The honour of having the world’s longest zoom bridge camera is sure going to put a considerable amount of weight when one is reviewing Nikon Coolpix P900. The camera which as per the talks of the market is to be believed, is currently leading it for its optical zoom ratio of 83x, which is further equivalent to 24-2000 mm in 35 mm terms.
To all the non-professionals reading this number, it is a pretty impressive number for a camera. It means that the Nikon is claiming that this camera can see things which a normal human eye cannot. So for all those who want to have all those minute details in their photographs (for example- the surface of the moon), the camera is their best option. Being priced at around $599, Nikon Coolpix P900 boasts of having a Dynamic Fine Zoom – a digital zoom which can boost up to 166x. And yes, it only comes in black!
One of the most impressive feature of this camera is that it does not only boast of having a far better zoom, but the company has also tried to handle the resulting image blur which comes free with a long zoom. The inclusion of Dual Detect Optical VR system gives 5-stop advantage to the photographer.
Also the Nikon has stressed that the battery life of this camera is far better than its contemporaries of around 360 shots. Talking in a practical sense, the battery life is surely not going to be a disappointment if the needs of a professional is taken into consideration. One can also shoot time lapse movies.
The camera is no doubt, heavy. And being a bridge camera does not give this one any extra doubt of the benefit. The grip owing to the heavy weight is also large. The screen which is 3 inches and fully articulated, this time does not have the magic of touch-sensitivity.
The camera provides full manual control, in addition with different range of automatic, semi – automatic and scene modes. Along with that, many inbuilt digital effects are there which can be applied either during the action or after the take is done.
For video recording (1080 p), the camera has directional microphone which adapts itself according to the zoom settings. The traditional installation of Wi-Fi and GPS like every other Nikon camera does not find any exception of the Nikon Coolpix P900.
Nikon has gone a step further seeing the popularity of smartphone by installing a free app from Google Play store to control the camera from the photographer’s smartphone or to use the same for downloading the captured images.
One of the main problems that these cameras face is shutter lag. To lower down the damage of this problem, Nikon has added a new feature of ‘rapid AF’, which has the ability to have a response time of approximately 0.12 seconds.
Be it the focal range, or the methods to curb the image blur at long zoom ratio, the camera has tried to prove its worth in almost every field. One factor does hurt a little about its heavy weight, but seeing the other achievements, the Nikon Coolpix P900 is sure going to taste success in the market.
Price: $599 approx.
