Why You Can Trust CNET Nikon's Coolpix P900 lets you gather memories of family, friends, neighbors or strangers without them knowing (hands-on)
It's far from pocketable, but the P900's ludicrous 24-2,000mm-equivalent zoom range will make sure you get those bird, building, moon or sports shots.
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The word "whopping" doesn't really do justice to the zoom range on the new Nikon Coolpix P900.
The camera's 83x zoom lens starts at an ultrawide f2.8 24mm and ends in an astounding f6.5 2,000mm. Those are 35mm equivalents, of course, calculated with its 1/2.3-inch 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor.
Shop for Nikon Coolpix P900
See all pricesDespite the facetious headline, there are legitimate uses for a compact camera (compared to an SLR with a 2,000mm lens, at least) with a telephoto lens this long, including photographing birds and other wildlife, moon shots, examining architecture and ships at sea and shooting from the nose-bleeds at outdoor sporting events. You get the idea: anything that's really, really far away.
Telephoto autofocus speeds haven't been the best with Nikon's other extreme megazoom cameras, but the company says the P900's lag when fully zoomed in should be 0.75 seconds in overcast conditions. So as long as you're not too tight on your subject and they aren't moving fast (or you're very good at predicting movement) you should be able to get a clean shot.
Helping with that will be the camera's Dual Detect Optical VR technology that uses two sets of sensors to counteract camera shake: the accelerometers you'd normally find and additional sensors that measure camera movement using the image projected on the image sensor. (Though you'll probably still want this thing on a tripod for the sharpest shots.)
The rest of the camera is pretty much identical to the Nikon P610 announced last month, which was itself very similar to the Nikon P600.
That means you'll find a 921K-dot-resolution 3-inch Vari-angle display and 0.5-cm (0.2-inch) electronic viewfinder with a proximity sensor; shooting modes to handle everything from full auto to full manual and abundant options in between including moon- and birding-specific options; and full HD movie capture at 60p.
It's also packing Wi-Fi with NFC, so you can view and transfer photos and video clips to your smartphone or tablet, or even use another device to remotely control the camera. GPS is also built in for geotagging shots and finding points of interest you might want pictures of when travelling.
The Nikon Coolpix P900 will be available in Black for about $600 in April and in the UK in April for £500. It will also arrive in Australia in March and while pricing wasn't announced it converts directly to about AU$770.