Comments on: Spending an afternoon with the Nikon Coolpix P6000

By: John B

John B — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:39:19 +0000

Just picked up one of these cameras — it takes great pictures. One thing I have noticed is that in low light situations a thin vertical red line is visible on the LCD, left of center. It does not appear in the pictures or in brighter lighting. Is this a normal thing for LCD preview? It’s not blooming from light sources.

By: Alan

Alan — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:29:03 +0000

The P6000 is an awesome camera. I can’t believe the quality of the lens. The pictures are tack sharp at all lens openings. I have a Nikon D80 with a 50mm 1.8, Nikon 18-105mm, Nikon 70-300mm VR, and a Tamron 2.8 17-50mm and none of them come close to the sharpness of the lens on the P6000. Incredible image quality. Learn the tricks on this camera and you’ll get fantastic results.

By: Mike CQ

Mike CQ — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:35:22 +0000

Nice review from. I shoot with the older D70s and the P6000 and must say I am very impressed with the P6000. The quality of the shots are great. Every now and then I shoot small objects in a lab and have done away with the D70s in favor of the P6000 with a flash off to the side and it works great. Never saw the need for the gps or ethernet cpnnection and got myself a regular charger as I carry a spare battery. One thing I have never seen mentioned is the MF (manual focus). This definitely needs a great deal of improvement. I was shooting small objects which had a depth of 3inches and resorted to the MF to get the surface of the object instead of the background. The MF has this little bar that goes up and down according to the dierction of the focus, but you cannot tell when you have achieved the desired focus, so it was trial and error (mostly error). Hopefully Nikon will come out with the next version an put in a MF that you can see what you are doing.

By: Film Camera Buff

Film Camera Buff — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:32:49 +0000

I truly like that particular camera. Yes, a good photo is not due to the type of camera, but how good one is at using it, but just the same, I know that I would definitely produce better photos if I bought one.

By: terrywhite

terrywhite — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:36:17 +0000

Gordon,
I have not tried the G10. The 3-5 second delay on the P6000 in RAW mode is BETWEEN shots, not the first shot. It’s the time it takes to transfer the image from the buffer to the card. All cameras have this kind of lag, it’s just that most other cameras have a bigger buffer allowing you to continue shooting while the images are being dumped to the card. So I would say that the P6000′s biggest problem is the size of its buffer when shooting in RAW.

By: Gordon Inkeles

Gordon Inkeles — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 04:13:36 +0000

Terry,

Have you tried the Canon G10? If so, how does it compare?

I want to be sure I understand this 5 second delay issue: must one wait 5 seconds to take any photo in RAW or is the wait BETWEEN photos?

Thanks for an interesting review.

By: BW

BW — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 17:58:37 +0000

I do like this little P&S. It really shines in the macro area, and works very well with my SB800. I might add that a firmware update from Nikon eliminates the battery drain that was an annoyance when using the P6000. I shoot with Nikon DSLRs daily, but love this little guy on trips and street shooting.

By: Steven

Steven — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 21:56:30 +0000

Being a Mac guy, I am really jazzed about GPS in iPhoto and (hopefully soon in Aperture). Any camera I buy from now on needs to have GPS. I agree about the control, I bought the Leica D-Lux 3 to get RAW and controls.

The problem I have with P&S (and the reason the Leica doesn’t come out more) is the small sensor and noise.

I am wondering if waiting for Micro Four Third cameras aren’t the answer to a compact carry around that can still hold a great pic. Any word on these?

By: Bob

Bob — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 16:48:13 +0000

Holy cr*p! Five seconds between shutter press and image capture? If that’s the case it’s not acceptable for some portraits. Heck, even landscapes can change in that time

I have to wonder if this is a technical limitation or a marketing decision.

FWIW, I agree with you (and just about everyone else) and have chosen Nikon SLRs and Canon p&s.

By: Mike V.

Mike V. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 15:17:53 +0000

I’m like you terry! All nikon pro dslr, but i cant stop using my Canon G10! It has taken some pictures that I sadly have to admit is on par with my D300/D700. Sad I know, but I would only expect a $500.00 p&s camera to do that right. Though now that I see Nikon has finally caught up on this level I might just have to try it out and see how that goes!

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 13:42:04 +0000

Yeah, the shutter lag on these advanced P&S’s is what kills it for me and I would prefer a Canon Rebel over the Canon G9 any day since I have used both and for the money, you can get a used Rebel and 28-135 IS zoom for close to the same money as the G10 (and you can shoot sports too!).

By: Erik

Erik — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:43:20 +0000

Great review. Look like a decent camera. However, that lag you speak of would be a killer for me. Even when not shooting something moving, a lag just makes the camera feel slow (and 3-5 sec!!???).

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:31:43 +0000

Well, I’ll be durned…looks like I may be replacing my G10 with the P6000. Thank you for the reply, Terry.

By: terrywhite

terrywhite — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:56:15 +0000

Hi Mike,
You CAN convert the RAW files on a Mac with either LR2 or PS CS4. I did it on my Mac with no problem.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 12:51:34 +0000

Thanks for the great review, Terry. Although I’m a Nikon guy, I recently purchased a G10 for Raw capability because I read that the Raw images could only be converted on a Windows system. And you guessed it…I’m on a Mac with PSCS4 & LR2. Is this still an issue?