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

Nikon P5000 - first impressions (1 Viewer)

john-henry

Well-known member
Well, I couldn't wait any longer to find out what the P5000 was like for digiscoping so broke the piggy bank and bought one, it arrived yesterday.
After charging the battery I managed to get out for an hour or so and give it a try, first impressions - Brilliant, just what I've been looking for for ages.
Only subject I could find was a male Stonechat at about 20yds but managed a few shots.
After our evening meal I managed a few shots of Jackdaws aound the rear garden, these were about the same distance as the Stonechat, and our neighbours cat about 20ft away.

The camera itself is beautifully designed and felt good using it. No vast menus like the Coolpix's but pretty much the same settings - at least the ones most useful to digiscoping. There's even a thumb grip on the back for hand-holders.
I found the menus easy to navigate and understand and settings can be changed quickly.

Vignetting is very good, about the same as the F30 and A95 on my Zeiss 20-60 zoom, a couple of steps of camera zoom (about 1/3rd zoom) and it's gone for good. One thing I did notice is the camera zoom extends slightly more at the tele end than the wide so when setting up to the scope initially allow for this.
Start up time is good as is focusing and shutter lag, perhaps not the fastest around but it doesn't keep you waiting. Continuous shooting is at 0.8 fps, not the fastest again but it didn't really seem sluggish.
I was quite impressed with the lens, sharp with lots of fine detail, a litle noise at ISO200 in dark areas if you blow it up to 100% and look for it, nothing much to worry about in my book. Noise reduction is gentle and there is none of the watercolour effect some other cameras have.
CA the same, a little but not noticeable unless you're making large prints and easily removed in Photoshop etc.
Colour are good, natural, not the rather overdone colours of many compacts these days.
The 10mpx also makes a huge difference to the amount of magnification needed to get a reasonable sized image, rather than zooming up the scope and camera so much it can be cropped instead, hopefully helping to reduce the effects of vibration etc.

There's still loads of things to try with the camera but my first impressions are it's going to be a great camera for digiscoping, certainly as far as I'm concerned.

A few pics below, Levels and USM was applied then they were cropped to 700x500 px at 300ppi then saved for web so they were about 100K, the 'Jackdaw cropped' one this was done by taking the 700x500 Jackdaw pic, blowing it up to 100% and cropping out another piece at 700x500.

Regards

John
 

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Well from the looks of those shots it does the job wonderfully!

I see an imminent thread coming soon, P5000 vs F30, the battle to be king of the digiscoping hill!!!

Great shots John.
Jaff
 
Fantastic John, the detail on the Jackdaw head, and the Stonechat is impressive. :D

Hope I can get results like that with the P5000 and Nikon ED82 combination, I would be truly happy.

Many thanks

Malc
 
Feathered one said:
Fantastic John, the detail on the Jackdaw head, and the Stonechat is impressive. :D

Hope I can get results like that with the P5000 and Nikon ED82 combination, I would be truly happy.

Many thanks

Malc

I'm sure you will Malc, look forward to seeing your results.

Regards

John
 
Jaff said:
Well from the looks of those shots it does the job wonderfully!

I see an imminent thread coming soon, P5000 vs F30, the battle to be king of the digiscoping hill!!!

Great shots John.
Jaff

I hope not Jaff, the F30 is a great camera for low light situations and, I think, the P5000 will be a better camera for better weather, each has its own merits and playing one off against the other helps no-one.

Regards

John
 
john-henry said:
I hope not Jaff, the F30 is a great camera for low light situations and, I think, the P5000 will be a better camera for better weather, each has its own merits and playing one off against the other helps no-one.

Regards

John

Spoilsport! ;)
 
Great shots.Is there an adaptor for this cam(for a 30x -Swarro scope),and does it use a remote cable.
Those images are very impressive.
 
John

I'm very impressed by these shots, I like the fact that with this camera has more manual control as while I have had some good results from the F30 (still think this is a great camera for the money) sometimes the focusing is not always consistent.

How does it compare to the A95?

Love the detail of the Jackdaw well done all all the pictures.

Many thanks for sharing your 1st impression overview of how the camera performs. :t:

John
 
christineredgate said:
Great shots.Is there an adaptor for this cam(for a 30x -Swarro scope),and does it use a remote cable.
Those images are very impressive.

Hi Christine,
there is a lens adapter available UR-E20 which screws onto a thread at the base of the lens and gives a 28mm thread at the other end, from here you should be able to connect to your scope (similar to connecting your Coolpix I should think).

There doesn't seem to be a remote release but obviously a cable release can be rigged up with a suitable bracket.

Regards

John
 
border reiver said:
John

I'm very impressed by these shots, I like the fact that with this camera has more manual control as while I have had some good results from the F30 (still think this is a great camera for the money) sometimes the focusing is not always consistent.

How does it compare to the A95?

Love the detail of the Jackdaw well done all all the pictures.

Many thanks for sharing your 1st impression overview of how the camera performs. :t:

John

John.
It's really difficult to compare it to the A95, the A95 has about everything I want in a digi camera except it's noisy at ISO100 and above, the P5000 is less noisy and the 10mpx means you don't have to use as much magnification for a good size image so should produce more keepers. If the P5000 had a rotating screen and a custom mode it might be a different matter.

I think it's fair to say I'll be using the P5000 more than the A95, but I'll still have the A95 as a back-up camera

Regards

John
 
Ok just one picture from me taken with the P5000 and Nikon ED82 with 30X DS eyepice.

Been busy today in the garden, and also making my adaptor dual camera capable, in other words will work with the F30 or P5000.

I just waited for the first bird to settle in the garden, then took the picture.

Very pleased with the first bird on camera, but it was only 10 metres away.

Just one gripe so far, and that is you can't charge the battery without taking in out of the camera, also you cant plug in an external power supply, unless anyone knows any different, have only had the camera for 28 hours, and haven't yet read the instruction book (Thanks John Henry).

Malc
 

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Feathered one said:
Ok just one picture from me taken with the P5000 and Nikon ED82 with 30X DS eyepice.

Been busy today in the garden, and also making my adaptor dual camera capable, in other words will work with the F30 or P5000.

I just waited for the first bird to settle in the garden, then took the picture.

Very pleased with the first bird on camera, but it was only 10 metres away.

Just one gripe so far, and that is you can't charge the battery without taking in out of the camera, also you cant plug in an external power supply, unless anyone knows any different, have only had the camera for 28 hours, and haven't yet read the instruction book (Thanks John Henry).

Malc

Hi Malc,
Lovely Dunnock pic, you're off to a good start (I was going to say flying start but thought better of it).

I would have thought taking the battery out of the camera to charge it is an advantage, your camera is unusable for 2 hours otherwise, all you need is a spare battery and you're still in action.
Yes it's a shame there's no facility for an external battery pack, just a mains adapter, but replacement batteries are quite cheap from several places so you could buy several for the price of a power pack. Try 7dayshop.com or global-batteries.co.uk.

Regards

John
 
Hiya John

I take your point about removing the battery to charge. I suppose I have been spoilt with the F30, have used it all day on one battery, then just plug the charger into the camera, and charge the battery overnight, as you say get a spare battery.

A couple of good points so far for me with the P5000

Retention of memory of last used settings.
The function button especially when set for ISO, no more fiddling in menu.
The "glass" plate over the lcd screen, easy to clean fingerprints off.

I am sure there will be others when I get to use the camera more.

Malc
 
john-henry said:
Hi Christine,
there is a lens adapter available UR-E20 which screws onto a thread at the base of the lens and gives a 28mm thread at the other end, from here you should be able to connect to your scope (similar to connecting your Coolpix I should think).

There doesn't seem to be a remote release but obviously a cable release can be rigged up with a suitable bracket.

Regards

John
thanks,John.I do have a manual cable release,but never use it,the plunger always seems to slide off the shutter button.But the shots from this cam seem very,very good.
 
christineredgate said:
thanks,John.I do have a manual cable release,but never use it,the plunger always seems to slide off the shutter button.But the shots from this cam seem very,very good.

Hi Christine,
Re the shutter button you can buy some little felt self adesive pads (I have one on mine) and the problem is solved I think I got them from B & Q.
Regards.
Stan.
 
christineredgate said:
thanks,John.I do have a manual cable release,but never use it,the plunger always seems to slide off the shutter button.But the shots from this cam seem very,very good.

Stan's advice is good, you can also use a bit of stick-on velcro, the part without the hooks on.

regards

John
 
Hi John,

Thanks for posting this, as said already the detail in the pics is very impressive. Will have to follow suit and pick one of these bad boys up when the budget allows...
Will be marrying it to a leica telivid, anyone know what the best adaptor might be??
 
And the VR (vibration reduction) works through the scope as well. took several test pictures while knocking the scope as the camera was taking the picture, no blur at all. Should be a help in windy weather.

Malc
 
Feathered one said:
And the VR (vibration reduction) works through the scope as well. took several test pictures while knocking the scope as the camera was taking the picture, no blur at all. Should be a help in windy weather.

Malc

Hi Malc,

I am reading this thread with real interest. I have a nikon ED82A and I'm just considering which camera to purchase as a total novice to digiscoping. I had narrowed it down to the Fuji f30 or Samsung NV3 however now feel I must add the P5000 as well. As an ed82 user does the P5000 stand out as the one to get above the F30? It's so difficult to reach a decision and I really want to start digiscoping!

Thanks, Kerry
 
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