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Nikon COOLPIX P1000 – A Small Camera With a Giant Zoom Range

July 12^th, 20182

Nikon COOLPIX P1000 – A Small Camera With a Giant Zoom Range

by Olaf von VossJuly 12^th, 2018

Bridge cameras aren’t exactly the headliner topic ’round here. However, we have to make an exeption for the new Nikon COOLPIX P1000. Its massive 125x zoom range is just too impressive to ignore. So let’s dive in and explore this compact, yet powerful little camera!

The COOLPIX P1000 is a so-called bridge camera. More than a pocket-sized point’n’shoot camera but less than a full blown DSLR. The Nikon sports a fixed lens but that lens is quite a piece of glass, indeed!

Nikon COOLPIX P1000

The built-in lens offers a zoom range of 4,3mm – 539mm, that’s a factor of 125. Still not impressed? Well, these figures refer to the somewhat tiny sensor size of 1/2,3″. If we translate the numbers to a standard 35mm sensor, we end up with much more impressive values: 24mm – 3.000mm. That’s not a camera, that’s a telescope! There must be a catch, right? Well, there is: The F-stop drops from f/2.8 down to f/8 over the zoom range and the image circle is not the biggest since the 16MP CMOS sensor isn’t the biggest either.

Such focal lengths scream for some kind of stabilization and that’s exactly what Nikon has put into the COOLPIX P1000: optical image stabilization. If you are serious about (distant) wildlife or plane spotting, you might want to add a decent tripod to your kit, though. In terms of video, this camera offers 4K (UHD – 3840 x 2160) in 30p or 25p and 1080p in up to 60 (50) frames. Effective ISO ranges from 100 – 1600.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMLYl-1GIv8

Furthermore, this little guy offers a clean video out via micro HDMI and an audio in for external microphones. But, as seen so many times before, no headphone jack can be found. That’s a pity and I really don’t understand why manufacturers continue to implement an external mic port but withhold the accompanying headphone jack.

The 3.2″ screen on the back can be swiveled to your liking, just like you can with the Panasonic GH5, for example. If that’s not your thing, there is an OLED with a decent resolution of 2,36MP, too. The camera records to SD, SDHC or SDXC cards and videos are recorded as h.264 mp4 files. The camera weights around 1415g and that’s with an SD card and with a battery. That battery lasts for around 1:20 hours when filming.

Pricing and Availability

The Nikon COOLPIX P1000 will be ready for delivery around September 2018. The price will be around $995.

This is a pretty impressive piece of equipment. Especially if you want to get that perfect shot of a distant lion walking into the sunset but don’t want to bring tons of equipment. The image quality isn’t the very best compared to proper digital cinema cameras, obviously, but as they say: The best camera is the one you have with you. And due to its size and weight the COOLPIX P1000 might be just that camera.