Coolpix P series? (1 Viewer)

Brian Stone · Apr 27, 2006

The IS certainly works sometimes. This shot taken with the P4 with a 1 second exposure.

Brian Stone · Jun 7, 2006

A Little Tern at c.200m range using the P4 handheld (using the tape reel adaptor) and panning in flight. f6.1, 1/287s, ISO50. I prefocused on something at approximately the right distance.

PWG · Jun 9, 2006

Modular said:
Silly question ... Can you turn the "VR" ... "IS" ... Off?, So when mounted on the
Tripod it does'nt damage it if that is the case?,

The VR is controlled by a button on top of the camera and has three settings. Off, on, active. The active setting is for panning.

Jason Bugay Reyes · Jul 2, 2006

anyone have tried the Nikon P3 ?

FrankD · Jul 6, 2006

anyone have tried the Nikon P3

I may be off base but isn't the P3 the same as the P4 but one has the WiFi feature and the other does not?

Jason Bugay Reyes · Aug 23, 2006

any other results with the P1 and P4 ?

Brian Stone · Aug 23, 2006

P4 digiscoping

The attached pictures are taken with the P4 handheld with a collar to the 20x eyepiece of a Leica APO77. I have not applied any processing to the pictures. Each picture appears full frame resized to 640x480 and with a 640x480 portion cropped with no resizing.

The first shot is taken at the widest lens setting (reported as 13mm, f/3.5, 1/222s) and the second just beyond the half way point of the zoom range (26mm, f/5.3, 1/54s). The lens is noticably soft at the higher zoom positions.

All shots taken in fine mode 3264x2448.

ray2758 · Nov 9, 2006

avan said:
The downside of the P serie are the lcd that even it's big and clear, it's of low resolution and are on the soft side and so difficult to make a very fine tuning of the focus. This combined with a not really precise autofocus lend to slighly soft image. He 2X loupe viewfinder is a must with this camera. Photosolve in USA.( In UK eagleeye have it in stock) was out of order of is excellent viewfinder (wide model for 2.5" lcd) so I made one with a cheaper plastic slide viewer hold with velcro, and this help me a lot with the focus.

I have the ED82 and P4 got it just a month ago. I got the same problem as Avan & brianhstone mentioned that dgiscoped pictures by P4 are quite soften just like inaccurate focused. However I believed I have tuned the focus to the best position afterward when I found the problem. Please see the attached picture taken by P4 with lens zooming out almost to max.

Avan and Brian, can you tell me what magic you have played to make your later posted pictures taken so sharp so clear as I read carefully you didn't mention the remedies, just got from Avan mentioned a 2X loupe viewfinder was added to enhance the focus tuning. So, isn't it P4's soften problem was only caused by inaccurate focusing? Also, can you please tell me the "soften" problem is not exisitng or not in zoomed pictures after using the 2X loupe to provide accurate focusing?

Thanks a lot !

Ray

Brian Stone · Nov 9, 2006

I've attached a couple of unprocessed crops. These are quite tight one-to-one crops and are not resized at all.

There is definitely an issue with focussing. The Grey Wagtail shot shows that the picture is really sharp at the left hand side despite focussing on the wagtail. this has happened quite often with the point of focus usually just behind the subject, which then inevitably looks soft.

To prove it can be done the Meadow Pipit was at the point of focus. Is this because there is no background to fool the autofocus or did I just get lucky?

I still can't seem to get an acceptably sharp shot once zooming in beyond half way.

One thing I've changed recently on the camera settings is to set the in-camera sharpening to high.

Brian Stone · Nov 9, 2006

To answer your other point once they are in the computer I crop, adjust brightness and contrast, sharpen a little, resize and add a final bit of sharpening - in that order. The two shots above end up as attached.

Neil · Nov 9, 2006

The DpReview does mention focusing issues with the camera which would be magnified when on a scope http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikonp3/page8.asp
If this is inherent in the camera then you may to to go to Manual Focus mode (Infinity Focus ) if the screen is up to getting acurate focus this way. Also bumping up the in-camera Sharpening may be the way to go. Neil.

Neil · Nov 9, 2006

Zoom settings

The first shot is taken at the widest lens setting (reported as 13mm, f/3.5, 1/222s) and the second just beyond the half way point of the zoom range (26mm, f/5.3, 1/54s). The lens is noticably soft at the higher zoom positions.

Brian, Are you sure that the zoom numbers are right? I would have thought that wide zoom would be about 7 mm and full zoom about 29 mm. If you were at 26 mm and that is almost full zoom then that would be the reason that the images are coming out a bit soft. Neil.

Brian Stone · Nov 9, 2006

You are quite right I must have been zoomed in on those shots. Just taken a set of three, one at fully wide, one mid-way and one fully zoomed and the reported focal lengths are 8, 16 and 26mm.

How do you set infinity focus on this camera?

Brian Stone · Nov 9, 2006

Focal length for the Grey Wag shot was 13mm and the Mipit, 10mm.

Neil · Nov 9, 2006

Brian, Normally Infinity Focus is a Mountain symbol. Neil.

Brian Stone · Nov 9, 2006

That mode still seems to try to focus on closer objects and more distant ones are out of focus.

ray2758 · Nov 10, 2006

These 2 photos are the sharpest and clearest among the all I took from P4 +ED82 (I got them just 1 month), birds were around 1X M away. For me as a beginner, pictures in such quality are beautiful, pleased me and my family very much already. But, I am still unhappy with the sharpness particularly on the feather which is quite soft. I think P4 will get a much better picture if it was used alone.

Anyway, I will try Neil's suggestion to use "mountain" focus mode, Avan's way a 3X plastic map viewer (US$4) good fit to the screen of P4 was bought and Brain's PS.

:clap: :clap: :clap:

ray2758 · Nov 10, 2006

Do you think if I adjust the appertures to smaller to obtain deeper depth-of-field can impove it ?

Neil · Nov 11, 2006

The quality of light makes a big difference to feather detail over distance. For best results stick to 7-10 meters for small birds. These photos were taken at about 20 meters in slightly hazy but bright light. If the bird is moving you are unlikely to get sharp photos at the magnifications that we use. Don't expect to get sharp photos of feeding wagtails or waders. Neil.

Nikon CP8400 plus Swarovski STS80HD scope and Sw 30x eyepiece and DCA adapter

Bob Thompson · Nov 11, 2006

Neil said:
The quality of light makes a big difference to feather detail over distance. For best results stick to 7-10 meters for small birds. These photos were taken at about 20 meters in slightly hazy but bright light. If the bird is moving you are unlikely to get sharp photos at the magnifications that we use. Don't expect to get sharp photos of feeding wagtails or waders. Neil.

Nikon CP8400 plus Swarovski STS80HD scope and Sw 30x eyepiece and DCA adapter

The attached shot was taken in the rain at Olympic Park Wetlands in Sydney Australia at a distance of 20-30 metres. As Neil states it is very difficult to get feeding waders in bad light conditions

Nikon 8400 with Swarovski ATS 80HD, 30x eyepiece and fixed DCA

Coolpix P series? (1 Viewer)

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