Turkey Tales and Frog Fables: New Camera

Many months of anticipation. Nikon has been hinting for several years about an upgrade of their popular P900 bridge camera. A bridge camera is a camera that has a fixed zoom lens (as opposed to interchangeable lenses) but still offers a range of manual and user specific settings. This particular camera is especially well suited for bird and wildlife photography because of its superzoom lens.

I had postponed getting a camera since I was expecting this new camera to come out "any day now", starting several years ago. Nikon finally announced on July 10 an expected September 6 release date for their new P1000 superzoom camera. The Frog immediately put us on the waiting list at a camera store in Dallas. According to social media, many of the online sites did not get the cameras in a timely fashion, but we checked and the store in Dallas had received their shipment. We went to pick it up on Friday, September 7.

Record rain. Fall seemed like a great time to get the camera. There are usually long stretches of dry weather and increasingly cooler temperatures which would provide plenty of opportunities to attempt wildlife pictures. Not so much this year. It has been almost unbearably hot and humid...think Houston. We have also had a tremendous amount of rain. September is typically our driest month, with an average rainfall of 2.55 inches. So far this month we have officially had 11.2 inches, making it the wettest September on record. Given the forecast for rain essentially every day for the next ten days, that is likely to increase.

Of particular note has been the last few days. On Friday, Sept. 21 (actually it did not start raining until 5 pm) our rain gauge showed we had 5.28 in , another 2.45 inches on Saturday, and 0.08 inches more on Sunday for a total of 8.81 inches. The heavy rainfall was in a fairly narrow band, but our heavy rainfall is similar to the official totals at DFW airport. In fact, DFW reported 8.11 inches in a 24 hour period on the 21st and 22nd which is the highest for any 24 hour total at DFW since 1932!

Getting acquainted with the new camera. Because of all of the rain and humidity, I have spent more time studying the manual and reading reviews than actually taking pictures. This link at Imaging Resource is a general review of the camera with specifications, performance data, and lots of example photos, most of which are better than I will ever learn to take.

Most noteworthy about the P1000 is its superzoom. The lens has a range of 24 - 3000 mm (35mm equivalent)!

To accommodate such a large lens it is a large camera with the form factor not unlike a DSLR.

That is especially true when the zoom lens is fully extended.

The camera is also heavy for a non-DSLR, over 3 pounds.

Weighing in at 3 lb 4 oz.

Of course, size and weight are relative. It is only half as heavy as the Frog's DSLR with his zoom lens that goes to "only" 400 mm. Even with just the standard Nikon neck strap, I did not find it uncomfortable on a several mile hike.

There are obviously many trade offs in the P1000 to achieve such a huge zoom on what is essentially a fancy point and shoot camera. It will not be nearly as good shooting birds in flight, shooting in low light, or showing as much detail as the Frog's camera. But I am not that serious of a photographer, so I would never learn to get those great shots anyway. However, with the superzoom of this camera and all of its automatic features (perfect for dummies like me), this will complement what he can take plus give me good enough shots for posting online.

Despite the heat and humidiy, I have played with the camera at least some both in the backyard and a few times at LLELA. I am still at the most basic of levels in terms of learning to take pictures, but I am having fun. At least in bright sunshine with subjects that sit still I have been able to get a few decent shots.