I guess I may be getting a new camera...

[Clip]

20 hours ago, Kevin said:

Is it tomorrow yet? 

What was your old camera by the way? Did you look into getting it fixed?

Edited July 30, 2021 by Clip

[Seanbirds]

22 hours ago, Kevin said:

Is it tomorrow yet? 

It is! 

[Kevin]

2 hours ago, Clip said:

What was your old camera by the way? Did you look into getting it fixed?

Nikon Coolpix P900.

No we didn't it had other problems. 

[Clip]

1 hour ago, Kevin said:

Nikon Coolpix P900.

No we didn't it had other problems. 

How was your P900? Right now I have a Coolpix B700 and I have a few problems with it even as a new camera. It zooms too slow for one. The color of say a flower isn't always accurate. It is some times difficult to get it to focus on a bird on a fence with a grassy back ground for example but other situations also. Nikon's repair service is terrible. I would love to not get a Nikon next round but Canon has most of the same issues except the slow zoom plus the image stabilization is terrible compared to Nikon. Did they achieve improvements with P900 do you think? The P1000?

[Kevin]

12 minutes ago, Clip said:

How was your P900? Right now I have a Coolpix B700 and I have a few problems with it even as a new camera. It zooms too slow for one. The color of say a flower isn't always accurate. It is some times difficult to get it to focus on a bird on a fence with a grassy back ground for example but other situations also. Nikon's repair service is terrible. I would love to not get a Nikon next round but Canon has most of the same issues except the slow zoom plus the image stabilization is terrible compared to Nikon. Did they achieve improvements with P900 do you think? The P1000?

The lense is fully extended in 3: 34 seconds any other zoom it will do is electronic. 

I have never noticed the coloring being off in the least, except in max zoom, a long ways off and in bad lighting.

As to the auto focus, I can't say it's any better. As you mentioned, if a bird is sitting on a wire or something with be background being distant it can be hard to get it to focus. It is also really hard to get a photo of a bird in flight.

Over all it was a great camera, also I don't blame Nikon at all for it breaking. It was my first camera and it went through some rough things that this next one will not have to. 

I will let you know about the p1000 when it gets here.

[Charlie Spencer]

2 minutes ago, Kevin said:

As to the auto focus, I can't say it's any better.

Manual focus should be easier on the P1000.  If I recall, it has a ring, unlike most of Nikon's other P&Ss and superzooms.

[Kevin]

3 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

Manual focus should be easier on the P1000.  If I recall, it has a ring, unlike most of Nikon's other P&Ss and superzooms.

Unless we both remember wrong it does.

[Clip]

9 minutes ago, Kevin said:

The lense is fully extended in 3: 34 seconds any other zoom it will do is electronic. 

I have never noticed the coloring being off in the least, except in max zoom, a long ways off and in bad lighting.

As to the auto focus, I can't say it's any better. As you mentioned, if a bird is sitting on a wire or something with be background being distant it can be hard to get it to focus. It is also really hard to get a photo of a bird in flight.

Over all it was a great camera, also I don't blame Nikon at all for it breaking. It was my first camera and it went through some rough things that this next one will not have to. 

I will let you know about the p1000 when it gets here.

Cool thanks! I didn't blame Nikon for the trouble with my camera either but I sent it in for repair and within days it had the same problem. When I sent it back in they said the camera had other problems and they wouldn't fix the one without fixing the others so it's wasn't covered under 90 repair warranty..... There is more to the story but I won't bore you with it. Thanks for letting me know about your P900. Looking forward to your report on the P1000.

[lonestranger]

8 minutes ago, Clip said:

It zooms too slow for one. The color of say a flower isn't always accurate. It is some times difficult to get it to focus on a bird on a fence with a grassy back ground for example but other situations also.

I think you just described some of the generic problems that apply to most any Point and Shoot cameras regardless of make or model. I use the P900 and it suffers from everything you mention. Buying camera gear is very much like getting the right exposure, you have to pick the right pluses and minuses to trade off in order to get the exposure/features we want. I am big fan of long focal lengths, but the superzoom cameras do have their short comings because of their long lenses.

[Seanbirds]

20 minutes ago, lonestranger said:

I think you just described some of the generic problems that apply to most any Point and Shoot cameras regardless of make or model. I use the P900 and it suffers from everything you mention. Buying camera gear is very much like getting the right exposure, you have to pick the right pluses and minuses to trade off in order to get the exposure/features we want. I am big fan of long focal lengths, but the superzoom cameras do have their short comings because of their long lenses.

Or just forget all that Point-and-shoot stuff and get a DSLR… 

[Charlie Spencer]

2 hours ago, Seanbirds said:

Or just forget all that Point-and-shoot stuff and get a DSLR… 

You know the trade-off.  Few of us here can afford a DSLR with the same reach as with a superzoom P&S.

A mediocre but identifiable long range shot is better than no shot at all.  Sometimes you don't take the shot; you're using the digital zoom as a low-rent spotting scope.

[Seanbirds]

25 minutes ago, Charlie Spencer said:

Sometimes you don't take the shot; you're using the digital zoom as a low-rent spotting scope.

I’ve done that before with my old Nikon P&S.

[Kevin]

It is here! I went out for about 15 min to play with it, and so far I like it, except that it zooms out much more slowly, or so it seems. In reality it is only about a half second slower to reach the same point as the p900 It's pretty hard to find anything out and about this time of day it just too hot for the birds to be hiding. But there were a few birds around, all in horoball light of course.?

 

[lonestranger]

2 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

You know the trade-off.  Few of us here can afford a DSLR with the same reach as with a superzoom P&S.

Another trade off is the weight. Few us here would be able to carry around a DSLR with a lens that has the same reach as a superzoom P&S.

[Kevin]

https://ebird.org/checklist/S92525654

[Kevin]

2 hours ago, Kevin said:

except that it zooms out much more slowly, or so it seems

So I found out if you use the one by the zoom control be the shutter control it zooms out faster! 

[Seanbirds]

25 minutes ago, Kevin said:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S92525654

Nice!! You’re going to be turning out a lot of awesome photos in the future.

[Kevin]

13 minutes ago, Seanbirds said:

Nice!! You’re going to be turning out a lot of awesome photos in the future.

I hope so!

[Charlie Spencer]

9 hours ago, Kevin said:

https://ebird.org/checklist/S92525654

I really like the wren.  Were any of these at long range?

[Clip]

17 hours ago, Seanbirds said:

Or just forget all that Point-and-shoot stuff and get a DSLR… 

I am too hard camera equipment so I cannot justify the expense. While the camera body might be okay the lens capable of the zoom I want would be? Not to mention heavy.

Edited July 31, 2021 by Clip

[Kevin]

4 hours ago, Charlie Spencer said:

I really like the wren.  Were any of these at long range?

The wren was the longest at maybe 30 foot.  As to the conditions to the wren photo, I was in the sun, which was directly behind the trees the wren was in. Plus it was in dark shade. So I was happy that it turned out as descent as it did. 

Edited July 31, 2021 by Kevin

[Kevin]

I am really impressed with how well it does with bugs and the like, with the p90 it was really hard to get a decent photo of anything small. 

[Clip]

@Kevin How is your new camera now that you have had a bit more time with it? I ask because well I have a Birthday coming up and my husband already ordered a P1000 for me. Our credit card company told on him making sure the purchase was legit. Surprised ruined I get it early. Should be here in the next few days.

Any pointers/advice for me? Have you used the manual focus yet? I'm so excited!

 

[lonestranger]

1 hour ago, Clip said:

@Kevin How is your new camera now that you have had a bit more time with it? I ask because well I have a Birthday coming up and my husband already ordered a P1000 for me. Our credit card company told on him making sure the purchase was legit. Surprised ruined I get it early. Should be here in the next few days.

Any pointers/advice for me? Have you used the manual focus yet? I'm so excited!

 

I am looking forward to hearing opinions after you both have had some time to become familiar with the P1000. I too am curious if the manual focus ring works better than the manual focus on the P900, which I have never really figured out how it works or if it actually does work. Luckily, I can often zoom in past the branches that I would otherwise have to manually focus around when auto focus locks on a branch and not the bird. While it's not the only upgrade that interests me, I am curious how functional the manual focus is in practical use.

[Kevin]

2 hours ago, Clip said:

@Kevin How is your new camera now that you have had a bit more time with it? I ask because well I have a Birthday coming up and my husband already ordered a P1000 for me. Our credit card company told on him making sure the purchase was legit. Surprised ruined I get it early. Should be here in the next few days.

Any pointers/advice for me? Have you used the manual focus yet? I'm so excited!

 

I just("just" at this point was 2 hours and 30 minutes ago!) figured out the manual focus! I could not figure it out I couldn't get it to work. I would read or watch something and it never came out the same as someone else. This morning though I realized that you have to flip the little focus mode selector, it is around the AE-L AF-L button(see photo). For some reason I just could not see it, and I always thought people were either talking about the dial thingy up to the right or the AE-L AF-L button, so of course nothing ever worked for me. 

So far I really like the manual focus, it is a bit slower than using auto, but I really like it. And I will definitely use it for birds that are on wires, well hidden in the trees, stuff like that, things the auto focus has a lot of trouble with. 

@Clip I think your camera uses the same type of battery as mine. And the reason I bring that up is that the p1000 uses a different one. It comes with a cord to charge it in your camera though(and no, it does not come charged.) till you can get more batteries and a charger for them. 

Also you will need(unless, unlike me, you never loose a lens cap) another lens cap, and a bag to keep you camera in too. Just a few thing you probably need to take into account in your budget.