Bicycle Birder On The Axe: Astonishing new super zoom from Nikon

Sunday 29 March 2015

Astonishing new super zoom from Nikon

With a huge 83x zoom range of 24-2000mm optical the new P900 is surprisingly easy to hand hold and the new VR system is simply astounding. In my view this is a great piece of technology with the added bonus of being so easy to carry around. The focus is fast and the following photos are a demonstration of its capabilities which already have me hooked. All were taken hand held. The first is a photo from my back garden at the 24 mm which as you can see is nothing special until you look at the white chimney in the middle of the picture and then look at the following photo

The chimney pots taken from the same seat at full zoom i.e. 2000mm equivalent hand held!

This goldfinch was again taken at full zoom hand held

as was this common gull which was across the river from the tower hide and half way across the mud

This cormorant was across from the tower hide to the right so quite a distance away

and this curlew was again opposite the tower in the pools to the left across the river where they can commonly be seen

Now I've only included this next one to show the capability of the digital zoom which I would not normally even bother to try out. A bit more difficult to hand hold at this length (166x or 4000mm equivalent) as hard to stay locked on to the subject. However as you can see it is possible with surprising results.

I could not resist a try at taking the moon!

Now so far all taken in good light which obviously has its advantages so the next morning I was out in the dull overcast skies to try it again. I include this wide angle view just to show you the next photo of the left hand end of the cliff going down to the sea at full optical zoom.