Nikon Coolpix P60

Watch our video preview of the Nikon P60 by clicking play below.

Front
The front of the Nikon Coolpix P60 resembles its predecessor, the P50, which was introduced six months ago. The P60 uses an electronic viewfinder. The P60 still has the comfortable rubber grip the P50 has, but adds a divot in the grip for additional support. At the center is the 5x optical zoom lens that extends into a retractable barrel. The flash and auto assist lamp line the top, with the Nikon logo located at the corner of the camera. The Coolpix logo sits at the bottom right corner.

Back
The back of the Coolpix P60 has a few changes from the earlier P50. The viewfinder has been shifted from the center of the camera to the left corner. The LCD/EVF button has been moved to the top center. The LCD is still flush to the left. The control panel is very similar to the P50. The right hand corner has a zoom toggle for wide and telephoto shooting that doubles as thumbnail and magnified viewing controls in playback. Underneath is a triangle of 10 bumpy dots that form a thumb rest. Below that is the is the four-way controller for flash, drive, exposure, and focus controls, each represented by white icons. At the corners of the multi-selector are three uniform, circular buttons for playback, menu, and delete functions.

Right Side
The right side contains one tiny port for the AV connections, housed under a tight-fitting rubber cover. The rubber hand grip wraps around to the side of the camera. Nikon seemed to have solid seals for its ports and grip.

Left Side
The P60 puts most of its controls on the top and back of the camera. The left side does not have control functions except for a little girth for left hand support.

Top
The top of the Nikon P60 is clean and simple. The mode dial is located off-center toward the right, and holds the key functions for Scene modes, Automatic and Manual modes, and Movie mode. The mode dial rotates 360 degrees for easy switching between shooting modes. Directly above the right hand grip on the right side is a well-endowed, circular shutter release button and a tiny on/off button with light indicator.

Bottom
The bottom of the Coolpix P60 is standard fare, with the dual battery/memory card compartment underneath the right hand grip. The compartment is housed under a protective hinged door. There is a plastic tripod socket off axis from the lens. Some point-and-shoots opt for a metal tripod socket, particularly the higher-end ones, for users who want to experiment with long exposures in night time scenes. The P60 uses a plastic one, which may be less reliable for long-term use. On the right side is the product name and serial number.