Nikon Coolpix P6000

By Leonard Goh
Oct 6, 2008

Although geotagging was one of the hot features seen at PMA earlier this year, somehow it didn't really take off with the bigger brands. But Nikon has now incorporated this feature into its pro-level point-and-shoot, the Coolpix P6000.

One of the first shooters to feature inbuilt geotagging capability, the P6000 utilizes GPS to get information of your location when you snap a picture, and attach it with your image. When you view the photos later with compatible software, the GPS feature can display where you took certain shots. This is useful for frequent travelers who take plenty of images and have problems identifying them back home.

Although the initial setup process was a little frustrating, the geotagging function was quite intuitive once everything was fixed. The P6000 may ooze with features but its image quality wasn't as impressive as we hoped for

Design

When shown to several people, Nikon's Coolpix P6000 garnered impressive comments about its design. Serious- and professional-looking were the most commonly heard terms used to describe this shooter, and we agreed with them. Encased in a solemn black chassis, the P6000 exudes a professional aura that is reserved for pro-level point-and-shoots, which is exactly where this snapper is positioned.

Complemented by a textured rubber finish, the grip is assuring to hold and the thumbrest gets the same treatment, which we find really sweetens the whole deal.

The mode and command dial are strategically positioned to facilitate one-handed operations, and we could change settings on the fly. Those who are using or have used a dSLR may be familiar with the button layout. Menus and frequently used functions are accessed from the buttons on the left side of the 2.7-inch LCD.

We may be nitpicking, but we wished Nikon could have implemented a scroll wheel instead of the usual navigation pad. This will make changing exposure settings in manual mode easier because both aperture and shutter speed can be tweaked independently instead of having to press a button to toggle between the two settings.

In all, we were quite satisfied with the design of the P6000. Seldom do we come across a camera which has both aesthetics and functionality.

Tags: DSLR, Camera, scroll wheel, Nikon Corp., LCD

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