Nikon Coolpix P500 Pictures

Coolpix P500 is the latest super zoom digital camera that has been manufactured by Nikon to meet the demand for a portable photographic device that can be used to shoot distant subjects. This camera is a further improvements of its predecessor the Nikon Coolpix P500. I have used this bridge camera since late August 2011 shooting birds, landscapes, and (in macro setting) flowers, and butterflies. As a tourist guide, I often accompany foreign tourists hiking through the dense tropical rainforest of Arfak mountains in Manokwari regency of West Papua province of Indonesia. While walking among the big trees, we see dove, hornbills, cockatoo. Some times, we saw birds of paradise on a slope near Kwau village. To shoot those birds, I use this Nikon Coolpix P500 whose 36 x optical zoom + 4x digital zoom are able to magnify the subjects large enough on the LCD screen of the camera. Its CMOS sensor is powerful in shooting the male magnificent birds of paradise that like to show its plume to his female birds early in the morning. During this time, the camera has to be able to shoot distant subjects in low light environment. I am quite happy to find out that this super zoom camera can perform its duty and creates photographs whose quality is excellent.

This bridge camera is not only good for shooting distant subjects but also close up ones such as flowers and beetles. When I was traveling in Arfak mountains with two Dutch tourists, Thomas (father) and Sandra (daughter), I saw a beautiful passion fruit flower not far from the place where we stay. Passion fruit plant is a kind of vine that needs a tree to hang on to for growing. Passion fruit has got sweet taste. To shoot this flower, first, I needed to adjust Nikon P500 lens to macro setting by pressing the flower symbol located at the bottom of multi selector button.

I also informed Sandra about the existence of this beautiful flower. She was happy about it and took her Nikon D40, a D-SLR camera that is small and handy for an active traveler like her. Although the effective pixel quality which the Nikon D40 could produce was only 6 MP, the photographs of this flower that she made were excellent due to its ED Aspherical AF-S DX Nikkor lens.

Techniques that I usually use for shooting distant subjects without a tripod:

Nikon Coolpix P500 has been designed to meet the demand of camera users for nature, wildlife, and sport photography. Most often, the subjects that we will shoot are moving. Even if the subject is still, the movements of our hands can greatly influence the quality of the pictures that we make particularly when all the optical and digital zoom have been used up to magnify the subjects. As a result what we will get is blurred photographs. From my personal experience, I usually apply certain techniques such as:

Leaning on a wall or on a tree to minimize the movements of my hands and camera.
Activating 2 second self timer to enable the camera to shoot my subject 2 seconds after the vibrations/ shakes caused by my fingers pressing the shutter button have stopped.
Adjusting the exposure compensation button to negative position such as -2.0.

The Use of Tripod

For telephoto shooting, users of Nikon P500 need to consider buying a tripod. This equipment will greatly improve the quality of photographs that they make especially on distant subjects that have been magnified using the 36x optical and 4x digital zoom of this digital camera. When the camera has been mounted on the tripod, don't forget to set the Vibration Reduction in the Setup Menu to Off.

If you don't have a tripod, you need to lean on a wall or pillar to stabilize any slight movements from your body and activate the Vibration Reduction function in in the Set up Menu.

Auto Focus Light

The Auto Focus (AF) will also be needed the subject that you want to shoot has background whose colors are similar to it. When you press the shutter button half way down, the Auto Focus will be ON for around 1 second to focus on the subject that you want to shoot. After that it will be OFF again. The auto focus greatly enhance the quality of the pictures that are created by Nikon Coolpix P500. When the AF assist function is activated the photographs will be sharper.

Today there are several competitors of Nikon Coolpix P500 offered by other camera manufacturers on the market. They are Canon Powershot SX30 IS and SX40 IS; as well as Panasonic Lumix FZ100 and FZ150.

In March 2012, consumers of bridge camera will be able to buy the most powerful telephoto camera in the world, i.e. Nikon Coolpix P510 that is equipped with 42 x optical zoom using Nikkor lenses. Nikon P510 is suitable for travelers who want to take pictures in outdoor settings or in indoor settings where light intensity is quite low.

We will have to wait for several months to see whether Canon, Panasonic and Sony will launch bridge cameras that have similar or better capabilities than the Nikon Coolpix P510.

In addition to manufacturing super zoom camera like the Coolpix P500 and L120, Nikon also produces other optical devices that can be used by nature lovers to watch birds and other wild animals. Some of their products are binoculars, fieldscopes, and digiscoping system. Digiscoping system (combination of telescope and camera) is an affordable solution for anybody who is interested in wildlife photography.