Nikon COOLPIX P900 Digital Camera (Black)

Perhaps one of the best cameras I have owned. I bought it because it has a 24-2000mm lens and a lot of different modes. This camera is actually my second one. The first one's base broke off when it was mounted on a tripod. So I'm extra careful with this one. It's been over a year since I bought it. Everyone I show it too is impressed with the pictures I've taken. I especially like how I can zoom in on the moon and other objects to get excellent pictures. People think I'm using a telescope! I would purchase it again if anything goes wrong.

The media could not be loaded. [Edit: After years of use, this camera is still going strong! I am raising my rating to five stars because this camera has been such a reliable performer and a delight to use. My favorite settings for birding are P-mode with spot focus and spot exposure. I don't always nail focus, or capture birds darting from branch to branch, with this camera when I am zoomed all the way to 2000mm (in 35mm full frame equivalent), but when I have the time to get a bird in the frame and nail the focus the results are spectacular. The zoom reach of this camera has totally spoiled me. Even though I have played with the Sony RX10IV and loved it, the 600mm zoom reach of that camera seem paltry by comparison to the 2000mm reach of the p950. Nikon, you have won the hearts of us birders. Keep up the good work!]This is a fun camera, and I realize that there is nothing like it available from other manufacturers, but I still want Nikon to make some improvements to the next version of this camera so they can compete with Sony and Panasonic in areas other than zoom reach.Make no mistake, buy this camera if you like to look at birds and animals like seals that are typically too far away to get a good picture of. I have had the camera only a few weeks and already I have found that the P900 is the perfect complement to my bird watching hobby.The P900 is light enough to carry around my neck without any fatigue, and the massive zoom can capture pretty much any bird or animal I see on my nature walks. I think of the camera as the ultimate pair of binoculars, and the photos are helping me appreciate nature more than ever. I saw a seagull in the distance and couldn't make out what it was doing, so I trained the P900 on it and saw that the bird was eating a crab. I never would have been able to see this scene without this camera and I am thrilled to be able to delve into nature this way.The auto-focus works very well for most subjects. The jpegs of non-moving birds and animals have a great amount of detail and the auto exposure settings typically produce good results.The video works surprisingly well when locked down tight on a tripod. When you are into the long zoom reach you have to account for atmospheric distortion, which should temper your expectations, but also make you realize that the reach of this lens is colossal. Any camera movement will ruin your shot with a Jello-like shake, so for video it is best to lock the camera on a tripod and focus on non-moving subjects or plan for animals to walk into your frame and then let them walk out of the frame rather than panning to follow their path.The Timelapse feature is a joy to use and the menu settings for it are easy to navigate and understand. However, I would love to see the timelapse videos look a bit smoother. And, that brings me to my final thought on this camera.What I would love to see from Nikon in a future version of this camera is better image quality overall. For still photos I would love to see the option to shoot RAW, and for video I would appreciate having 4K. A microphone input and built-in ND filters would be nice, too.I don't know what Nikon's plans are, but if they make a fancier version of this camera to compete with bridge cameras like the Sony RX10 III and the Panasonic FZ2500, then I will be among the first in line to pick it up.[Edit: Nikon now has the p950 and the p1000, and I have played with both. When I am ready to upgrade I will probably go with the p950 or something like it over the p1000 because I found that the p1000 with its smaller aperture produced grainier photos than the p900/p950. I like the longer reach of the p1000, but the photos from the p900/p950 just look more clear to me than the p1000 images.]

I've been putting the camera through its paces for several weeks now. It's definitely a birder's dream. No need to carry my Nikon SLR around with all the lenses. This camera has great light gathering ability, even at full zoom.A technical comment on the claim of 83x magnification. Prior to digital zoom cameras, zoom was measured (binoculars, telescopes) as the magnification over visual. The 35mm visual level is about 50mm. The camera manufacturers (all of them) started using "zoom" as the magnification over the lowest wide-angle setting, in the case of this camera, 28mm. So, expect about 40x magnification, not 80x. That said, the 16mp sensor allows you to magnify the picture several times on your computer and get very good results. A few of the reviewers said the pictures at high zoom weren't clear. I suspect that they are shooting at great distances expecting sharp images, and as astronomers know, all the air instability and particulate matter in between the lens and the subject are magnified and can cause very muddy images. I am finding at a distance of under 100 yards, the pictures are remarkably clear.As a snapshot camera, it doesn't provide any improvement over an 8mp I-Phone camera, so I won't be carrying the camera around to social events. However, at a recent large meeting, I was able to take a shot of a group engaged in conversation from about 50 feet, and everyone thought they had taken a selfie.There is a long learning curve. I probably have only used about 20% of the capabilities and am rethinking my methods of bird photography in view of its prowess. For positive bird identification, I usually start with a 50mm view and then zoom in to about 1000mm, keeping the bird solidly in the viewfinder and taking the photo. Then at home I further enlarge the photo to verify the identity. I even find myself setting the camera at about half zoom, aiming at about where the bird is, knowing that I can get a good enlargement of the bird at home.Several additional advantages of this camera:There is no mirror to cause camera shake. I'm rather amazed at the clarity of the photos, even at high zoom.The flip out screen not only allows me to see the frame from many angles, but it protects the screen from damage.The auto-focus works much better than my old Nikon, particularly with birds high up in flight. If I can get the bird in the frame, the auto-focus will work on it.It appears the flash is stronger and more under control than my old Nikon.So, I'll give it a 5. More than meets my expectations at an affordable price.