Again, at the beginning of the summer… I was in the buying mood. I needed a camera that I would give to almost anyone (aka an assistant) and get decent photo and video clips for blog posts. With very little research I was able to narrow my selections to three cameras.

• 1. Cannon’s G10
• 2. Nikon’s P6000
• 3. Panasonic’s LX3

Without getting to involved here with comparisons, I went with Nikon’s P6000.

I have been using it for the past few months and feel comfortable reviewing it here.

The basic layout of the camera follows in line with any other Nikon I have used. It is very easy to operate without entering the menu’s so long as you take the time to set the camera up the way you like it. There is a quick My Menu button on the back that allows you to list the functions that are the most important to you. This is a great feature when you actually intend to use the camera for work.

I have quick access to the various flash controls for quickly swapping external flashes and pocket wizards for set up shots and detail shots on job sites. Nothing that goes to the client just quirky things for blog posts and tweets.

You can see in the photos above that the camera does have a hot shoe. This can be used for flashes, Nikon CLS support included, or pocket wizard’s. Really anything you can mount in a hot shoe will go in there and fire, so long as you (or your assistant) don’t mind looking like a complete idiot. Even a PW is bigger than this camera but thats kind of the whole point in getting it to bring along. (For it to be small and easy to carry, not to look like an idiot)

There is a big sticker on the front of this tiny camera that brags about its ability to shoot at ISO 6400. This sticker is perhaps far more embarrassing than the way the camera looks with an SB900 mounted on top. The files are almost unusable beyond ISO 400, unless you really love Chromatic Noise. Not a big deal though, I wasn’t interested in low light performance from a small camera, and none of the other options are any better at this. The good news is that you can tell the camera what ISO you want to use or you can give it a max ISO for the automatic ISO setting.

My biggest complaint with this camera is the lens. Zoomed in the Aperture becomes 7.1 while zoomed out the aperture can go to 2.7. I would love to see Nikon go the way that Panasonic went. Less zoom range but a consistently wide aperture. Small sensors just can’t handle small apertures. They end up with vignettes that leave images looking soft, very soft at 7.1. The glass doesn’t matter, the angles are just to dramatic for the sensor.

All things considered, I think that Nikon did a great job with this camera. It is right on par with the G10 from Cannon but if I had it to do over, I would get the Panasonic LX3. They have done a much better job of recognizing the failings of small sensors and working with them rather than fighting them. The aperture stability alone is a huge advantage but it also offers 720p video recording and while I am happy with the short clips that the P6000 produces, 720p would head and shoulders above in quality.

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