Replacing the P5100 model as flagship of Nikon's compact digicam line-up, the Coolpix P6000 features a slightly larger, 13.5-megapixel CCD sensor, EXPEED processing and 4x Zoom-Nikkor lens. Like its predecessor, it provides the P, A, S and M shooting modes enthusiast photographers require. However, the P6000 adds raw file capture and some useful functions like geo-tagging, a built-in Ethernet connection, wireless flash and user customisation.

Nikon has developed a special raw file format (NRW. RAW) for the P6000. It's different from the NEF.RAW format used in Nikon's DSLR cameras and has been designed around the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) codec in Windows Vista (it's also available for Windows XP SP2 via .NET).

The new format has been designed to remove the need for different software applications for each camera's raw format by allowing the operating system to decode the raw files rather than requiring purpose-designed software. Currently, NRW.RAW files can only be processed in the camera, with the Windows version of ViewNX or with other applications that support WIC. 

Design and Construction
Like its predecessor, the Coolpix 5100, the P6000's metal and plastic body is designed for functionality and styled to appeal to enthusiast photographers. Some useful refinements have been made in the new model, which is slightly larger and 40 grams heavier. The grip is comparatively generous and has a rubberised coating for comfort and security. A thumb rest on the rear panel is similarly textured.

Covering a focal length range of 28-112mm (35mm format equivalent), the  P6000's Zoom-Nikkor lens consists of nine elements in seven groups, and includes two ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements. It has a six-bladed aperture diaphragm plus built-in VR (Vibration Reduction) optical stabilisation.

The lens retracts into the camera body, extending approximately 37 mm when power is switched on. It covers a slightly wider focal length range (28-112 mm in 35mm format, compared with 35-123mm in the P5100) and offers better wide-angle capability. Aperture settings range from f/2.7 to f/7.2 at the wide position and f/5.9 to f/7.7 at maximum optical zoom.

 
Front view of the Coolpix P6000 with the flash popped up and lens extended.

Almost two thirds of the rear panel is covered by the 2.7-inch LCD monitor, which has average (230,000-dot) resolution for a digicam plus a wide viewing angle. A separate optical viewfinder is provided, although it's small, cramped and non-adjustable.

 
Rear view showing the LCD monitor and control layout.

The P6000's control layout is similar to the P5100 and combines digicam functions with a layout similar to Nikon's DSLRs. Ranged down the left side of the LCD are five buttons for accessing the Function, My Menu, manual focus, playback and menu settings. Right of the LCD is a standard arrow pad (multi-selector) with a central OK button and buttons for accessing the flash, exposure compensation, macro/manual focus and self-timer/remote control settings. A delete button sits below the arrow pad.

Above the LCD is a small optical viewfinder with adjacent indicator LED s for flash and AF functioning. To the left is the flash pop-up button, while to the right is the Display button, which toggles through four settings: image plus data, grid overlay, image only and display off.

 
The top panel of the P6000 showing the mode dial, command dial, shutter button and flash hot-shoe.

The top panel carries the mode dial, command dial, shutter button, zoom lever and a hot-shoe for accessory flash units. A small on/off button behind the shutter button carries a green LED that flashes when the camera is switched on and while the battery is being charged. The pop-up flash is concealed within the left hand end of this panel.

The flash is disabled when the focus mode is set to infinity  and it can only be used with the single, continuous flash and interval timer drive modes. Flash exposures can be adjusted across a range of -2.0 to +2.0 to provide a more natural-looking balance between ambient and flash illumination. You can also use the built-in flash simultaneously with an accessory flash unit or disable the built-in flash when an accessory flash is mounted in the hot-shoe.

The rechargeable lithium-ion battery shares a compartment with the memory card slot in the base of the camera. The battery must be charged in the camera using the supplied AC adaptor. A lift-up cover on the upper right side of the camera body provides the power-in point, along with the combined USB and video port.

The LAN connector is hidden under a lift-up cover in front of the battery/card compartment. A metal-lined tripod socket is centrally positioned further along the base plate. The GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver is concealed within the top corner of the camera body on the opposite side to the command dial. 

Controls
The mode dial carries settings for Full auto, P, A, S and M shooting modes as well as the Movie and Scene modes, GPS (see below) and PictureBank modes and two User settings where photographers can register groups of frequently-used settings made in the P, A, S and M modes for quick access. Sixteen modes can be accessed via the Scene sub-menu: Portrait, Landscape, Sports, Night portrait, Party/indoor, Beach/snow, Sunset, Dusk/dawn, Night landscape, Close-up, Museum, Fireworks show, Copy, Backlight , Panorama assist and Voice recording.

The on-screen display in shutter-priority AE (S) mode.
The PictureBank mode is used for storing images and movie clips that will be uploaded to Nikon's internet-based my Picturetown service. my Picturetown allows photos from the camera to be uploaded to a server over home or public wireless networks. Nikon camera owners get 2 GB of space free-of-charge to store pictures and you can purchase up to 20GB of storage for a fee.

Users of the Coolpix P6000 can power their camera via the AC adaptor and connect it to a LAN network each evening. Pictures and video clips will be uploaded to my Picturetown overnight and the camera's battery will be re-charged, allowing the user to start each day with a fully-charged battery and space for new pictures, knowing the previous day's shots have been safely stored. It's a very useful function for travellers.

Pictures and video clips can be uploaded to my Picturetown without resizing and the utility allows batches of images to be uploaded at the same time and allocated to albums. Photos can also be played back as slideshows with background music. Stored images can be downloaded at full resolution for printing. E-mails can be sent directly from my Picturetown to notify others of shared albums. (Voice clips can't be uploaded.)

Most other controls are pretty standard for an advanced digicam. Two autofocusing modes are provided: single and full-time AF. You can also select from four AF area settings: Face priority, Auto, Manual and Centre. In manual mode, the AF sensor is moved around the frame with the arrow pad.

This has the potential to produce the usual problems associated with doubling up on controls accessed via the arrow pad. However, you can lock the focus point by pressing the OK button and then adjust the aperture and/or shutter speed settings with the arrow pad. You can also move the AF sensor horizontally with the command dial.
Four metering patterns are provided: Matrix (the default), Centre-weighted, Spot and Spot AF area, the latter metering on the selected focus area. The active metering area is displayed on the LCD monitor when centre-weighted and spot metering modes are in use. Four auto bracketing settings are provided: off plus settings for bracketing intervals of 0.3EV, 0.3EV and 1.0EV. In each case, three shots are taken in a bracketing sequence. Auto bracketing is disabled in the M shooting mode and when NRW.RAW files are recorded.

Continuous shooting options include a standard mode that captures shots at intervals of just over one frame/second plus a Best Shot Selector (BSS) setting that records up to 10 shots and saves the sharpest of them. The continuous flash setting captures three flash shots in 0.8 seconds, increasing the ISO level automatically. The multi-shot 16 mode records 16 pictures at approximately 1.1 frames/second and presents them in a single 2592 x 1944 pixel file with Normal compression. It's handy for motion analysis.

Interval timer capture is also provided. You can set the delays between shots to 30 seconds, one, five, ten, 30 or 60 minutes and the camera will record until 1,800 frames have been captured or the memory is full. The monitor switches off automatically between shots.

Four sensitivity settings are supported: Auto, High ISO sensitivity auto, Fixed range auto and nine pre-set levels, ranging from ISO 64 to ISO 6400 in one stop increments. In the Auto mode, the highest sensitivity is limited to ISO 800 and ISO is fixed at 64 when the camera is in M shooting mode. The Fixed range auto setting lets users restrict the selectable sensitivity range to ISO 64-100, ISO 64-200 or ISO 64-400. Selecting ISO 3200 or ISO 6400 reduces the highest resolution to2048 x 1536 pixels and disables the Multi-shot 16 continuous shooting mode. These settings are not available for raw file capture.

Noise reduction processing is provided in the shooting menu but only two settings are available: auto and on. Separate high ISO and long exposure processing are not provided and you can't turn processing off. The on setting works with shutter speeds slower than 1/4 second, while the default auto setting is applied "at slow shutter speeds and where pictures are likely to be affected by noise".  Processing appeared to involve dark-frame subtraction as files took twice as long to process and store as unprocessed files.

Seven white balance settings are provided, comprising an auto setting, pre-set manual and settings for Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy and Flash lighting. The pre-set manual mode allows colour temperature to be measured by the camera. Fine-tuning of white balance settings is not supported.

Picture Control settings can be fine-tuned and saved as new Picture Controls.
Four Picture Control settings are provided: Standard, Neutral, Vivid and Monochrome and you can adjust sharpening, contrast and saturation in the first three. In monochrome mode, sharpening and contrast adjustments are provided, along with filter effects that simulate the effects of colour filters. You can choose from yellow, orange, red or green filter effects. Users can create their own Picture Controls and save them in either of the Custom memory banks.

Samples of the four Picture Control settings: (top row - Standard and Neutral; below - Vivid and Monochrome). 

GPS Functions
The Coolpix P6000 is one of the first digicams with a built-in GPS receiver, which can be used to record the latitude and longitude of the place where a shot was taken and store it in the image data. This function is handy for travellers who take lots of shots and want to be able to locate where they were taken when they get home.
Positional data in the image file can also be used to map trips or find places in services like Google Earth.

Ideally, you should have the correct date and time set in the camera before you start. But you can use the Synchronise setting in the GPS menu to set the date and time on the camera with data from the satellites.

The first step is to select GPS on the mode dial. In this mode, the GPS signal status screen is displayed on the LCD monitor. The next step is to press the Menu button and ensure Record GPS data is set to On. Then make sure you're in a suitable spot to take GPS readings (out of doors and with a clear view of the sky).

It will take a minute or two for the GPS receiver to pick up signals from the satellites used by the system, particularly on your first attempt or if the receiver hasn't been used for a while. But, once the first satellite is detected the camera quickly picks up other satellites and displays them on the screen. The northing and easting data are calculated and displayed as well as being logged in the metadata of images captured subsequently.

 
The GPS signal display. Icons showing satellites are superimposed on the circles on the right side while positional co-ordinates are posted on the left.

You can set the length of time location data will be stored in the camera's memory, with options including 15 or 30 seconds or less, one, five, 15, 30 or 60 minutes or less and up to two hours. The selected storage period is timed by the camera's internal clock.

If you've travelled a long distance since the last GPS reading or switched the camera off for a week or two, it's useful to set the menu to Update GPS data. This sets the camera to make fresh readings and can reduce subsequent times for acquiring a position.

 
The GPS menu.

Running the GPS receiver consumes battery power so the P6000's user manual advises users to switch it off once you've finished a shooting session. Otherwise the receiver will continue searching for signals, even when the camera is turned off, taking six readings at 90-minute intervals. Positioning will be cancelled if geographic data can't be obtained during a three-minute period of operation.

Images tagged with geographic information are identified with an icon in playback mode. You can also view the recorded data in applications like Picasa2.

 
Geotagged pictures are identifiable in playback mode by an icon beside the file name.

 
Positional data is recorded in the image metadata and can be displayed in applications like Picasa2.

According to the user manual, the GPS system should also be turned off in places where signals may interfere with electronic equipment, such as on aircraft and in hospitals. Date and time synchronisation relies on the camera being set to the correct time zone. It's not as accurate as setting the camera with a radio clock but good enough for general use.

Sensor and Image Capture
Measuring 7.6 x 5.7 mm in area, the Coolpix P6000's sensor is slightly larger than the 7.4 x 5.55 mm imager on the P5100. But, compared with DSLR sensors, it's pretty small and, at 1.80 µm square, individual photosites on the new model are marginally smaller than on the P5100 (1.85µm).

Both NRW.RAW and JPEG file formats are supported. Raw files recorded with the P6000 are uncompressed and have a bit depth of 12 bits. In-camera processing can only produce JPEG copies of NRW images but users of the P6000 can adjust white balance, exposure levels, image size and quality and apply Picture Control settings to their raw images before processing.

 
Image quality settings for still photos.

Three JPEG compression ratios are offered: 1:4 for Fine, 1:8 for Normal and 1:16 for Basic. Simultaneous RAW+JPEG capture is supported at all JPEG sizes and compression ratios. Typical file sizes are shown in the table below.

Movie settings are similar to the Coolpix P5100, which means the P6000 lacks widescreen recording capabilities and is not HD video compliant. This puts it at a disadvantage when compared with its main competitor, Panasonic's DMC-LX3 (see comparison table at the end of this review).

 
Movie capture settings.

Typical recording capacities and frame rates for the various movie modes are shown in the table below.

The P6000 can also be used as a voice recorder when the Voice Recording mode is selected in the Scene menu. Clips are recorded as Wave (WAV) files and stored in a Sound folder. The maximum possible voice clip length is displayed on the LCD monitor when this mode is selected and the AF lamp lights up while recording is in progress. Up to five hours of audio recording can be stored on a memory card.  

Playback
Playback modes are pretty standard, with the regular single, index and slideshow modes plus delete, protect and rotate functions, image tagging for printing and small pic mode that resizes shots for emailing, saving the smaller image separately. D-Lighting adjustments can be applied post-capture and in-camera cropping and re-saving are supported and users can add black borders to images and save them separately.

The software bundle supplied with the P6000 is standard for Nikon's Coolpix range and comes on a disk titled 'Software Suite for Coolpix'. It contains ArcSoft Panorama Maker 4, Apple QuickTime 7, Nikon Transfer and Microsoft DirectX 9.  ViewNX was not provided with the Review camera but the software disk provided a 'suggested online install' link to it, the NRW codec and a CaptureNX free trial. However, this link led us to a message stating: We regret that the NRW Codec has been delayed and will not be released in early October. The new release date for the NRW Codec is planned for download some time around January 2009. Thank you for your patience.

Users of the Coolpix P6000 can download and use ViewNX Ver.1.2.0 to browse NRW file thumbnails and display preview images. ViewNX Ver. 1.2.0 can be used to upload images to my Picturetown and also supports a map view feature which can be used to view the location of "geo-tagged" images on maps.
ViewNX Ver. 1.2.2 for Windows will be available for download from early December. This version of ViewNX will be capable of displaying NRW images without the NRW Codec.

As a result, we had to convert raw files from the test camera into TIFF format with Adobe Camera Raw, Version 5.1 of which includes support for raw files from the Coolpix P6000. Being unwilling to commit to a my Picturetown account for a review camera (and having an unsuitable network set-up), we can't report on the facilities for viewing geotagged images in NikonViewNX. However, we were able to compare positional data captured with the P6000 with the co-ordinates provided by Google Earth and found only a small difference between them.

Without a my Picturetown account we're also unable to report on the camera's LAN performance. However, configuring the camera for networked usage appeared to be straightforward and full instructions are required for configuring a Network Connection Profile, applying password protection to the camera and uploading pictures to the my Picturetown server, where they can be stored. (Note: my Picturetown is not available if your LAN uses a proxy server to connect to the internet.) 

Performance
Test shots taken with the review camera were bright and 'punchy' with the elevated contrast and saturation that typifies many small-sensor digicams. Exposures were pitched to record shadow detail so many shots taken in bright sunlight had blown-out highlights. The relatively high contrast and saturation proved an advantage when shooting at night, where the test camera delivered surprisingly good results.

Autofocusing was fast and accurate under most shooting conditions, although there were times when the AF sensor failed to identify the correct part of the scene to focus upon. The face detection system proved effective at identifying faces both front-on and in semi profile but missed occasionally with full profiles and when more than half of a face was hidden behind another object.

The lens-shift image stabiliser was also effective, allowing us to shoot without a tripod at shutter speeds down to 1/20 second. However, shots taken at 1/10 second were blurred.

Imatest showed the sensor/lens resolution to be close to expectations, particularly with raw files and measurements near the centre of the frame. Edge resolution was somewhat lower and some edge and corner softening was visible in test shots. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests across a range of focal length settings.

Resolution declined as ISO sensitivity was increased. The graph belwo shows the results of our Imatest tests on both NRW.RAW files and JPEG test shots.

Coloured fringing was noticeable in converted raw images shot in bright conditions but less evident in JPEG files from the camera. An example from a raw file is reproduced below.

Our tests showed the P6000's lens suffered from quite severe barrel distortion at 6mm when the Distortion Control was set to Off. Switching it on produced a noticeable improvement but failed to totally remove residual barrelling. With no distortion correction, barrelling was barely visible at 7.3mm and vanished at 12.3mm. Pincushion distortion was not observed.

Digital zoom shots were extremely good with no apparent softening or interpolation artefacts. Close-up performance was also commendable, although the camera's small sensor made it difficult to obtain truly out-of-focus backgrounds unless the longest focal length setting was used (which limited focusing distances).
The built-in flash was capable of illuminating an average-sized room at ISO settings of 100 and above and exposures were evenly balanced through the ISO range. Flash close-ups were also evenly exposed, except at ISO 6400, where the ambient light level was too high for the flash exposure.

Low light performance was also acceptable for a digicam - but disappointing when compared with Nikon's DSLRs. We weren't able to compare the effects of noise reduction processing with unprocessed images because processing is applied by default in all situations where shots might be noise-affected. We found no visible softening with ISO settings up to ISO 200 but shots taken at higher sensitivities became progressively more blurred, regardless of whether they involved short or long exposure times.

White balance performance was typical of most digicams Photo Review has tested. The auto setting failed to correct the orange cast of incandescent lighting but produced neutral colours under fluorescent lighting. The manual pre-sets over-corrected slightly but the 'pre-set' measurement system delivered neutral colours with both types of lighting.

The test camera powered up in just approximately 1.5 seconds. We measured a consistent average capture lag of 1.0 seconds, which reduced to less than 0.1 seconds with pre-focusing. It took an average of 2.3 seconds to process each Large/Fine JPEG image and 4.6 seconds to process one NRW.RAW file.  When shooting RAW+JPEG images it took 5.4 seconds to process an image pair.

Because you can't use the continuous mode when shooting RAW files, either individually or with JPEGs we could only measure continuous shooting performance for JPEG files. A burst of eight Large/Fine JPEG images recorded with the standard continuous mode was captured in 14.4 seconds. Images appeared to be processed on-the-fly with this setting as it took only 2.7 seconds to process this burst.

When we switched to the Multi-shot 16 continuous mode, 16 frames were captured in 11.8 seconds and recorded as a single 2592 x 1944 pixel image. Again, processing appeared to take place as shots were recorded as the combined file appeared within 1.5 seconds of the final shot in the burst. The continuous flash mode performed to specifications.

Potential purchasers of the Coolpix P6000 will inevitably compare it with Panasonic's recently-released Lumix DMC-LX3 and the new Canon PowerShot G10, which are targeted at a similar type of photographer and support raw file capture. To help readers choose, the table below outlines the main differences between the three cameras.

IMATEST GRAPHS

For NRW.RAW files converted with Adobe Camera Raw 5.1

For JPEG images

SAMPLE IMAGES

Auto white balance with incandescent lighting.

Auto white balance with fluorescent lighting.

Close-up: 6mm focal length, 1/125 second at f/4.1, ISO 64.

Digital zoom.

Night snapshot: ISO 1600, 11.1mm focal length, 1/20 second at f/3.7.

Night snapshot: ISO 6400, 11.1mm focal length, 1/70 second at f/3.7.

Backlighting: JPEG image, ISO 64, 1/240 second at f/5.7.

Backlighting: NRW.RAW image converted in ACR 5.1, ISO 64, 1/240 second at f/5.7.

ISO 64, 6mm focal length, 1/400 second at f/6.4.

ISO 64, 24mm focal length, 1/200 second at f/6.2.

Flash close-up, ISO 100.

Flash close-up, ISO 3200 (note the image softening).

Flash close-up, ISO 6400.

Night shot: 11.1mm focal length, 8 seconds at f/3.7, ISO 100.

 
Night shot: 11.1mm focal length, 8 seconds at f/4.9, ISO 1600.

Night shot: 11.1mm focal length, 2 seconds at f/5.5, ISO 6400.

Image sensor: 7.6 x 5.7 mm CCD with 13.93 million photosites (13.5 megapixels effective)
Lens:  6-24mm f/2.7-5.9 Zoom Nikkor (28-112 mm in 35mm format)
Zoom ratio: 4x optical, up to 4x digital
Image formats: Stills – JPEG (Exif); Movies – AVI; Audio - WAV
Image Sizes: Stills: 4224 x 3168, 3264 x 2448, 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 1280 x 960, 1024 x 768, 640 x 480; 4224 x 2816 (3:2). 4224 x 2376 (16:9), 3168 x 3168 (1:1) ; Movies: VGA and QVGA at 30 and 15 frames/second
Shutter speed range:  30 to 1/2000 seconds in Manual mode (8-1/2000 sec in other modes)
Image Stabilisation: Lens-shift VR
Exposure Compensation: +/- 2EV in 1/3EV steps
Focus system/range: Single AF, Full-Time AF (in Macro mode), Face-priority AF; range 50 cm to infinity, Macro to 2 cm
Exposure metering/control: 256-segment matrix, Center-Weighted, Spot, Spot AF area (with support for 99 focus areas)
Shooting modes: Auto, Scene modes, P, S, A, and M exposure modes, U1, U2, BSS (Best Shot Selector), Optimize image, Flash exp. comp., Noise reduction, Distortion control, Date imprint, Black border
ISO range: Auto (auto gain ISO 100-800), Manual selection: ISO 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400
White balance:  Auto, Preset manual, Day light, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy, Flash
Flash modes/range (ISO auto): Auto, Auto with red-eye reduction, Off, Fill flash, Slow sync, Rear-Curtain sync
Sequence shooting:  Continuous (approx. 0.9 fps; Continuous flash; Multi-shot 16; Interval timer shooting
Storage Media: Approx. 48MB internal memory plus SD/SDHC expansion slot
Viewfinder: Optical
LCD monitor: 2.7-inch TFT LCD with wide viewing angle and anti-reflection coating, 230,000 dot resolution
Power supply:  EN-EL5 rechargeable lithium-ion battery; CIPA rated for approx. 250 shots/charge
Interface(s): Hi-Speed USB (Date transfer protocol: MTP, PTP); Ethernet: 100BASE-TX
Dimensions (wxhxd): Approx. 107 × 65.5 × 42 mm
Weight: Approx. 240 g (without battery and card)