Nikon Coolpix P500 - P510

[swannsong]

Last year, having dropped my Nikon Coolpix P100 out of my car (less than 40cm drop from a non moving vehicle)..I discovered how fragile soft the lens housing was as the camera is now inoperable.
I am hoping to make a claim on my home contents insurance.
Nikon have now released the Nikon Coolpix P500 at the same price as the P100.
Instead of 26x optical zoom it now has a 36x optical zoom capacity, larger megapixel images and 3.0 inch LCD.
It still has some of the issues the P100 has, poor quality low light imaging...etc
Any thoughts....?

[adam]

it is always a trade off... so you buy to situation and what you enjoy taking photos of... the camera looks pretty good but as you say it might not be that good when used inside or in low-light.

so depends on what you want to take photos of... The 2 compacts that I hear some pros recommend are the Panasonic LX5 and the Canon S95, but neither have the Zoom of the P500

[swannsong]

Ordered it Wednesday noght from DWI ($424 + surcharge + transport..$474 total) ....extra 5 batteries I bought for the P100 should be OK for this one.
Delivered Fiday.....nice screen...same batteries....now to try it out...

[swannsong]

Had a quick try out of the new camera (on auto point and shoot) when I got home (~5:00pm)...light wasn't that great but seems OK.



Truck operating at the Christies Beach Waste Water site about 300 metres away.



View of Christies Beach from O'Sullivan Beach cliff top....about 1.5 - 2 kms away.



Mouth of the O'Sullivan Beach boat launching marina from about 400-500 metres away.



O'Sullivan Beach from the cliff top about 400 metres away.

[swannsong]

A few from Sunday...








Full 36x optical zoom, hand held..no tripod... from about 60 metres....

[berbatov]

looks quite sharp, definite upgrade for you swannsong

[adam]

Nice colors and nice sharp photos... Looks impressive

[swannsong]

Demonstration of the zoom with an evening long shot of Christies.















With a little digital zoom enhancement


And the ensuing sunset !

[swannsong]

Montage of hand held sunset and moon shots put together with Paint Shop using screen capture of photographs I took tonight out the front of my home !



Hand held, full 36x zoom at the moon

[swannsong]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY9yF5cZ ... re=related

Just received the new Nikon Coolpix P510 ( for less than $400 ) will try it out at Hindmarsh on Sunday.

[adam]

very nice swannsong...

i did see some you took of the goalie the other day. good work!!!

[swannsong]

very nice swannsong...

i did see some you took of the goalie the other day. good work!!!

They were still on the P500 (36x zoom 12.1 megapixel)....didn't get the new model until Monday....has a different feel but can see the difference in quality ( obviously with more pixels 16.1 )....the guy reviewing the camera said it can save in RAW but I'm pretty sure it doesn't. Need to have a big read and explore !

[adam]

Despite retaining similar flaws that also afflicted the P510's predecessor - namely the so-so image quality, lack of RAW mode, slightly sluggish auto-focusing and some handling issues, this new ultra-zoom is still well worth a look if want the all-in-one convenience of a superzoom that can shoot everything from wide-angle landscapes to close-ups of birds and other small subjects. That 1000mm telephoto setting may sound a little ridiculous on paper, but in reality it is actually a usable setting in good lighting conditions. The Nikon Coolpix P510 may not produce the best photos at higher ISO speeds or focus quickly enough for fast-moving subjects, but it's a lot more portable and convenient than an SLR with a bag full of lenses and also doubles up as an effective video camera thanks to its excellent movie mode, making it worthy of our Highly Recommended award.

doesn't look like it shoots RAW...

don't tell anyone, but RAW is a waste of time anyway... well it is for sports...

[admin]

Montage of hand held sunset and moon shots put together with Paint Shop using screen capture of photographs I took tonight out the front of my home !



Hand held, full 36x zoom at the moon

Very nice.

[swannsong]

Some shots with the Coolpix P510 from the recent SAASL Finals...