Nikon Coolpix P600 (499.95 USD) has a 60x zoom lens and a 16MP CMOS sensor. The Coolpix P600 has a vari-angle rear display with integrated EVF, Wi-Fi and manual controls. However, it suffers from slow focus, noise at low ISO sensibilities and other issues. Although its specifications look promising, it is disappointing in practice. The P600 should have been a much better choice at the asking price.
The P600 lens' zoom is not necessary for most photographers. We recommend the Editors Choice Panasonic Lumix DMCFZ200 (at Amazon). Both of these lenses have constant aperture f/2.8 lenses. If you need more reach, such as to photograph wildlife in nature, the Fujifilm FinePix SL1000 50x is a good alternative.
Features and Design
The P600, like its bridge-style cousins, is designed as a smaller D-SLR. The P600 measures in at 3.4x5x4.2inches (HWD), and weighs in at 1.2lbs. This is not unusual for the class. The 50x Fuji SL1000 (Amazon: $65.00) opens in a new browser and measures 3.4 by 4.8x 4.8 inches by 4.8inches. It weighs a little more at 1.5 pounds. While most cameras in this category are only available in black, Nikon offers the SL1000 in dark red.
With an aperture of f/3.3 to 6.5, the 60x zoom lens can cover a field of view measuring 24-1,440mm (35mm equivalent). Zooming in further reduces light capture, which means that the ISO setting will be higher to ensure sharp shots. Image stabilization does an excellent job of stabilizing shots. I was able get sharp handheld images at 1/50 seconds when zoomed in.
However, image stabilization will not help you if your goal is to freeze movement when taking photos of birds or foxes. There are a few cameras in this class that offer f/2.8 fixed apertures throughout the zoom range—that's more light than the P600 can capture at any focal length. They can't zoom as far as P600 cameras. These include the Panasonic FZ200 (25-60mm), Olympus Stylus 1, 28-300mm, and Sony RX10 (20-24mm).
Many cameras have a framing aid system. It is easy to lose your subject when you zoom in. This button opens the view field, allows you to reacquire the subject and returns the zoom level back to its previous position. Snap Back Focus can be configured on the P600. It's an alternative function to the zoom lever on the left of the barrel. However, it works slightly differently.
The lever can be pressed down to pull the lens back. However, you will need to press it up again to return to its original position. You will need to adjust the focal length manually if you tap on another control of the camera.
Nikon designed the P600 to take advantage of its large body by adding a variety of controls for shooting. The top plate has a mode dial, along with the standard zoom rocker, shutter release and programmable Fn buttons, as well as the power and power buttons. To the right of EVF is a toggle button for the EVF/LCD, the Display control and movie record buttons.
A control wheel runs along the top of rear. There is a command dial below the thumb rest with an OK button at its center and four directional controls. These controls adjust flash settings, exposure compensation and macro focusing modes, as well as the self-timer. The rear has the delete and playback controls as well as the menu button.
It has vari-angle technology. The rear LCD is mounted on hinges and swings out from the camera. The panel is a 3 inch in size and has a resolution of 921k dots. Its quality cannot be questioned. It does come with an EVF at the eye level. This is a great feature for cameras like these, because it will allow you to take steady handheld photos from telephoto distances. Although the EVF may be small, it is sharp due to its 201k dot resolution.
Nikon is slower than other manufacturers to incorporate Wi-Fi in its cameras, compared with the rest. You can use the wireless mobile utility application to copy photos from your iPhone or Android using Wi-Fi on the P600. It is similar to the Coolpix S9700 (at Amazon), which is a compact, with a 30-x lens. However, the P600 does not have the S9700’s GPS capabilities.
The P600 allows wireless remote control and direct transfers to your phone. Its capabilities are limited; you can adjust the zoom, activate the self-timer, and fire the shutter, but that's it—there's no way to select a focus point or to access more advanced shooting controls via remote. The P600 cannot be used to post to social media, unlike the Samsung WB350F ($147.99 Amazon).
Performance and conclusions
The P600 is on the slow side. It starts up in a reasonable 2 seconds—that's not out of the ordinary for a camera with such a long lens—and can focus at wide angles in about 0.2-second, just a beat slower than others in this class. But when it's zoomed all the way in, the average focus speed we recorded in tests is 1.7 seconds. And if it has trouble locking onto a subject, often due to lack of contrast at the selected focus point or dim light, that duration can double, and in our field tests there were more than a few times that the P600 simply missed focus and delivered a blurred image.
The Fujifilm FinePix S1 ($499.95) is a lot quicker; it starts in 1.3 seconds, focuses in 0.1-second at its widest angle, and in just 0.7-second at its 1,200mm telephoto setting. We're waiting on Adobe to update Lightroom to complete the review of the S1 (it shoots in Raw format as well as JPG), but feel confident in stating that it's a better alternative to the P600, at the same price point.
Although the P600 can produce 7 shots in one second, it stops responding for 30 seconds after the images have been written to the card. For testing we used a SanDisk 95MBps memory card. Slower memory was not an issue. The low speed continuous setting fires at 1fps and does not require a lengthy wait after finishing a sequence of images. Fuji S1 can capture 8 shots at 7.8fps and takes only 4.7 seconds to transfer those images onto the memory card.
Imatest was used to test the P600's ability to capture sharp images. The lens achieves sharpness at a higher level than 1,800 lines per photo height, which is what we use when marking a photograph as sharp. Its center-weighted average score of 2,583 lines is 2,583 lines. As you can see, sharpness extends across the entire range. The above crop shows a shot taken at maximum zoom and ISO 100. Shutter speed was 1/250 seconds. Although the P600 captures less light than the Panasonic FZ200 at all angles, its lens is more detailed. The 12-megapixel FZ200 scored 1,811 lines in the same test.
Imatest can also check photos for noise. This could introduce grain or detract detail. The P600 uses 1/2.3 inch CMOS image sensors. These cameras capture acceptable levels of noise and detail at ISO 800. Through ISO 200, the P600 can only keep noise under 1.5 percent. Fine lines blur together at ISO 800 and ISO 400 are a problem.
Comparing images taken by the P600 and Fujifilm SL1000, I tried to see which was better. At ISO 400, the SL1000 has as many details as the Nikon at ISO 200. Its images at ISO 1600 rival the Nikon's at ISO 800. The SL1000 has one trick up its sleeve that the Nikon can't match—Raw shooting support. Raw mode will allow you to extract more detail from your images.
QuickTime video can be recorded by the P600 at 1080i60 and 1080p30 resolutions. The footage is comparable to other compacts. When shooting at 60i, the motion is smooth and rolling shutter becomes an issue when you zoom in. As the scene changes, focus is automatically adjusted by the camera. Although it is possible to zoom in or out while recording, the lens produces the strangest sound. It produces a variety of sounds, which change in pitch and sound almost as if it were making a whir.
Although it isn't too loud, the noise can be distracting. There's also no option to connect an external mic. The micro HDMI output allows you to view footage from an HDTV and can also be connected to a computer via the micro USB port. You will need to charge your battery using the micro USB port. If you buy more batteries, this is not an issue. You won't have the ability to charge it while using your camera for taking photos.
Although the Nikon Coolpix P600 is not perfect, it lives up to its promise that it can put an insanely long 60x (24-1 1,440mm) zoom into a smaller body than your standard D-SLR. Its image quality at lower ISOs is excellent, and it has little to no complaints about the build quality. Rear LCDs are excellent. The EVF does the job well. Wi-Fi allows for remote control and image sharing. The camera will lock up after taking a fast burst shot, which can cause poor image quality. Fujifilm SL1000 and S1 are both better options than the P600, but they offer a longer lens that is still useful for photographing.
The Panasonic FZ200, which covers 24-600mm at f/2.8 and is currently less expensive than the P600, has a shorter zoom. It won our Editors' Choice award when we reviewed it, as did two f/2.8 zooms with larger image sensors—the Olympus Stylus 1 (28-300mm) and the Sony RX10 (24-200mm f/2.8).
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