After possibly totally putting you off considering the Nikon Coolpix P60 in A Day Off & A New Camera: Part II (page 1), let me show you what the P60 can do really well.

Sunsets, Night Sky, and Other Low Light Images

We live in an area bounded by an oil refinery ten miles to the southwest and a "clean coal" fired powerplant just a mile or so to the southeast. While both businesses would probably strenuously object to this statement, we enjoy some incredible sunsets and early evening night skies probably due to the pollution in the air.

Incredible yellows, oranges, and even deep reds color the evening sky and clouds. I just stood outside for ten to fifteen minutes one evening this week watching the sky change. The P60's "Sunset," "Dusk/dawn," and "Night landscape" settings are incredible.

With a sturdy tripod, you can even get into some light astrophotography with a one second exposure time. Below is the November 26, 2008, alignment of Venus and Jupiter in the early evening. While not quite good enough for publication, I thought it was pretty good.

Early in November, the Moon and Venus were strutting their stuff in the early evening sky.

I've read elsewhere that the P60's low light capabilities aren't up to par, but I think those references were probably pointed at the weak flash in indoor photography. For an inexpensive digital, the P60 really rocks for sunsets and such.

I think I'll just shut up for a minute here and show you some of the shots I've gotten in just two months. Some of them have been good enough for inclusion on my free Desktop Photos page. Others just made it to my desktop photo rotation on my computer.

And yeah, the ugly face of advertising now creeps into the column. I've gotta pay my bills, too!

I threw in that last frame that appears black, as I'd worried at one time that the camera was producing vibration on time exposures. It wasn't. My old tripod was just wobbly. The larger image shows Venus and Jupiter as fairly well defined, bright points in the black sky.

True Colors

While it's something one doesn't consider much, the P60's ability to render colors accurately is a strength. You can mess with the color by using different modes, but by and large, the P60 does this one well in well lit situations.

The shot above was taken on an afternoon bike ride. The color contrast of the green grass, golden soybeans, blue sky with whitish clouds, and Shep, a border collie cross who decided to come live with us a year ago, illustrate what every color camera should do well: true color rendition.

The blue heron in the mists of Turtle Creek Reservoir shows pretty well in so-so lighting. I like that the camera still got the leaves in the lower left of the photo exposed correctly.

Image Stabilization

As to the heron, they're terribly shy, and I still don't have a "keeper" that I like of them. And that's after five years of trying with three different camera and lens combinations. I've tried to coast up close to them in my truck, and I've crept up on them on my bike. The best I've done was recently with the P60 using its telephoto capabilities. Since I'm now 60, and my hands aren't as steady as they once were, the P60's image stabilization really helps. I purchased a 3X teleconverter lens with my Nikon Coolpix 4300, but never got much use out of it. The 4300, and most similar cameras of that period, did not have image stabilization. The combination of zooming and the teleconverter required a tripod or a very stable base to produce sharp images.

Note that the P60 does not accept add-on lenses. But from my experience with its zoom lens, I don't think I'll need them.

"Product" Photography

The P60 appears to be capable of doing some pretty nice images for column illustrations and product photography. I haven't done too much of this type of work with it yet, but once I learn all the controls, I think it will be fine.

One of the first things I did with the P60 was to get a shot of the Nikon 3X Teleconverter, as I planned to put it up for sale on eBay. I was pleased to see that the lettering on the lens and the adapter at its base were quite sharp.

The geranium seed shown above are small, but the P60 was able to grab them nicely. Adding a bit of a ruler to the photo really keeps you on your toes as a photographer. The seeds can have a bit of irregularity at the edges, but the ruler is totally unforgiving to the photographer. The dustlike gloxinia seeds shown at right and the ruler had to be run through the sharpen filter twice before I got a decent image (with the old Coolpix 4300).

People, Pets, and Everything Else

The Coolpix P60, unlike the Coolpix 4300, has very little delay from the autofocus. It's there, but it's nothing like the delay of the 4300.

The P60 has a redeye correction setting that I've yet to use. But even with that, there's just too little distance between the flash and lens for there not to be some redeye. I try to remember to check for redeye in iPhoto and correct it there before I copy images to my regular image folder for processing with Photoshop.

No redeye correction	Redeye corrected in iPhoto

Above, my grandson, Brady, has redeye while my wife, Annie, doesn't. I just don't think there's any way to totally avoid the redeye and just routinely do the corrections in iPhoto.

On a positive note, the flash exposure for this shot was excellent. I did, however, use Photoshop's auto levels control on the left shot. You can tell from the slightly lighter background.

Here's a collection of images that I think came out well with the P60.

One of the things I did with the old 4300 was a series of images out our kitchen window. I've sorta chronicled the seasons and such. I was pleased to see that the P60 would be able to continue that series of photos. Maybe I'll do an "Out My Window" column someday.

Thanks and Copyright Stuff

Thanks to Jen and Hutch for being patient with a proud grandpa and allowing him to use photos of their children in this column. Also note that some of the garden photos included are ©2008 Senior-Gardening.com, rather than my usual copyright notice.

Senior Gardening

At 60 and unemployed retired, I've wondered what the future holds for me. I'd still like to get back into the classroom, but right now, both Annie and I wonder how I'd find the time to teach with everything else I have going on. Educators' News is back up and running and takes several hours a day to maintain.

Senior-gardening.com is my new venture in web sites, combining my passions for gardening, photography, and web design. It's still very much in beta (alpha?), as I don't have the software up that will eventually run it. Currently, it just has my garden blog, a few feature articles, and some yummy recipes. Eventually, I hope to have it be an interactive watering hole for fellow seniors to post their own garden blogs, chat about whatever, and of course, make me a ton of money.

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