A new review has been added to the Gear Reviews page.

Product name: Nikon P6000 Digital Camera

Summary: Nikon's new "flagship point and shoot" camera, offering 13.5 megapixels, wide angle lens (28mm at 35mm equiv.) and what a good number of underground photographers were hoping would be a replacement for the venerable 8400.

Review added by: simonrl

Full review: http://www.aditnow.co.uk/gear-reviews/Nikon-P6000-Digital-Camera/ 

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I am not so sure that the maximum 30sec exposure time is issue for U/G photography. I have never in my life gone over 30sec for a pic. However, an immobile screen I would find a real inconvenience. One great feature of the 8400 is the way the screen compensates for low light and brightens itself which helps enormously when framing and setting up a shot. Do most cameras have this feature?

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Well after a good weekend exploring I can report back on how the P6000 performs underground.

The first thing I noticed is how pleasant this camera is to carry I have not enjoyed carrying a camera so much before. Its so small it fits into a small camera pouch on your belt and you forget its there.

There is also something else very obvious that needs addressing and that's that great big screen. So first thing I did when I got home was order a screen protector.

I also liked the fact that it has a auto opening lens cap, this made the operation even smoother and one less thing to do when setting up a shot.

Its was apparent on setting up my first shots of the day I could not get the camera to see infinity focus. This may well be me not setting it right, so I will look into that again and maybe get round to reading the manual.

I was forced to use auto focus all day and at the beginning I was not looking forward to this has this is the biggest problem I have had with other cameras underground.

Well after my first handful of shots I was surprised this little camera can hold its own. The auto focus did not struggle at all, and with only a couple of shots over the weekend being out of focus due to a bad focus point. I would be more than happy to keep using the auto focus mode in the future.

I only had one battery for the 2 days, I did order another one with camera but they was out of stock until next week. I was concerned the P6000 would eat the power. But considering the amount it was used, it managed to keep going to the end. By the end of day 2 the battery warning was on but was still doing its job. This I found was good considering other people with me were already on there second battery on there camera's.

So in all I'm really happy with the way the P6000 performs underground. I only needed to use the full 30sec exposure a couple of times over 2 days. I'm looking forward to getting the camera on home ground in North Wales and see how it performs in some of the large slate mines.

Its early days yet but I will crack on with the p6000 for now and see what problems will arise in the future.

I also liked the fact that it has a auto opening lens cap, this made the operation even smoother and one less thing to do when setting up a shot.

That's one of my biggest complaints about it for u/g use. That iris system is so fragile in comparison to the plastic lens cap of the 8400 and DSLRs.

Its was apparent on setting up my first shots of the day I could not get the camera to see infinity focus. This may well be me not setting it right, so I will look into that again and maybe get round to reading the manual.

I was forced to use auto focus all day and at the beginning I was not looking forward to this has this is the biggest problem I have had with other cameras underground.

Well after my first handful of shots I was surprised this little camera can hold its own. The auto focus did not struggle at all, and with only a couple of shots over the weekend being out of focus due to a bad focus point. I would be more than happy to keep using the auto focus mode in the future.

Agreed, and it surprised the hell out of me. What's even wierder was I noticed that those I manually set to infinity and that came out blurred had the same focal length (6mm) as the ones it took on auto focus. I can't fathom that.

I couldn't get any results quite as sharp as the 8400 routinely produced, and the auto focus will hunt unless you can really put some light on the objective.

II only had one battery for the 2 days, I did order another one with camera but they was out of stock until next week. I was concerned the P6000 would eat the power. But considering the amount it was used, it managed to keep going to the end. By the end of day 2 the battery warning was on but was still doing its job. This I found was good considering other people with me were already on there second battery on there camera's.

Drat, I got a duff battery then 😞 Will have to try the larger capacity battery that came as part of the deal.

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any one looked at the ricoh cameras ?
they have a decent (24mm) lens and 180s max exposure bit will also do continuos shooting to the images can be stacked later to make a longer exposure.

Never used a Ricoh, do they have all the other features needed - manual focus, manual settings etc?

I've probably been too harsh on the P6000, it's a very nice camera, and is good underground. But the 30s maximum I do feel is a problem in big, big chambers and that iris style lens protection isn't going to stand up to any abuse - the 8400 / SLR style plastic lens cap is so much better u/g.

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I dont have one and hand even heard of them till a friend who knows his stuff showed me the pics he had taken with one. It was very impressive. They arent cheap though ..

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Ricoh/ricoh_gx200.asp 

Specs look good, but again no bulb or timed release. Given it's just software I wonder why not.

Another very small sensor for so many megapixels though.

I just found out the P6000 does auto bracketing, so I'm happy with it again 🙂

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Sounds like a great camera.
I have to admit my camera was a good choice. Having once downloaded the CHDK thing, it can do exposures of up to 65 seconds, which I often use when down slate mines or when lighting shots by candlelight.
Hashadtrouble focusing inSmallcleugh though, not in any other mines.... Iwonder why

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If anybody is, god forbid, using a P6000 underground* you might be interested that Nikon has just released a firmware uprade for it.

Fixes a few issues, including the problem with power consumption (under the guise of improving it ;)).

Upgrade if you use a Windows PC:

http://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26980 

Upgrade if you use a Mac:

http://nikoneurope-en.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/26981 

* Actually it's not that bad, I think it justifies the 3 out of 5 stars as a camera for underground use, but as a general purpose digital compact it's fine, photos a little over processed looking at times and terrible battery life but otherwise OK.

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