Nikon CoolPix P900

[Rich Z]

OK, I just got this thing, and still learning the ropes with the settings, but I wanted to show a pic that I took last night with it...

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pics/moon_2016_07_19_A.jpg

This thing has a lens on it with the 35mm equivalent of 24 to 2000mm. With a modest digital zoom boost of 4x, you now have a handheld camera package with an 8000mm lens on it. For only $600!!!

That is just outrageous!

I'll post more as I take more pics and feel I have the settings the way I want them. But initial impressions are that this is one darn impressive piece of equipment.

[Rich Z]

Here's a pic at the highest magnification the camera could muster with the digital zoom.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pics/moon_2016_07_19_B.jpg

This one is not cropped from a larger image. That is "as is" from the camera.

And here's one when I backed off a bit even from the optical zoom.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pics/moon_2016_07_19_C.jpg

I ordered a beginner's astrophotography package which includes a tripod and motorized head to track the motion of the Earth and keep celestial objects in the center of the camera lens. Theoretically anyway. The package was only $170, so it's certainly not anything top of the line. I'll have to see how difficult it is aligning the thing and how accurate it is. If it's too time consuming and I have to stand out with the skeeters chewing on me for too long, then I'll have to figure out something else. But if it does work, I think I'll get a lot better pics using it. I did try a 1080P video with this P900, but it was obvious that my hands are introducing a lot of shake. So I at least need something that will allow me to take pics "hands off".

At least these initial photos I took showed me that I'm in the ballpark to getting some really nice photos if everything falls into place.

I've often though off an on that I wanted to get a decent telescope, but in reality I am in the middle of the woods and have a very limited view of the skyline. Pretty much straight up is all I've got. Fortunately I was able to get a view of the moon right over my house by standing in a small spot in my front yard. But it's a matter of being at the right place at the right time. Most of the time the moon is obscured by trees. Unfortunately, I don't think I will have another opportunity for a good moon view after that astro package comes in till maybe next month. The moon will be waning, and the spot it needs to be for my viewing will be in the wee hours of the morning till the next cycle.

[Rich Z]

From a practical standpoint, and showing what this camera can do with more mundane subjects, the following pics were taken HAND HELD from my porch.

This one is at 24mm and I was just shooting off hand to get a feel for the camera.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pics/anole_in_palm_tree_01.jpg

Then I tried out the zoom and spotted a "subject" that I didn't see earlier.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pics/anole_in_palm_tree_02.jpg

How about an even closer look?
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/pics/anole_in_palm_tree_03.jpg

All the pics are "as is" from the camera without any cropping or other post processing. I just shrank them down to a more manageable size and put my copyright notice on them.

You can definitely see softness creeping into the pic at higher magnification, but I think at least some of that will be from the slight camera motion being hand held. The camera seems to have pretty decent optical stabilization, but still, probably nothing beats a tripod for those long shots. Still, not bad, all things considered.

[Rich Z]

Saw some birds at the bird feeder today, so I took out the P900 and shot some video from the porch.

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Too bad this camera doesn't do 4K, but I guess the 1080P/60 does an OK job.

[Rich Z]

Last night the clouds broke apart at the right place and right time, giving me a really good clear shot at the moon right over the house. The place I needed to be in the front yard was extremely obvious since it was so much brighter there than where the shadows of all the trees were obscuring the moon. So I dragged out the tripod and set the P900 up on it to take some video of the moon. Seems to me that the "scene" option on the camera for "Moon" does nothing more than just delay the start of video and photos a couple of seconds to allow the movement of the camera after pressing the button to die down. Of course, this does nothing at all for trying to work the zoom lever or when you are trying to shut down the video. I did leave one instance of this out of the edited strips to show the motion.

Except for me having to swat the mosquitoes it was very easy getting these video clips. I left the audio in because of the nature sounds all around me at that time of night. Or maybe the microphone picked up aliens conversations on the moon. Who knows? ;)

Anyway, made a couple of passes of the moon by trying to position the camera so it would pass where I wanted it to be in the frame. Seemed to work out pretty well even when I zoomed to the max setting.

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Still can't get over the fact that I can get videos and photos like this from a relatively inexpensive hand holdable camera. I remember trying to get a good pic of the moon with my old 35mm stuff many years ago and I never could get anything very satisfying. This P900 makes it as easy as falling off a log.

[Rich Z]

A couple of weeks ago when the moon was getting near to being full again, and there was a break in the clouds, I mounted the P900 onto the Sky-Watcher Allview mount/tripod I bought to see how well that combo would work for panning the camera in a steady fashion while viewing the moon. All in all, it seemed to work pretty well. The Allview has 9 levels of movement speed for both the horizontal and vertical planes, and best I could tell, there was no backlash problems when motion was started or stopped. The would have been exhibited as a noticeable wobble at the beginning and the end of motion.

Of course, there is vibration evident transmitted through the tripod when I was trying to get the hand held controller off of the tripod, or actually touching the controls on the camera itself. And unfortunately the wireless remote I bought for the Nikon only works for triggering still photos (as far as I have been able to figure out), and doesn't work for initiating video. Nor does it work the zoom or anything else that would be nice to have so I wouldn't have to lay hands on the camera during video. But panning is really smooth with the Allview while I am doing it manually with the controller. Haven't figured out how to do actual tracking yet with it, mainly because the alignment procedure requires that I KNOW what stars I am using for reference, and I don't have a clue about that kind of stuff. So that is something I need to figure out first, I suppose.

Also, I had the auto-focus set incorrectly (for what I wanted, anyway) on the camera, so you can see the auto-focus struggling a bit during the motion of the moon across the screen. I didn't realize this till the last segment of video. Next time maybe I will try full manual focus since I'm guessing the entire moon should stay within the depth of field and not even need any sort of autofocus. But honestly, it's hard to think of everything when you are swatting at mosquitoes at the same time you are trying to get the camera set up correctly AND maneuver the motorized mount too. At least for this soggy old brain of mine, anyway. I guess it will get easier with experience with this new equipment.

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But even with all the warts, I'm still amazed at the video I can get of the moon with this P900. And that Allview mount just makes panning the field of view a LOT easier at that high magnification, which quite honestly can be pretty tough handheld, or even on a standard tripod.

[Rich Z]

Well, I went and purchased a solar filter, figuring it might be interesting to take some pics of the sun. So I did get the pics, but interesting? Hardly....

http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/sun_09_2016_01.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/sun_09_2016_02.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/sun_09_2016_03.jpg


http://www.corvetteflorida.com/pics/sun_09_2016_04.jpg