Nikon’s compact Coolpix P900 led the cost for some time, providing a powerful 83x optical zoom. Lately, the corporate launched its successor, referred to as the P1000, which boasts of a staggering 125x optical zoom. There’s additionally 4K video assist this time. All this in a bundle that may simply slot in most backpacks, makes the Nikon P1000 a really fascinating possibility for these in search of the best potential zoom vary. We’ve been utilizing P1000 for a number of days, and it’s time to see if it’s value its Rs. 75,990 asking worth.
Nikon Coolpix P1000 design and ergonomics
The digicam ships in a reasonably sizeable field, and for good cause. The Coolpix P1000 is a chunky digicam that’s roughly the scale of a mean skilled DSLR. In reality, it occupies an analogous quantity to a Canon 5D Mark III with a 100mm macro lens. It’s additionally fairly heavy at 1.4kg and the design of the lens and placement of among the buttons require you to make use of it with two palms always.
The plastic physique feels sturdy and has a refined texture that permits for a great grip. The hand grip is chunky, with loads of rubber inserts, supplying you with the texture of a DSLR. The digicam is front-heavy as a result of 17-element lens array, so it’s not essentially the most ergonomic design. That is one thing that couldn’t be helped, contemplating the aim it’s making an attempt to attain. The entrance of the lens has a hoop round it that allows you to alter focus in handbook mode, however it may well additionally carry out totally different capabilities like publicity compensation, ISO or white stability adjustment, relying on what you set it to.
The Nikon Coolpix P1000 has a plastic construct and will be heavy to deal with
The left facet of the lens has a button for a ‘snap-back zoom’ characteristic and zoom lever. ‘Snap-back zoom’ is beneficial, as when you press it, the viewfinder zooms out a bit so that you can re-frame your shot, and when you launch it, it snaps again to that zoom stage. The zoom lever permits you to make minor changes to the zoom stage. The shutter button additionally has a zoom lever, and it may be programmed in an fascinating approach, which we’ll get in to within the subsequent part.
The Nikon Coolpix P1000 has a pop-up flash in addition to a scorching shoe for attaching an exterior flash. The 0.39-inch OLED viewfinder has a decision of two.35 million dots and diopter adjustment. We like the truth that the viewfinder protrudes outwards fairly a bit, so whenever you look by means of it, your nostril doesn’t contact the show simply, stopping sweat and dirt buildup. The controls on the highest embody a mode dial, command dial, energy button, and customisable operate (Fn) button.
All of the ports are positioned on the left of the digicam and are coated by rubber flaps. These embody a microphone enter, Micro-HDMI, Micro-USB, and an adjunct terminal. On the again, we’ve a 3.2-inch show with a 921k dot decision. It may be totally articulated, which is nice, however there’s no contact assist.
The rear LCD show will be totally articulated
There’s a smattering of buttons right here, all of that are massive and chunky and have good suggestions. This features a button for video recording, an AF/AE lock, one for manually switching between the LCD display and the EVF, and a multi-selector wheel with a hard and fast set of shortcuts.
Within the field, you get a detachable battery that’s rated for 250 photographs per cost, a Micro-USB cable, a charging adapter, a Micro-HDMI cable, and based on Nikon’s web site, a 16GB Class 10 SD card.
Nikon Coolpix P1000 specs and options
To attain this stage of zoom whereas nonetheless protecting the scale of the digicam comparatively transportable, Nikon has caught with a 1/2.3-inch sensor with a 16-megapixel decision, which is identical one used on the Coolpix P900. The digicam has a focal vary of 4.3mm to 539mm and an aperture vary of f/2.8 to f/8. Once you account for the 5.6 crop issue, you get the equal of a 24mm to three,000mm focal size.
The Coolpix P1000 solely makes use of distinction detection autofocus and has an ISO vary of 100 to six,400. It additionally helps lens stabilisation for stills, and a mixture of this plus digital stabilisation for motion pictures. Different options embody assist for SDXC playing cards, RAW (NRW format), video recording at as much as 4K at 30fps, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g.
The digicam additionally helps Nikon’s SnapBridge software program, which helps you to connect with Android or iOS units wirelessly. You’ll be able to have photographs robotically transferred to your smartphone as they’re taken, which works even when the digicam is off, so long as Bluetooth is on. Distant pictures can be potential because the app permits you to management the main target, zoom, and different parameters proper out of your telephone. All of this works effectively, simply as we’ve skilled on earlier Nikon cameras.
The menu system could be very simplistic and straightforward to grasp, even for novice customers. The settings are unfold throughout 4 principal sections — Stills, Film, Wi-fi, and Miscellaneous. One of many settings value listening to is Zoom Reminiscence, which helps you to set numerous ranges for the zoom lever on the shutter button. This manner, you possibly can bounce straight from 24mm to 200mm, 800mm, and so forth, making it quicker to get to particular zoom ranges with just some faucets.
ou may even set the zoom place when the digicam begins up, from the default 24mm, as much as 135mm. Digital stabilisation isn’t supported at 4K however it’s out there for different resolutions. The digicam can shoot 1080p video at 60fps and even 480p video at 120fps.
Nikon Coolpix P1000 efficiency and battery life
In our ISO check, we examine to see a digicam’s tolerance to noise as we go up the ISO scale. The Coolpix P1000 doesn’t have a really giant vary and you may manually improve or lower it solely in full cease increments. Noise discount was stored at the usual stage for this check.
Particulars had been maintained effectively until about ISO 1600, however at ISO 3200, there was noticeable discount in particulars within the effort to suppress noise. On the highest ISO setting, the picture was hazy and particulars appeared mushy. To be trustworthy, we weren’t anticipating excellent efficiency, given the tiny sensor.
Nikon P1000 ISO check
The primary cause anybody would need to purchase this digicam is for its zoom functionality, which is just wonderful. It could possibly make objects which might be actually kilometres away look like they’re proper in entrance of you. The distinction detection autofocus isn’t unhealthy at a variety as much as 1000mm, nonetheless, it begins getting slower as you strategy the utmost zoom stage. At 3000mm, the Coolpix P1000 actually struggled to focus at instances, a lot in order that we needed to zoom out a bit so as lock focus. If you happen to’re taking pictures handheld then be sure you’ve acquired a great grip on the digicam, as the burden shifts ahead because the lens extends outwards.
The Coolpix P1000 is a good software for capturing distant objects just like the moon. In reality, this digicam has a Moon taking pictures mode that robotically allows a 3 second timer, gives a shortcut to leap to 1000mm zoom, and assigns the command dial to let you choose filters to offer the sky a unique color tone. When taking pictures handheld, the digicam’s vibration discount works very effectively in compensating for slight hand motion, even on the most zoom stage.
Nikon Coolpix P1000 digicam pattern: ISO 400, f/7.1, 2,200mm (35mm, faucet to see full measurement)
Nikon Coolpix P1000 digicam pattern: ISO 1,600, f/5.6, 1000mm (35mm, faucet to see full measurement)
There’s a Fowl taking pictures mode that disables the shutter sound so that you don’t scare away any wildlife. The sluggish autofocus at excessive zoom ranges actually limits this digicam’s potential for severe wildlife pictures as we missed a few nice photographs of birds whereas we waited for the main target to lock. This doesn’t offer you quite a lot of confidence when taking pictures fleeting moments, which is a bit disappointing.
Picture high quality is respectable underneath good gentle however is sort of mediocre in low gentle. In landscapes, we observed respectable element and hues. Dynamic vary was additionally fairly good. Macros shot on the widest focal size had good colors and sharpness however this decreased as soon as we went up the zoom vary. The picture high quality began degrading barely as soon as we went past 1000mm, which was noticeable at a one hundred pc crop. Colors had been nonetheless captured effectively however objects lacked good definition.
In addition they appeared flat, because the greater up the zoom vary you go, the narrower the aperture will get. In low gentle, particulars had been mushy, and edges round objects weren’t all the time effectively outlined, even with out pushing the ISO to six,400. You may extract extra element and sharpness in case you save your photographs within the RAW format, when you have the time and willingness to mess around in Adobe Lightroom.
Nikon Coolpix P1000 digicam pattern: ISO 180, f/4, 18.9mm (35mm), faucet to see full measurement
At full zoom, focusing is hard and pictures usually look delicate (Nikon Coolpix P1000 digicam pattern: ISO 1,600, f/8, 3000mm, faucet to see full measurement)
Nikon Coolpix P1000 digicam pattern: ISO 1,600, f/4, 105mm (35mm), faucet to see full measurement
Nikon Coolpix P1000 digicam pattern: ISO 1,100, f/3.2, 30mm (35mm), faucet to see full measurement
4K movies aren’t stabilised, so footage is a bit shaky in case you transfer about. If you happen to’re staying nonetheless and taking pictures footage at excessive zoom ranges, the lens stabilisation works effectively. The image is sharp and clear at zoom ranges as much as round 1000mm, after which it begins getting a bit delicate.
Stabilisation works effectively at 1080p and 30fps, however the footage has a gentle shimmer impact whenever you transfer about, which is a facet impact of digital stabilisation. At 3000mm, the Coolpix P1000 reveals quite a lot of focus searching, as a consequence of which we had been pressured to dial down the zoom a bit.
Video high quality is respectable in low gentle however will get a bit noisy and delicate at excessive zoom ranges. Steady autofocus isn’t very fast because it takes a great variety of seconds to lock focus whenever you change your framing or the focal size. There’s a handbook video mode however there’s no strategy to change the main target level, like you possibly can for stills, which is a bit disappointing. This implies you’ll have to maneuver your topic or the digicam, to get what you need in focus.
The LCD show produces a decently sharp picture however the brightness isn’t very excessive on the default stage, so we needed to max it out when taking pictures in daylight. The EVF produces good picture high quality, and the switching between the 2 is fast, due to the attention sensor. The eyepiece makes use of plastic as a substitute of a delicate rubber lining like most high-end cameras, which isn’t very snug for extended use.
There’s just one programmable button, which will be set to vary the drive mode, metering, ISO, and so on. Having a number of extra customisable buttons or dials would have been good. The digicam has a most burst price of round 8fps however you may as well shoot a small video clip at 60fps or 120fps, and extract stills from it.
Battery life isn’t nice, however we managed to get a bit greater than the rated variety of photographs per cost on common. We managed to squeeze in a number of brief 1080p and 4K video clips, however general battery life may have been loads higher. With the bundled wall charger, it takes round three hours to totally cost the battery.
Verdict
The Nikon Coolpix P1000 gives the longest zoom you possibly can hope for from a digicam that may match right into a backpack, which is an enormous accomplishment in itself. This comes at a excessive worth of Rs. 75,950 and actually, at this worth we additionally count on superb picture high quality, which this digicam struggles with.
It does provide wonderful lens stabilisation even at full zoom, a totally articulating LCD show, good grip, and respectable high quality 4K movies. Sadly, the autofocus doesn’t encourage confidence, which limits the kind of pictures you possibly can obtain with this digicam. Additionally, low-light and battery efficiency was a bit weak, and lets not neglect that it’s a handful to hold round.
If you happen to’re merely in search of excessive zoom, then the older Nikon Coolpix P900 makes quite a lot of sense. It nonetheless has a decently giant 83x or 2000mm zoom stage, and packs in comparable guts because the P1000 (with the omission of 4K video and RAW assist), all for a worth of simply Rs. 32,950.
If you happen to’re taking a look at higher picture high quality, then the Panasonic DMC-FZ2500 is a good possibility at round Rs. 80,000. It solely has a 20x zoom, nevertheless it’s extra feature-packed and the 1-inch sensor ought to offer you higher picture high quality. Lastly, if you would like higher zoom ranges from a 1-inch sensor digicam, then Sony’s RX10 III and RX10 IV are among the finest you may get, however their costs transcend Rs. 1,00,000.
Value (MRP): Rs. 75,950
Professionals
- Spectacular zoom vary
- Superb lens stabilisation
- Absolutely articulating show
- RAW and 4K assist
Cons
- Heavy and ponderous
- Common high quality JPEGs
- Battery life may very well be higher
- Autofocus will be sluggish
Scores (out of 5)
- Construct/ design: 3.5
- Picture high quality: 3
- Video high quality: 3.5
- Efficiency: 3
- Worth for cash: 3.5
- General: 3.5