14 DAY TRIAL // Following some more or less disappointing financial results for Q1 posted yesterday, the Japanese company Nikon has decided that it's about time to boost its sales and launched no less than 6 new models, most of them targeting especially mainstream photographers. The new digital cameras are all members of the COOLPIX family, Nikon's point-and-shoot family of cameras, with the P6000 being crowned at the top of the current (and future) line of products.
Since the P6000 is touted to be the new flagship of the entire COOLPIX series, we'll take a closer look at what this particular device has to offer. According to Nikon's statement, the camera features a new 13.5 megapixel, 1/1.7-in CCD image sensor, accompanied by a 4x Zoom-NIKKOR lens with ED lens elements, which covers focal lengths from a wide 28mm (35mm format equivalent). The focus distance ranges between 50 cm and infinity, while the ISO sensitivity can go as high as 6400.
Furthermore, the P6000 also offers certain customization features clearly inspired by Nikon's famous DSLR line, like, for example, the Mode Dial (for quick access to the various shooting modes), as well as support for NRW (RAW). The device sports 48 MB of internal flash memory, but most users will probably rely on SD and SDHC cards for much more storage space.
Another very interesting innovation introduced by the engineers from Nikon is the wired LAN support, which offers easy access to the Internet for automatic and secure online image storage. Additionally, a new built-in GPS (Global Positioning System) unit can record the location of shots when taken and attach "geotags" with information about latitude and longitude to each image file, a feature that can prove to be extremely helpful when recreating routes in Google Earth, for example.
The outside of the camera is just as interesting as the inside, since the P6000 sports a front panel made of solid magnesium alloy (Mg), a comfortable grip covered in grid-pattern rubber and an optical viewfinder that aids composition, particularly in brightly-lit conditions.
Last, but certainly not least, we'll mention that the P6000 has a price tag to match is flagship status: 500 US dollars.
Next in line is the S710, which sports a 14.5 megapixel 1/1.72-inch CCD sensor, 3.6x Zoom-NIKKOR lens and a focal range of 28-101mm (35mm format equivalent). The body is manufactured from stainless steel, which makes it rather tough and ready to be used even while on the go.
The S610c/S610 models represent yet another notable presence in Nikon's roster, since they're touted to have the world's fastest start-up times, of just around 0.7 seconds. They also feature a 3.0-inch LCD monitor with a wide-viewing angle of 170 degrees and anti-reflection coating, as well as a 10-megapixel CCD sensor, a 4x Zoom-NIKKOR lens capable of 28mm wide-angle shooting (35mm format equivalent) and optical VR image stabilization. Notably, the S610c also features a built-in WiFi module, for easier transfer of the digital photos to a host computer, and both cams are priced at around 280 US dollars.
The last models in the new COOLPIX series are the S560 and S60, both of which are equipped with 10-megapixel CCD sensors and 5x Zoom-NIKKOR lenses, with the main difference that the S60 is controlled almost completely via the 3.5-inch touchscreen LCD display and can be connected to a TV set via an HDMI interface. They'll sell for around $250 (the S560) and $350 (the S60), as soon as they arrive in stores later on this month.
We are just a few, but there are many of you, Softpedia users, out there. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to create an email address for you to help us a little in finding gadgets we missed. Interesting links are bound to be posted with recognition going mainly to those who submit. The address is 
.
