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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aeajr" data-source="post: 3660403" data-attributes="member: 144708">Started birding in January 2017.I have had the B700 since July.  Prior to this I was using an Olympus of a similar body style with a 15X zoom and 12 MP chip that we have had for years.  Love the Olympus for general tourist and snap shooting.  Now I was using it for quick shots to help identify birds.    I was also using a Cannon Elph with a 12X zoom and a 16 mp chip.  Again, very nice pocket and snap shoot camera but I wanted a longer zoom.Back in the 80s I had a Cannon AE-1 35 mm with several lenses.  So I have been down that path.  I knew that I was more interested in the convenience of a superzoom over the flexibility of a DSLR with a bag of lenses.My wife has trouble walking so we typically drive to a location and do our birding from the parking area.  We sit in the car or set chairs near the car and see what we can from there.  Surprisingly we see a lot.  I logged 107 ebird reports and 72 species this year.The 60X zoom lets me capture shots of birds at a distance so before they fly away.   As an upgrade from the two cameras above it has been great.    Zoom in , capture 5-10 shots then use the rear screen and digital zoom to compare the birds to the books or apps.  Or look at them on the bigger screen at home.I am not a serious photographer by any stretch of the imagination.   I don't make use of the wide array of control features and I don't edit raw, at least not yet.   But, for what I use it for it has been great!  And we have captured some impressive shots.I am quite surprised at how well you can shoot at full zoom, 1440 mm equivalent, holding freehand.   Not all of the shots are razon sharp but I am not surprised by that when I am shooting this long.  The image stabilization works very well but I can tell you that, from using binoculars, my hold is not rock steady.  I am considering getting a monopod.  I have 3 tripods but that would be too restrictive.Overall the light weight and long zoom make this a great camera for my purpose.  I do most of my shooting on automatic though I am starting to explore the aperture and shutter priority features and the rapid sequence shooting.  I shoot some video but mostly stills.We went to Cape May NJ for a 4 day birding convention in October.  I got hundreds of shots of all kinds of birds that we don't normally see on Long Island, NY.   I also captured a number of videos of several minutes long.  If the camera had been bigger and heavier it would not have gotten as much use.I took some photography classes while I was there and it was clear that the "serious" photographers were not using superzoom cameras.    I didn't care.  The B700 does what I want it to do.  The one thing I got out of those classes was to "shoot away".  Expect 90% of the shots to be crap.  You are looking for that 10% that have merit and the 2% that may actually be good. This advice was coming from the guy with the $5000 camera body and the $3000 lens who runs tours around the world to photograph birds.  This is not like the old days of 24 shots on a roll of film to be developed so you can see the photos a week later.   SHOOT!If you are a serious photographer you may be able to get great results with this camera but I am not the person to report on that.  For the advanced snap shooter who does not want to mess with interchangeable lenses or a camera budget in the thousands, this can be a great option.I got it as part of a package with 2 extra batteries.   I have never had to change batteries within a day of shooting.  But having a second battery is recommended so that you don't have to worry about it, especially if you might forget to recharge for the next day's shooting.   I also have 2 32 GB cards.  Again, I have never even approached filling a card in a day but I can see someone shooting raw or 4K video needing a larger card.  Having the second card as a back-up is my goal, just in case. They are cheap so why not?The camera has wireless connectivity capability that can connect it to my phone to transfer shots immediately to the cloud.  I don't use this feature and likely never will.I am a very happy Nikon B700 customer who is shooting away, enjoying the birds and having a great time.  There is so much to see and so much I have missed over the years.  The B700 is helping me see so much more than I did before.Hope someone finds that useful.</blockquote>

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