Review: The Amazing Nikon P900

The amazing Nikon Coolpix P900 is unmatched in its category — literally, because there are no other cameras in its category: Its mind-boggling 83x 24-2,000mm (equiv.) lens easily tops the would-be competition. And it’s more than a gimmick. It works.

[Update: Now that the Nikon P1000 is out, you do have one better option, but you’ll pay for it. And the P900 has come down slightly in price, making it an even better deal!]

For instance, here’s a montage of shots taken at 24mm and 2,000mm from the same place:

See those lions in the center of the background? That’s how far away they were. And the inset at the lower right is the full-frame, uncropped image at 2,000mm. (Take a closer look.) The inset at the upper left is a crop of that full frame. Good luck getting a combo like this with any other camera.

There’s lots to criticize, of course: The sensor is small, so high ISOs are noisy. The lens on the P900 is super-slow (the 35mm equivalent of f/16, at the wide end, to f/36 fully zoomed), so you can all but forget about background blur. And while sharp, the optics are still consumer quality. The electronic viewfinder can’t compare to top-of-the-line models. Like most consumer cameras, the zoom is electronic, and slow. The P900 doesn’t support raw.

But it works, and — supported by surprisingly effective image stabilization — it really does give you 2,000mm reach. Amazingly, at that far end the results are so good that they actually compare favorably to pro setups like my Canon 7D Mark II with 100-400mm Mark II lens. (Read more: Can You Tell The Difference? Wildlife Cameras.)

Here’s another example, from New York City:

There’s nothing remarkable about this image, except that it’s a close up — at about 1,000mm, not even full zoom — of this scene:

See the tiny green dot to the left beneath the steam? That’s Lady Liberty.

Or want a different view? Try 300mm to get George M. Cohan surveying his ‘hood:

Sure I’d love more background blur here, and everything looks just a little soft, but I got the shot.

And these are all JPGs straight from the camera. Even without raw support, a bit of processing could make them even better.

In the end, the Nikon P900 is like a good phone camera, but with the almost magic option of sending the camera more than eighty-times closer to the subject. That’s like standing in the end-zone of a football field and being able to take a photo anywhere on the field — from that end zone almost to the far 1-yard line!

The P900 is worth having with you.

[Originally published on J.M. Hoffman Photography in June 2017.]