I have tried every long zoom camera I could get hold of, and without any exception, they have always disappointed me.

All the photos taken with them were extremely soft at the longer zoom, and lack quality.

This year we tried the Nikon P900, which has an 83X optical zoom.

And to say we were all very pleasantly surprised would be an under statement.

When I read 83X optical zoom in your post my first thought was "You could see the rings of Saturn with that!" So I Googled it and, sure enough, people are using that camera to take pictures of Saturn and Jupiter!

They go in and out of stock, so sometimes hard to find. Interesting option though for someone who likes extreme telephoto.

Saeed, how was the fine or spot focusing with partially obscured animals in the bush?

Check these out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfshAzV0FN4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-0X3xJf-kg

Thanks, I've seen both before. No question that the focusing works well when there is only one subject in the focus field. What I am after is how well does the spot focusing perform if there are multiple objects in the field and you are only after one. How selective and fast is the spot focus in other words.

I have a Canon 100-400mm IS II that is absolutely phenomenal in spot focus mode. But there are times something like a 2000mm lens would be cool but don't want to lose the spot focus capabilities for wildlife, etc.

quote:

Originally posted by Opus1:
Saeed, how was the fine or spot focusing with partially obscured animals in the bush?

Frankly, I have not tried that at all.

But, I was able to focus on a bird between twigs quite easily after setting the focus point.

The most difficult part is keeping it steady off hand to actually focus on a small object.

Much easier if you have a rest.

Thanks Saeed. Sounds like the spot focusing is sensitive enough to discern the target from the fore and background. I am going in this direction when in the field as constantly swapping lens on the fly is a PIA, not to mention a daily cleaning to remove dust.

Saeed, I fully agree. I sold a Nikon D5100 with a 70-300 zoom to get a P900. I even sold a 80-400 VR zoom that I never really used because of weight, and the inconvenience of changing lenses in the bush.

Purists will turn their noses up at the tiny sensor, and lesser low-light performance. I don't give a damn about purism... The fact of the matter is that now I do carry my camera, and actually take pictures.

The image stabilisation on the P900 is simply fenomenal, and with some basic technique you can shoot handheld all the way to 2000mm equivalent. One camera and one lens for everything from macro and landscape, to counting ticks on a buff's scrotum... Hard to beat! On top of that, Wi-Fi link so you can download the pictures directly on your phone, and GPS so you can geo-tag your pics.

This camera has put me back into photography. My take? Unless you are a professional photographer aiming for Nat Geo publication, get one of these and throw away your bag of lenses and bodies!

The pictures below are compressed by the hosting server and don't do justice to the original. If you click on them, this will take you to the full size picture, so you can judge by yourself what you can get out of that camera just by aiming and shooting without any particular care for technical details (settings, rest, etc.).


Abyssynian roller, Nikon P900, handheld from a car, 1500mm



Nikon P900, handheld, 2000mm

Splendid

I've had mine a couple of days now. I will say the image stabilization is better than I expected. Nikon claims about 5 stops. Can't argue with that.

What I don't get is why didn't they put in a RAW mode? I realize this is not intended as a "professional" camera, however, even basic pocket cameras have that option.

Looking forward to getting it out in the field. Especially looking forward to my camera bag being pounds lighter and not having to change out lenses on the fly.

The Nikon Saeed started this thread with is a great bridge camera.

The field of bridge and other low-budget cameras is expanding quite rapidly:
http://www.shoponless.com/best-digital-camera-brands/