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Nikon P1000


pierces
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Seriously?

 

Since the Megapixel War has settled down to an occasional skirmish and the major manufacturers are working on improving the quality of their captured territories, I guess the next big thing is zoom.

 

24mm - 3000mm equivalent Nikon lens on a modern 16.1MP 1/2.3 inch sensor should give decent image quality but all that zoom would be mostly useless handheld.

 

The body is actually larger than the D5300 and about 7" deep with the lens contracted (looks like about a foot fully extended). At 3 lbs, it's a bit of a beast in the weight department as well.

 

I hope I don't sound too negative, but I'm struggling to see where this fits into the trend lines digital cameras are following these days. Maybe it will be the next "big" thing.

 

Imaging Resource Preview with specs: https://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/nikon-p1000/nikon-p1000A.HTM

 

 

Dave

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Dave, I was going to comment last night but stopped to think about it. Today I read a Tom Hogan blog about that camera that states just what I was thinking http://www.dslrbodies.com/newsviews/the-tyranny-of-math.html

 

 

The other thing is how small that sensor is and the low ISO performance. It truly is a camera for the uninformed.

 

 

 

framer

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The other thing is how small that sensor is and the low ISO performance. It truly is a camera for the uninformed.

 

framer

 

His comments are pretty much in line with my misgivings about the P1000. I gave up a pound in my quest for weight reduction going from the A6300 to the A73 (both with favorite always-on lenses) But in return, I got what I consider some pretty spectacular benefits. The P1000 strikes me as sort of a one-trick pony with its Eye-of-God zoom. Physics makes you pay for that with size and weight.

 

An odd marketing choice and it makes me wonder if Nikon really will stick with the existing flange distance on their rumored full-frame mirrorless. Legacy lenses will fit but there would be minimal reduction in size. Maybe a mirrorless Df? Bigger than the Sony Alphas but still reasonable. Plus it has all those knobs real photographers love so much! :)

 

Time will tell.

 

Dave

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I know a few people with previous generation, the Nikon P900. Two of those are DSLR/MILC bird/wildlife shooters who keep the P900 around as a second body in a small bag...and use it not so much for photos as for identification and confirmation. Even with a really good birding lens, the reach on a full-frame or crop body rarely goes beyond 1,000mm...and a 500mm or 600mm prime is awfully heavy to lug around. By comparison, the P900 is nothing to bring along in a waist pack or small shoulder bag...and it allows them to see a distant bird or animal, zoom waaaaaaay in on it to determine if it's something interesting or rare worth pursuing...and then if good, they'll hike their way closer with their big DSLR kit to try to get a better shot. That initial shot or two with the P900 lets them make identification and have confirmation, even if soft, blurry, or noisy, that a species was spotted, in case it flies off before they can get closer.

These series of cameras do have quite a following with birders, for ID purposes, and with bird photographers, for the same as well as to use in lieu of binoculars, because it has the reach to match or outdo many binocs, and also allows them to take a snap of the bird from incredible distances to make IDs and confirmations. This camera will likely have the same kind of following - if not moreso with that reach.

Admittedly it's a very narrow market, but the P-series has been thrown around for many years with birders not into photography who value sighting confirmations more than IQ, and for bird photographers who want that initial ID from afar, and then can work on trying to get closer for something worthwhile.

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BTW - I don't use superzoom cameras, but even with my mirrorless and big reach lenses, I sometimes only catch a distant or fleeting glimpse of something - even though I'm more of a bird 'photographer' than pure 'birder'...I still keep track of how many different species I've spotted over the years. So if it's exceedingly rare, I'll take a shot of it even if I'm a mile away, in horrible light, and only get a blurry or noisy shot - because at least I can crop in and blow it up and verify that I did see that rarity, and add it to my life list of bird species spotted - I'll work on trying to someday get closer to that bird if I ever see another, and get a much better photograph...but at least I have 'A' photograph that proves I did see it.

My gallery of birds spotted has mostly better photos that are more clear with nice details and light, but there are some birds in the gallery where the only shot is a pretty terrible one...I keep it in there until I can replace it, IF I ever get to replace it! Sometimes a real rarity I might never see again.

I had an exceedingly rare sighting in April 2017 of a 'least grebe'...this is the description at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: "The smallest grebe in the Americas, the Least Grebe inhabits both temporary and permanent wetlands from south Texas to Argentina. Easily overlooked because of its size, coloration, and habits, it remains the most poorly understood of North American grebes." Note the locations - south Texas to Argentina - definitely NOT something commonly found in S.E. Florida! So despite horrible conditions and distance, I took shots because I might never see one again, and can prove that this bird really was here in Florida. The shot was taken with a 600mm lens on APS-C body, 900mm equivalent, ISO 2,500, from about 1/2 mile away and mega-cropped:

original.jpg

 

Just to show with birding and wildlife, even if you're a photographer, it's not ALWAYS about perfect IQ...and even a small-sensor superzoom might allow you to get a document shot of something very rare that you might otherwise never have been able to get.

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It’s not a new trend... the x-zoom factor wars have been going on for a while. And they even convinced naive consumers that massive zoom ranges were the most important factor in evaluating a camera.

Go back years and check how many forum posts of “looking for a new camera, should have at least 20x”

I recall one poster saying, “time for me to get a real camera. My 15x isn’t enough. If I get a dslr with 18-55 lens, that’s 55x, right?”

 

It was all largely a response to phone cameras, which lacked any zoom until recently. It was also a way to cheaply boost camera stats — easy to give a tiny sensor a huge zoom range. Much more expensive to increase sensor size and actually boost IQ.

 

With recent improvements in smart phones, including essentially some zoom (dual kens set ups), and with the total collapse of the p&s market (check out some recent graphs, it’s an absolute total collapse), the manufacturers are just even more desperate for some novelty that will stand out and sell a few cameras.

 

Sony actually did the same thing with their newest rx100vi — giving up some aperture in order to increase the zoom range to 200mm.

I prefer a fast 24-70 equivalent lens as opposed to a slower 24-200 but I’m guessing they felt pressure from smart phones... if an iPhone 8+ can effectively give the same range at similar IQ and with more convenience?

 

So yes, the P1000 looks useless. But then again, almost all p&s are generally becoming useless.

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