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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

83x anyone? The new Nikon P900 (1 Viewer)

Although I've been a forum member for several years, I've rarely logged on and pretty much just read for information. I am a photographer first, birder second and I have a good chunk of $$ invested in Canon lenses and bodies. But there are many times when I'm in the car and I lose out on a good photo opportunity because I didn't have a camera with a decent range sitting on the seat next to me.

My wife has had a Canon SX40 for several years and it's her "go-to" camera to take on her local and world-wide travels... she has come back from Kenya, Namibia and Alaska with some exceptional images... and she won't let it out of her sight!

Just took a peek at the page you linked to (beautiful images!) and thought I should mention that good BIFs are probably not the P900's strong suit. Buffering is slow....about a second a shot, a bit more if you're set to "fine" as opposed to regular jpeg. (no raw) So if you fire off a burst of the maximum seven shots, it'll be 7 to 9 seconds before you can shoot again, very frustrating when you can still see the bird but are waiting on the camera.

Autofocus is quick, but everything else is much slower than it is on the SX50. SX60's even faster than the SX50 and has a very good EVF, but the IS on the two cameras I tried was inferior, and I won't use a monopod. Some people seem to have gotten good copies though, and are taking great pics with them.
 
On the SX50 the only time I had issues with light leakage looking into the EVF was just this winter when with so much snow, snow blindness made it very hard for me to switch immediately to looking into the viewer. I needed time to adjust and would also cup my hand around the viewer.

Crazy, I think most are like you, with only an occasional problem in unusual conditions. I have very light sensitive eyes and not the best vision.....only mention it in case others struggle with those issues, so they'll know it isn't easily remedied at the moment.
 
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Just took a peek at the page you linked to (beautiful images!) and thought I should mention that good BIFs are probably not the P900's strong suit. Buffering is slow....about a second a shot, a bit more if you're set to "fine" as opposed to regular jpeg. (no raw) So if you fire off a burst of the maximum seven shots, it'll be 7 to 9 seconds before you can shoot again, very frustrating when you can still see the bird but are waiting on the camera.

Autofocus is quick, but everything else is much slower than it is on the SX50. SX60's even faster than the SX50 and has a very good EVF, but the IS on the two cameras I tried was inferior, and I won't use a monopod. Some people seem to have gotten good copies though, and are taking great pics with them.

Thanks for your comments on the images... always appreciated!

Chances are that I'll not be attempting BIF with the Nikon! I tried a couple of times with the SX40, and decided that the camera's "strong suit" was its ability to get great perched shots at pretty good distances. That would be my primary goal with the P900. Knowing me though, I'd try it with the P900 anyway :)...

One thing though that I have not seen was a lens hood for the lens. Granted wide shots would suffer from vignetting, but having even a rubber one to put over the front to block extraneous light from hitting the front element for long tele shots would be a useful accessory, since it appears that the front element is pretty close to the end...

Chris
 
mzettie, is the stabilization on the P900 as good as the SX50 do you think? Keep in mind I almost always shoot with the 2x teleconverter on with the SX50 so I'd be comparing the SX50 at 100x.
 
Thanks for your comments on the images... always appreciated!

Chances are that I'll not be attempting BIF with the Nikon! I tried a couple of times with the SX40, and decided that the camera's "strong suit" was its ability to get great perched shots at pretty good distances. That would be my primary goal with the P900. Knowing me though, I'd try it with the P900 anyway :)...

One thing though that I have not seen was a lens hood for the lens. Granted wide shots would suffer from vignetting, but having even a rubber one to put over the front to block extraneous light from hitting the front element for long tele shots would be a useful accessory, since it appears that the front element is pretty close to the end...

Chris

This one was recommended on another forum, but I suppose any 67mm would work. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...ilpage_o04_s00&redirect=true&psc=1&pldnSite=1
 
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mzettie, is the stabilization on the P900 as good as the SX50 do you think? Keep in mind I almost always shoot with the 2x teleconverter on with the SX50 so I'd be comparing the SX50 at 100x.

Crazy, that's a little hard for me to judge. I used digital zoom a lot on the SX50, but mostly NOT in teleconverter mode cause I always wanted to be able to jump back into optical quickly. Using the teleconverter is supposed to decrease shake compared to regular digital zoom, so you may have a different view, but I find the IS (VR on the Nikon) to be good.

That being said, 2000mm, especially where long distances are involved, requires some concentration and good shutter technique, which I'm working on. ;) All the stuff I put in my flickr folder was handheld, if that helps.

I've been impressed with the camera's ability to focus on birds that are partially obscured by twigs, etc., so it must keep the image pretty still for my shaky hands to get the focus square on a piece of the bird.
 
Thanks!

I used digital zoom a lot on the SX50, but mostly NOT in teleconverter mode cause I always wanted to be able to jump back into optical quickly.

I think you'd find it convenient to put the teleconverter on the S button to quickly toggle between OFF, 1.5X and 2X on the SX50.
 
Thanks!



I think you'd find it convenient to put the teleconverter on the S button to quickly toggle between OFF, 1.5X and 2X on the SX50.

Thanks Crazy. It took me awhile to realize I could do that, and when I finally did, I kept forgetting about it...hard to teach an old dog new tricks!

Can't assign digital zoom on the P900, so I guess it's good I didn't get spoiled that way. One thing that bugs me is that the zoom doesn't automatically stop at 2000mm, so it's easy to go into digital range without meaning to. So I just turned digital zoom off, since one of the reasons I bought the Nikon was to be able to get the reach I was getting with the Canon, within optical range. You can do one custom setting on the dial, so I'll probably set that to start-up at a long focal length and leave digital zoom on.

Someone here pointed out that you can leave scene mode set to "birdwatching" (which includes digital zoom automatically) and go to it pretty quickly, so that's another option.
 
The manual's available online, and it's even worse than the SX50's. But familiarizing yourself with it is a great idea, especially if you end up getting the camera. ;)

I got the manual.

So far it looks to me that there is no wild-card "S" button like on the Canon. But I use that to toggle the teleconverter on and off so perhaps that's moot as the P900 has no "Teleconverter" presets. It does look like I can set "U" to extend to a desired zoom at power-on, so maybe I can do with out that.

Only one "U" setting is a drawback. Canon has C1 and C2 and I wish it had a C3.

It does have "Snap-back Zoom" which is nice to see. Same as "Frame Assist" on the Canon. It would be a deal-breaker without that.
 
I got the manual.

So far it looks to me that there is no wild-card "S" button like on the Canon. But I use that to toggle the teleconverter on and off so perhaps that's moot as the P900 has no "Teleconverter" presets. It does look like I can set "U" to extend to a desired zoom at power-on, so maybe I can do with out that.

Only one "U" setting is a drawback. Canon has C1 and C2 and I wish it had a C3.

It does have "Snap-back Zoom" which is nice to see. Same as "Frame Assist" on the Canon. It would be a deal-breaker without that.

P900 has a "FN" (function) button to which shooting functions can be assigned, but digital zoom isn't one of those. The list of what can be assigned is on page 45 of the manual (the first page 45, not the "binoculars page 45," grr...)

I was really happy to have snap-back too, but find I'm not using it as much as I thought I would....maybe cause the EVF's better, allowing me to find the bird with less zooming out (ie, can do it with regular zoom control.)
 
You can tell I'm seriously thinking about getting this camera from the following question:

Does it use a standard mini or micro USB cable or is some crazy expensive and proprietary Nikon cable like the old P100 I had?
 
Well that's a bummer. Nikon probably has it, but I'm not sure how good their return policy is.

Don't really know what to make of it even Amazon and B&H being out of stock. As it is I will probably get one from Amazon but no rush. I keep reading and watching for a real hands-on review. Most of what I can find are pretty much Specs reviews out there.
 
Don't really know what to make of it even Amazon and B&H being out of stock. As it is I will probably get one from Amazon but no rush. I keep reading and watching for a real hands-on review. Most of what I can find are pretty much Specs reviews out there.

After my SX60 experience I don't trust reviews AT ALL.....at least not commercial ones. That's why I won't buy from anyone who doesn't have a good return policy. I figure I'm the only one who really knows what's acceptable to me, and I'm the only one who's in a position to judge the actual camera I end up with.....important cause it seems like there's a good bit of variability from camera to camera, at least in the point and shoot models.
 
More reviews:
http://blandfordstudios.com/camera-and-photography/nikon-coolpix-p900-review/
https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-coolpix-p900
http://psnp.lightshedder.com/ This review contains comparisons with the Canon SX50.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/hands-review/nikon-p900-new-king-super-zooms

Very tempted to buy this camera, in particular since sx50 owner mzettie likes it. Battery capacity isnt quite like sx50, so to be on the safe side i"d need 6-7 reserve batteries for a day trip. Price is already down to euro 549 from 619. Still, the well-rounded, smooth-operating sx50 remains a strong rival...
 
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After my SX60 experience I don't trust reviews AT ALL.....at least not commercial ones. That's why I won't buy from anyone who doesn't have a good return policy. I figure I'm the only one who really knows what's acceptable to me, and I'm the only one who's in a position to judge the actual camera I end up with.....important cause it seems like there's a good bit of variability from camera to camera, at least in the point and shoot models.

Ya that's a big part of my looking mostly at Amazon. If I don't like it I can return in 30 days with no issues.

There as only one hands on review of the SX60 that I found useful and that was the one when it was all about quality at max zoom and the SX50 beat the 60 in that review.
 
I mentioned battery problems with the P900. My original Nikon battery wouldn't charge in the camera. I bought an external charger and two third party batteries. This charged my Nikon battery as well. All ready to handle a full day out in the field tomorrow in the wetlands.
Neil.
 
More reviews:
http://blandfordstudios.com/camera-and-photography/nikon-coolpix-p900-review/
https://photographylife.com/reviews/nikon-coolpix-p900
http://psnp.lightshedder.com/. This review contains comparisons with the Canon SX50.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/hands-review/nikon-p900-new-king-super-zooms

Very tempted to buy this camera, in particular since sx50 owner mzettie likes it. Battery capacity isnt quite like sx50, so to be on the safe side i"d need 6-7 reserve batteries for a day trip. Price is already down to euro 549 from 619. Still, the well-rounded, smooth-operating sx50 remains a strong rival...

Thanks! Interesting that all my Googling didn't find those 4 reviews. The third one down was most useful because of the comparison to the SX50.
 
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