fps… The Canons under 1 fps
Spend some time on the Nikon and Canon websites to learn more about each cameras features and then spend your money buying what you want, NOT us
At this level, Canon are mediocre, and Nikon are dire.
Take off your blinkers and look at Fujifilm, but ignore any bridge camera without a viewfinder - the Canon/Nikon debate may've started among pros (a law unto themselves), but idiots picked it up and ran with it.
They're all pretty bad. Canon and Nikon make these point-&-shoot cameras to look similar to a real dslr, but they're just point-&shoot cameras. The sensors that are in these cameras are very, very small - similar to what's in a smartphone. So don't expect your image quality to be much better if at all.
"Any good" is a very subjective term. For most here who use real DSLRs, the answer is absolutely not! But, for those coming from using just a smartphone or a small pocket camera, then it's an imporvement. So where it's any good depends on your needs and expectations.
I can say that 99.99% of those who buy these super-zoom cameras never use the zoom. Oh sure, they'll take pictures of the Moon and things far away. However, once you've done that, there's little to no need for a 20x-60x zoom lens. Plus, the longer the zoom, the lower the image quality. To make things worse, as you zoom out, the lens looses its ability to capture light and your shutter speeds become slower. This forces the camera to use a higher ISO because your shutter speeds need to fast enough to hand-hold the camera at 700-1,000mm otherwise you get blurry pictures due to camera shake. You just don't need anything beyond 5-10x zoom.
All cameras can only be as good as their user.