Nikon Coolpix P6000

Focus
The Nikon Coolpix P6000 offers a manual focus, which can be turned on in any manual mode by pressing down on the 4-way control and choosing the appropriate item form the menu. To then adjust the focus you press the dedicate Manual Focus button to the left of the LCD and while you hold it down rotate the dial at the back of the grip. There is an auto focus assist that appears, which zooms in on the center of the display so you can better judge the focus.

Manual focus is a nice feature to find.

ISO
One of the Nikon Coolpix P6000's most talked about feature is the support for 6400 ISO. We need to note, however, that both 6400 and 3200 ISO are only available if you capture photos at three megapixels. Nikon has made great strides in reducing noise in low light situations in its higher end DSLRs and it will be interesting to see if any of the lessons it has learned will leak down into the high-end of their point-and-shot lineup. We'll have to wait to get the P6000 into our labs before we can tell you, though. The full ISO range of the P6000 for full size shots is 64-1600.

ISO 6400 is impressive, but remember your photos will need to be 3 megapixels or smaller.

White Balance
White balance options are only available in manual modes. You can choose from Manual, Daylight, Incandescent, Fluorescent, Cloudy and Flash. You can access the white balance options via the My Menu feature by default, or via the main menu if you remove it.

White balance options can be found in My Menu or the main menu.

Metering
Unlike the Canon G10, the Nikon Coolpix P6000 does not have a dedicated button for metering. Instead you'll have to go into the main menu to adjust it. Your options are Matrix, Center-Weighted, Spot and Spot AF Area. The last meters based on your auto focus target.

The typical selection of metering options are available.

Shutter Speed
The Nikon Coolpix P6000 offers a shutter speed range of 8 - 1/2000 seconds. This is a reasonable range for a camera but not as good as the Canon G10's 15 - 1/4000 second range. You can manually adjust shutter speed in either shutter priority mode or in full manual modes.

Adjusting shutter speed in full manual mode.

Aperture
Aperture on the Nikon Coolpix P6000 can be set to between f/2.7-7.2 when zoomed out or f/5.9 - 7.7 when zoomed in completely. There is an aperture priority mode available and you can also manually adjust aperture in full manual mode.

Adjusting aperture in full manual mode.

Image Stabilization
The Nikon Coolpix P6000 offers optical image stabilization to ensure that shaky hands don't ruin your shots.

Picture Quality / Size Options
Another stand out feature on the Nikon Coolpix P6000 is its support for RAW capture, in addition to the more familiar Fine, Normal and Basic. Images can be captured between 4224 x 3168 on the high end and down to 640 x 480. In between there are six other size options and also 3:2, 16:9 and 1:1 frame options at the highest resolution supported. The support for RAW is the key feature, however. This places the Nikon Coolpix P6000 amongst an elite class of point-and-shoot cameras. RAW support allows you to take the raw data from the image sensor rather than have the data processed into a format like JPEG. This gives you much more flexibility when you are touching up the image later on your computer.

The P6000 offers plenty of size options and supports RAW.

Picture Effects Mode
The only picture effects the Nikon Coolpix P6000 offers are B&W, Sepia and Cyanotype.