Looks like a very intriguing camera for birding- but, maddeningly (and, like some other superzooms,), it appears that the p900 makes you go into the menu to switch to manual focus, giving the bird (the bird that the autofocus is ignoring in favor of focusing on the twigs in front of it) a nice chunk of extra time to disappear, never to be seen again. How about a simple switch on the outside of the camera that instantly flips you from AF to manual focus, & back again, as on the Fuji HS50EXR? Sigh.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/zorac...WT8-qLTGeH-rqD2ko-rzJfv6-rGbaqZ-2LkTeM-rgpUsX
P900 2000mm. What are your opinions?
Looks like a very intriguing camera for birding- but, maddeningly (and, like some other superzooms,), it appears that the p900 makes you go into the menu to switch to manual focus, giving the bird (the bird that the autofocus is ignoring in favor of focusing on the twigs in front of it) a nice chunk of extra time to disappear, never to be seen again. How about a simple switch on the outside of the camera that instantly flips you from AF to manual focus, & back again, as on the Fuji HS50EXR? Sigh.
I agree that a one-step button (preferrably on the left side) would be ideal, but switching to MF on the P900 doesn't require going into the menu and shouldn't be time consuming. The switch is made via the multi-selector on the back of the camera, easily accessed by the right thumb without taking one's eyes off the viewfinder. If you're shooting in AF mode, pressing the top of the dial (once) takes you directly to MF, and your selection is confirmed by pressing "ok" in the center of the dial. It's a two step process but not bad, ergonomically speaking....at least on the P600. The P900 is larger, but I'm hoping that will actually make manipulation of the camera a little easier, since I find the P600's dimensions a little squishy. I'm also hoping the improved EVF on the P900 will facilitate better manual focusing, but haven't found any reports on that yet.
mzettie, thanks for the explanation. Does sound like one could get fairly quick at that, but I find I fairly often have to switch to manual quickly, can't do it quite quickly enough, & miss a shot, even with the one dedicated switch on my HS50- it's just nice to get as much help from the camera as possible in the attempt to be speedy. Sounds like the p900 is pretty fast to operate in other ways though.
It seems you can do it backwards leave it in manual focus then it's one press to auto if you need it. The side tele button can be assigned to focus but it's very slow as I expect it would need to be.
Camera is bigger than nikon 1 v2 with 70_300 cx nice to hold. Didn't get much chance to play with it so far I like it.
Aandeg, I got my P900 today too....too late to do anything with it though. I've been trying to find my way around the menu and functions tonight, and haven't been able to make the transition from MF to AF in one step. Did you find a way to "one button" that function?
Sure would be nice if they'd put a manual focus ring on the barrel.
Like you, my initial impression is positive...but after my experience with the SX60 I want to use the camera in "real life" for awhile before passing judgement.
Hey guys I just to the P900 yesterday and already went out birding with it. I originally had an Olympus with 36 x zoom but quickly upgraded to the legendary Canon SX50. I also had the SX60 for a bit but had to return it because I felt it wasn't $600 better than my SX50.
Now the question is, is the P900 $700 better than my SX50? Could be, but one thing is for sure, it's definitely bigger.
I still have to play around with the settings but I'm not a very technical guy and like things to be as simple as possible. That's one of the reasons I liked the SX50 so much, I could do most things very easily on 'Auto' mode and sometimes even get great pictures. When birding the last thing I wanna do is go hunting for settings half of which I can't remember in the heat of the birding moment.
Anyway back to the P900...as mentioned it is a huge camera and also very heavy. Not sure how that is going to play out on an all-day birding adventure...but I see others with their massive SLR and lenses so I guess I could bear it.
One thing that does concern me though is how dark the images come out in auto mode. The SX50 is far superior in this regard. Now it could just be my technical ineptitude but you'd think that the default setting would be more balanced. I cannot even see what I took pictures of...no detail just complete darkness. And the lighting was fine, plus I checked on 2 different monitors and it's not that.
I'll keep playing around with the camera but if I can't solve this issue in a simple and effective manner...I'm definitely returning it.
The zoom is fantastic no doubt...it does blow the SX50 out of the water and not just in distance but also detail. Focusing is a bit wishy-washy. I tried to focus in on some very slow moving Canada Geese and I don't know how the camera did not focus on the Geese but the ground instead. With the SX50 you could lock the focus point and ensure that the auto focus would be concentrated on that point. It's very quick, simple and easy and gets even some of the fleeting birds with relative ease.
P900 shutter speed is pretty good but for something that quick and dark, you'd think it would have more detail...maybe it was just the idiotic focus.
Anyway, I'm not a technical person as I already admitted ...and maybe I'm just too used to the SX50 but I'm not giving up just yet.
Edit: I just discovered bird-watching mode...and that concentrated focus point did appear ...very similar to the SX50. Ok this gives me hope again. But the darkness I hope is solve-able too.
BH, you might try setting the exposure compensation up a notch or two and leaving it there. With the camera in shoot mode (not "review" like when you're reviewing shots you just took) press the right side of the ok dial; you'll see a vertical bar with .3 gradations on it. Press the top of the ok dial and go up one, two or even three steps.....press "ok" (center of the dial) and the exposure will be set at whichever level you chose.
Put the camera in Manual Focus then when needed you can use the rotary multi selector around the ok button on the back to Auto Focus without leaving manual focus, Just press the right side of it. You have to be in the mode were you press the ok button first. It has the option to change zoom and autofocus without leaving that mode and without leaving manual focus.
So far there there seems to be 3 ways to manual focus. Rotating the ring around the ok button, using the command dial, and reassigning the zoom on the side of the lens.
Thank you. I did discover that and tried it yesterday but while the preview seems bright, the actual pic still comes out very dark. I almost think there's something wrong with this camera. I have never seen anything so dark in my life.