So as some of you may or may not know, I recently snagged Nikon P60 for $50 from ebay. I was disappointed with the lack of manual controls on a p&s after being so used to my dSLR, but yet, I am unwilling to lug that into a cave. But, a lot of crossovers are ultrazooms and really I don't want a huge thing to carry around. Also, it has long been my theory that while some cameras obviously have limitations, a good photographer can get a good photo with any camera (ideally, yeah camera limitations and some are just shit especially for specialized uses like low light and whatnot) SO.
Working list of why I chose the P60 in black, and in purple after are my notes after using it all this weekend in 2 caves:
PROS:
- Reviews say it does well in low light conditions across the board Definitly true. Even in a cave I could see stuff in the air, even flash photos were not coming out with a lot of halos, and most, no halos at all, which I was very surprised at. The sensor focuses very well in low light conditions, however on mine (maybe since it is old and used?) seems to sometimes not want to switch focusing from farther away to more zoomed/macro but turning it off/back on would fix it. Not sure why it does that, but it was an easy fix and like I said, it's an old model camera so could be just this one. And it wasn't bad - on/off cycle takes about 10 sec at most, it's fast.
- 5x optical is what my current p&s has, before that the one I destroyed was only 3x so I think it?s good enough, still a decent range it?s 36-180mm equiv, my fav overall lens for my dSLR is 18-200 range was fine. Got amazing closeups, and good wide-angles.
- Manual focus mode This i was dissapointed on. I thought this meant I could have actual control over it. No. What it actually means that instead of autoselecting focus for you, it means you get to pick from a grid on the screen in 8 x 11 (so 88 possible points) of where you want it to focus /for/ you. you're not actually changing it yourself, just telling it where to look.
- Manual f/stop and shutter speed (a fully manual) mode For the f/stop I was dissapointed. You only get 2 options at each focal length. f/3.6 and f/8.5 at 36mm equiv, and fully extended at 180mm equiv is f/4.5 and f/10.9. Shutter speed was fine, 8 sec to 1/1200, with good numbers between.
- Programmed auto mode Sadly programmed auto didn't mean what I thought it did, I thought it meant I could program it for lightpainting, say, and it'd remember that. No, it means that it picks the f/stop and shutter speed for you, but you can manually do ISO and do manual focusing, which you can't on their auto mode.
- Uses 2xAA batteries, so you don?t have to worry about running out of battery on a long trip This is really awesome. And it does use rechargables, so it'll run long time
- ISO seems to do well as far as not being grainy up to around 600/800 Seemed to hold true.
- It is small ( 2.5 x 3.8 x 1.5 inches) Indeed, perfectly fits in a Pelican 1010 case. I mean perfectly.
- I like that it has the eye viewfinder I ended up not using it, actually, to my surprise. But it is a nice option.
- The flash is amazingly great - even in wide angle photos in rooms I could visually see things in the air, I rarely got halos. Very nice surprise!
- Focusing is really great. Honestly, I ended up using this camera more on auto than on manual. It did amazing of selecting the proper settings for the lighting and focusing properly all on it's own without me telling it what to do. So often in the interest of not holding people up too much (unless we were all taking photos) I often just used what it figured out itself. Very surprising to find that.
CONS: still all cons, but what do you expect with a pocket size point and shoot?
- Doesn?t shoot in RAW (but very few p&s do, have to get up to the high end almost-slr ones to get that)
- No A/S/P modes (ditto)
- No accessory shoe (ditto)
But, a photo is worth 1000 words, right? So here goes.
Taken on auto, with flash, in a room that I saw tons of stuff in the air with my own eyes. You can see some dull halos in the dark areas in the back, but that's about all.
Auto with flash on macro of gypsum flowers (eeee first time I've seen gypsum!)
Manual focus engaged, macro, low f/stop to get the dof, ahh that gypsum area was sooo purdy and sparkly! So is this just like popcorn coated in sparkly gypsum or does it have a special name?
Manual focus egaged and up close, to try and blur for bokeh for sparkles as I had troubles figuring out how to get how uber clean and sparkly this whole area was.
Manual focus engaged #2 same image but less out of focus
Another use of the manual focus on some popcorn covered walls
Lightpainting....this was a gorgeous pure white formation room...by now that 600ft straight belly crawl was definitely worth it and I'd forgotten about having to go back through that to leave! Also, we totally never did find this walking passage that was promised. Apparently duckwalking is considered walking, as that was the best we got, even us short folk.
Closer up in the white room, this time using flash + side light.
Same spot, side lighting it.
Close up with flash of about a 10 inch soda straw pillar thing (it went ceiling to floor, but it was a soda straw), only half formed in one spot. How sweet is that?
Past that room was more amazing white formations...like this 20+ foot tall crevice upwards (I know, couldn't stand up here despite the height, geesh!) This was with flash as well.
Sidelighting the floor in that room, it was shades of white but I LOVED the texture...what is this called, btw?
And it didn't even do so bad in the crazy lighting conditions of all the backlight looking upward from yes, ME, on rope. In a freakin' cave. Oh yeah.
And the view back down....
eeeeeeee!
So yeah there you go.
Overall, I <3 it. I think it's as good as you'll get without going fully dSLR, to be honest.
Working list of why I chose the P60 in black, and in purple after are my notes after using it all this weekend in 2 caves:
PROS:
- Reviews say it does well in low light conditions across the board Definitly true. Even in a cave I could see stuff in the air, even flash photos were not coming out with a lot of halos, and most, no halos at all, which I was very surprised at. The sensor focuses very well in low light conditions, however on mine (maybe since it is old and used?) seems to sometimes not want to switch focusing from farther away to more zoomed/macro but turning it off/back on would fix it. Not sure why it does that, but it was an easy fix and like I said, it's an old model camera so could be just this one. And it wasn't bad - on/off cycle takes about 10 sec at most, it's fast.
- 5x optical is what my current p&s has, before that the one I destroyed was only 3x so I think it?s good enough, still a decent range it?s 36-180mm equiv, my fav overall lens for my dSLR is 18-200 range was fine. Got amazing closeups, and good wide-angles.
- Manual focus mode This i was dissapointed on. I thought this meant I could have actual control over it. No. What it actually means that instead of autoselecting focus for you, it means you get to pick from a grid on the screen in 8 x 11 (so 88 possible points) of where you want it to focus /for/ you. you're not actually changing it yourself, just telling it where to look.
- Manual f/stop and shutter speed (a fully manual) mode For the f/stop I was dissapointed. You only get 2 options at each focal length. f/3.6 and f/8.5 at 36mm equiv, and fully extended at 180mm equiv is f/4.5 and f/10.9. Shutter speed was fine, 8 sec to 1/1200, with good numbers between.
- Programmed auto mode Sadly programmed auto didn't mean what I thought it did, I thought it meant I could program it for lightpainting, say, and it'd remember that. No, it means that it picks the f/stop and shutter speed for you, but you can manually do ISO and do manual focusing, which you can't on their auto mode.
- Uses 2xAA batteries, so you don?t have to worry about running out of battery on a long trip This is really awesome. And it does use rechargables, so it'll run long time
- ISO seems to do well as far as not being grainy up to around 600/800 Seemed to hold true.
- It is small ( 2.5 x 3.8 x 1.5 inches) Indeed, perfectly fits in a Pelican 1010 case. I mean perfectly.
- I like that it has the eye viewfinder I ended up not using it, actually, to my surprise. But it is a nice option.
- The flash is amazingly great - even in wide angle photos in rooms I could visually see things in the air, I rarely got halos. Very nice surprise!
- Focusing is really great. Honestly, I ended up using this camera more on auto than on manual. It did amazing of selecting the proper settings for the lighting and focusing properly all on it's own without me telling it what to do. So often in the interest of not holding people up too much (unless we were all taking photos) I often just used what it figured out itself. Very surprising to find that.
CONS: still all cons, but what do you expect with a pocket size point and shoot?
- Doesn?t shoot in RAW (but very few p&s do, have to get up to the high end almost-slr ones to get that)
- No A/S/P modes (ditto)
- No accessory shoe (ditto)
But, a photo is worth 1000 words, right? So here goes.
Taken on auto, with flash, in a room that I saw tons of stuff in the air with my own eyes. You can see some dull halos in the dark areas in the back, but that's about all.
Auto with flash on macro of gypsum flowers (eeee first time I've seen gypsum!
)
Manual focus engaged, macro, low f/stop to get the dof, ahh that gypsum area was sooo purdy and sparkly! So is this just like popcorn coated in sparkly gypsum or does it have a special name?
Manual focus egaged and up close, to try and blur for bokeh for sparkles as I had troubles figuring out how to get how uber clean and sparkly this whole area was.
Manual focus engaged #2 same image but less out of focus
Another use of the manual focus on some popcorn covered walls
Lightpainting....this was a gorgeous pure white formation room...by now that 600ft straight belly crawl was definitely worth it and I'd forgotten about having to go back through that to leave! Also, we totally never did find this walking passage that was promised. Apparently duckwalking is considered walking, as that was the best we got, even us short folk.
Closer up in the white room, this time using flash + side light.
Same spot, side lighting it.
Close up with flash of about a 10 inch soda straw pillar thing (it went ceiling to floor, but it was a soda straw), only half formed in one spot. How sweet is that?
Past that room was more amazing white formations...like this 20+ foot tall crevice upwards (I know, couldn't stand up here despite the height, geesh!
) This was with flash as well.
Sidelighting the floor in that room, it was shades of white but I LOVED the texture...what is this called, btw?
And it didn't even do so bad in the crazy lighting conditions of all the backlight looking upward from yes, ME, on rope. In a freakin' cave. Oh yeah.
And the view back down....
eeeeeeee!
So yeah there you go.
Overall, I <3 it. I think it's as good as you'll get without going fully dSLR, to be honest.
