Bugfan Loc: Toronto, Canada

I have my P900 now for about a month and I've run about two hundred images through it.

My intent on acquiring it was to use it for travel so I can leave my SLR at home. I also carried it into the bush. There I have a big SLR that I use with a large macro lens that also has a macro flash mounted on it. The problem with this set up is that if I needed to change lenses it would take me a good five minutes or so by which time my subject would be gone. So I thought this camera would be the answer allowing me to not carry an additional eight pounds while still having a long lens for distant objects.

I knew from the start that the lens was going to be an issue. How does one hand hold a 2,000 mm lens? My experience stops around 750 mm in terms of focal length, 2,000 mm is a hell of a lot worse. The camera has an excellent image stabilizer but it's not enough at that degree of extension. And sure enough, I found myself losing my subject, I found myself with motion blur unless I could get up to 1/2000 th of a second. BUT ... I also found that with practice it wasn't all that bad. I fully expect that I will figure out how to get sharp reliable images at all focal lengths probably in the next month or two.

The second issue, which I also knew about, is that the camera is just a point and shoot. What that means in English is that the controls I take for granted on both of my large SLRs simply aren't here. Every setting I usually make - ISO, Meter, White Balance etc require that I access the menu to do the setting. I decided however that this was ok as long as I wasn't going to use the camera in situations where I needed to respond instantly. So far that's worked out well. Another workaround I have is to set everything up before a shoot and that way changes are also minimal and infrequent.

So my assessment so far with the P900 is that it demands a lot of practice to master the lens and it requires some fiddling to achieve specific settings as your subjects change. It won't replace my D800 or my D3 but for what I wanted it for it seems to be a solid good design. I'll know more in the next couple of months as I practice some more with it.

I also have a protégé who is learning the art of photography from me. I loaned her my P900 recently when we went out together again since she's in the market for a new camera. She didn't mind the menu, she's used to going there and as a result doesn't look for customized controls. But she had the same agonizing issues with the lens. Interestingly enough though, after a couple of hours she had the lens under control too.

Personally I think the camera is excellent for travel since you're not rushed to take pictures and with a 28 mm to 2000 mm range there's really nothing you can't take a picture of. It's image quality is as good as any point and shoot I've seen too and in many cases comparable to my SLRs. It would likely also be really good for general events, having a high ISO capability, and of course it would be great for parties.

I'd not recommend it if you do specialized work or demand instant ability to change settings. It's not designed for that. And if you don't have the patience to practice repeatedly until you finally get control of that lens and the capabilities and limitations of the sensor, this isn't the camera for you either.

wingclui44 Loc: CT USA

You need five minutes to change lens, really?

Bugfan Loc: Toronto, Canada

Standing on a muddy forest path trying to balance gear is awkward and tends to slow you down.

Then ... my usual set up is a 150 mm macro lens with a Nikon macro flash mounted on the front. I usually use two flash heads, sometimes three. So now, to change lenses I need to remove the flash heads from the macro lens and place them safely in my pocket. I usually also remove the ring that held them so I can place a lens cap on the front of the lens. Now I can extract the long lens and balance that under one arm while removing the macro with the other. Finally I get to mount the long lens and then park the macro in its case on my shoulder.

Sometimes I get lucky, sometimes it's just two minutes or so, other times it's up to five minutes. Whether it's two minutes or five, the bird or other distant subject has usually left by the time I'm ready. So at that point I reverse the process and mount the macro lens again.

I did try to carry a second camera with a long lens but frankly another eight pounds around my neck was not a happy experience.

JPL

I have very good news for you. The lens on the P900 is not 2000 mm at the tele end. It is only 357 mm, so I think you will handle it easily very soon. It is the sensor zoom factor that delivers the rest of the zoom to 2000 mm when the camera lens can not zoom more at 357 mm. So it is not as hard to control as you may think.

JPL

A correction here, the lens on the P900 is not 2000 mm. It is only 357 mm at the tele end so it is not as difficult to handle as it may seem at first. It is the zoom factor (crop factor) of the sensor that does most of the zoom, not the lens.

wingclui44 Loc: CT USA

Well, I don't know you are using macro flash with two heads, that's lots of disassembling.
What I do when need to change lens is using my shoulder bad as a platform. I hang the bag in-front on my body with cover open, rest my camera on top of it with the strap of course, so my two hands are free, then remove the lens from the camera and cap it , put into the compartment of the bag, bring out the other lens, un-cap and mount it. It take me may be 30 sec. But all depends on how big is the lens. i did this with my old Sigma 50-500mm zoom (no longer using it)

Bluebird3

I bought the P900 on March 19...the day it was introduced. I bought it to take bird photos in our backyard. It was so light, I decided to take it on our trip to Alaska...and I left my D300 at home. BIG mistake.

When you go to Alaska, take your BEST camera. Yes, I could get larger images of mountain goats high up on the mountain, or a grizzly mom with 2 bear cubs down in a valley below, but for the most part, they were not sharp photos...especially when enlarged at all. Trying to get the camera to perform on a whale watching trip was a waste of time. I not only missed the photos, but also missed the sights of the whales not through the lens of the camera. It would not even focus AT ALL on a cloudy, misty day. It could not distinguish between different values of gray.

So I came home with few good shots of Alaska...all because I was lured to that camera by the promise of 83x. Don't expect to get clear shots at anywhere near that distance on anything that moves. PERIOD. I think I wasted my money on the thing. The only thing I saved was a sore shoulder because it was about half the weight of my D300 with the 18-200mm lens. Not a good trade-off for few photos of a 5-week trip to Alaska.

rdgreenwood Loc: Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

I share your pain. As you no doubt discovered, the moment you lose your subject you lose focus; losing focus makes it extremely difficult to re-acquire your subject, and the outcome is usually a lost opportunity.

This 357mm stuff is a surprise, since the side of the lens says, "24-2000mm," but that's irrelevant since unsharp is unsharp, regardless of the focal length.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

I don't believe cameras of this type are made for people who value IQ above everything else. They are for the average person who has no knowledge of, or interest in, image sharpness, distortion, vignetting, chromatic aberration, control of depth of field, and did I say sharpness? They are popular and can be very useful as long as you maintain reasonable expectations. While the image quality if far better then it has a right to be at the price, to compare the results to truly good optics will be an effort in futility.

wingclui44 Loc: CT USA

Using it as high power spotting scope with tripod! It will be 40X power.

rdgreenwood Loc: Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

"[E]ffort in futility," hmmmm... Now I understand why my friend, Sisyphus, wants to borrow my P900. Seriously, though, you're right. To me, sharpness is all (even above ripeness), so I used poor judgment. Oh well, as my mother-in-law used to say, "There's no use being dumb if you don't show it."

Bugfan Loc: Toronto, Canada

I do agree that the camera does not compare favourably to my high end glass and SLRs. I concur that the images are not what I would call awesome, I'd call then OK or good usually. But then that's sometimes all that's needed.

I remember my mother who used an instamatic. Her prints had pathetic colours and none were ever really sharp but she was happy with them as long as she could make out the faces. She did admire the stuff I did with my film SLR but it just wasn't important to her.

I think as point and shoot cameras go, the P900 does a fine job taking pictures. As SLRs and high end glass go, the P900 leaves a lot to be desired. I use the tool for what it's best at and in the process I give up a lot of weight and bulk. It's place is in the snapshot world.

Bugfan Loc: Toronto, Canada

Thanks! I hadn't thought of that. Clearly we're talking about a crop factor rather than an actual 2000 mm focal length. Still though, the 35 mm equivalent is what they advertise and the effect is that illusory focal length.

I agree and feel the lens can be controlled. It just needs practice. Already I am getting better at using it.

One feature I love is a button on the side of the lens that zooms the lens back as long as you're holding the button and zooms it out again when you let go. I find that is the way I can find my subject again when it's zoomed out a lot.

The only problem is that when you lose the subject you lose focus too and to reacquire focus once again takes some time, often seconds, by which point the subject may no longer be there to be photographed. So that's another challenge I need to overcome, either not losing the subject or finding it and focusing faster.

rdgreenwood Loc: Kennett Square, Pennsylvania

You're right about that memory button. I keep it depressed, holding my focal length at 300mm and zooming to 2000mm when I release it. It's the lose subject/lose focus piece tha befuddles me.

n3eg Loc: West coast USA

Doesn't matter. Hand holding a 2000 mm EQUIVALENT lens gives you the same hand jitter as holding a 2000 mm lens at full frame. The big difference is how you hold it. A long lens on a FF camera would be held at the far end with your left hand providing some stabilization. A 2000 mm equivalent lens is not held anywhere, and shaking the camera is multiplied by the motion times distance to the front element. IS helps, but at 2000 mm you're basically just waving the camera around hoping to pass the subject through your FOV and hit the shutter at the right time.

If we all held our zoom lenses at the far end instead of at the midpoint zoom ring or focus ring, the world would be a sharper place.