I have both the 900 and the 1000. Never had a problem with the “autofocus speed” I spend a huge amount of time either sitting or wandering about and if I see something I just point the camera and click ��
One of the best things about the 1000 is the manual focus ring especially when searching in foliage for a bird, a simple click to manual and then a twist of the focus ring and you will be able to pick out any small bird deep in foliage.
To be honest, I have not found any situation where I have been unable to get a shot due to slow focus, or poor light. These type of complaint seem to come from people who don’t actually own or use either of these cameras.
The joys of a modern bridge camera are the versatility to take ANY type of shot, from distant objects (like mars) right down to ants 1 inch from the lens, and the P1000 will do all of these very easily.
A year or so ago, I was out with my 1000 and I was chatting to another guy. It was getting quite dark and a bird swooped down on to a post about 80 yards away. The bird was just a dark shape but I fired off a burst and when I checked after down loading and some editing, it turned out to be a Merlin. Now it took a bit of work to get an even half good image, but the camera had captured enough for me to get quite a good image, certainly more than enough to ID it
Den