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NIKON COOLPIX P900 WITH A SUPER ZOOM LENS (25.06.2015)
Compact cameras are sold less and less and mobile phones have taken their place due to their good photo quality. Now, when the war of pixels has slowed down, more and more attention is paid to the zoom range of compact cameras. More and more, we hear about cameras that have a bigger zoom than 50x. The presence of a zoom in compact cameras is a strong argument for ruining the mobile phone's monarchy.
Compact cameras resemble DSLR cameras by their design, ergonomics and size but there two very important differences: the sensor is smaller than the one in DSLR half frame cameras and the lenses cannot be changed in front of the camera. The key feature of those cameras is the super zoom. Ten years ago, the cameras usually had 10x to 20x zoom range lenses but today, the average is 50x. At the moment, the winner of the super zoom battle is Nikon COOLPIX P900 with its unbelievable 83x zoom lens; its focal length is 24mm to 2000mm!
Although it seems that photographing with a super zoom is nothing complicated, some recommendations should be considered that are helpful for following the rules of photography. The longer is the focal length we use, the more unstable the subject becomes that we can see in the view finder or monitor. It is similar to powerful marine binoculars – it is very hard to stabilize and watch the subject while holding the binoculars in the hand. The built-in subject stabilizing device in the camera only works until a certain limit. Mostly, it works perfectly but with the focal length of 1000mm and more, it is worth to a use a tripod to make sure that the camera is still. It is also useful to use a higher ISO. While photographing with higher ISO, the sensor becomes more sensitive and you can use shorter shutter speeds. It is also worth to consider that atmospheric phenomena, such as the hot air shimmering on the ground surface or the humidity, also start playing a role when using such a long zoom and it affects the sharpness and contrast of the subject.
Nevertheless, COOLPIX P900 offers a lot of joy to its users. We can only be amazed how sharp photos can be taken with such a universal lens. If the light conditions are good, the photo quality can be as good as DSLR's. Furthermore, the owner of the DSLR camera should pay a fortune for 2000mm focal length lens. Although the sensor size of COOLPIX P900 and in the end, the optical resolution set their limits, there is no equal super zoom lens compact camera in the market at the moment.
