Mẹo vặt đồ gia dụng

Nikon P900 Review Part 4 Ergonomics

Bright sun, cross lighting. FLE125mm, 1/800 sec hand held. You can see the P900 has a very good lens, outstanding really considering the zoom range. But the JPG rendition is not up to the lens, smearing fine foliage details. The P900 would be even better with RAW capture.

This ergonomic review follows my usual schedule which you can readabout here.

Setup Phase is generally well managed. The menus are easily accessed and navigated. The graphical user interface is well designed and easy to read.

There are enough options to provide a decent user experience and to configure the camera for most requirements.

It is not possible to configure the minimum shutter speed to change with zoom.

The buildings under construction are about 1500 meters from the camera on a warm sunny day. The effects of atmospheric distortion are evident. FLE350mm.

Setup Phase Score 10/15

Prepare Phase is not so well designed.

The Main Mode dial is well positioned and easy to use.

Access to Active D Lighting (ADL) may frequently be required in the few minutes just before making an exposure but is only available in the Shooting Menu. It should be more accessible.

The Fn button provides access to AF Area Mode, ISO, Drive Mode, Metering, WB, Picture Control, Image Size, Image Quality and VR. These are appropriate to Prepare Phase but the user experience could be improved.

The list of adjustments assigned to the Fn button is not user selectable, neither is it possible to drop some unused items back to the main menu.

The user interface brought up by the Fn button is poorly designed. I have been using the camera intensively for several weeks and I still get confused by the user interface which requires much scrolling down then across to access various settings.

Many other cameras have an equivalent button. Canon has the Func. Button, Panasonic the Q menu and so forth. They all work better than the P900 Fn button.

The buttons on the upper part of control panel (to the right of the monitor) within easy reach of the right thumb, have good enough haptics. The problem is they are located for ready access to Capture

Phase actions but actually access Setup, Prepare and Review Phase functions with no option for user assignment of function. This is not the end of the world, just suboptimal use of high value camera real estate.

You have buttons for Wi-Fi and Playback in locations which would be better used for primary and secondary exposure and focussing parameters such as ISO, [+/-] or AF start.

If the folks at Nikon can’t work out the difference between Prepare and Capture Phase tasks they might at least give the user the option to assign any function from the shooting menu to every button on the camera. Then users can figure it out for themselves.

ISO 560, 1/320 second. The cockatoo is very close to the camera.

Prepare Phase Score 6/15

Holding The P900 has a nicely designed handle and thumb support. The camera is comfortable to hold and easy to carry all day with the handle.

However the P900 is quite large and could easily accommodate some improvements to both handle and thumb support.

The handle is a bit short for adult male hands. My little finger keeps slipping below the bottom of the handle. The simple way to accommodate large and small hands is to raise the height of the handle.

There is ample opportunity on this body to raise the shoulders and thus the handle.

The height of the center of the shutter button is 72mm. When I make mockups I generally have the shutter button at 78mm. This might not sound like much but it allows the adult male hand a full five finger hold.

In addition the handle could use a more pronounced ‘inverted L’ shape like the canon SX60 which I tested alongside the P900.

The center of the shutter button on the SX60 is inset 30mm from the right side of the body and sits directly above the inside of the handle.

The shutter button of the P900 is 24mm from the side of the body and sits vertically on a line 7mm above the inside of the handle.

The SX60 handle and shutter button location allow the hand to adopt a more natural posture and the terminal phalanx of the index finger to fall more naturally onto the shutter button.

If the reader finds this all rather arcane and confusing a visit to this summary about handles and holding might be worth while.

My experience making 13 camera mockups has taught me that subtle differences in the shape of things can make a big difference to the user experience.

The thumb support is not optimal either. There are two kinds of thumb support.

1. Vertical, near the right side of the body, as seen on the P900 or

2. Diagonal, as seen on Canon DSLRs and Panasonic FZ1000.

The vertical type has two disadvantages.

1. It does not place the hand in the optimal ‘half closed relaxed’ posture for maximum strength with least effort.

2. In order to operate the P900 command dial the whole right hand has to hitch up a bit from the basic hold position. See below.

Holding Score 13/20

The P900 is generally easy to hold. However the inner lens barrel exhibits considerable free play. I recommend keeping fingers off the inner barrel.

Viewing The P900 has a fully articulated monitor providing good sharpness, color, highlight and shadow detail. Aperture and shutter speed are displayed in a gray box near the bottom of the frame.

In addition the least cluttered data set available by scrolling with the Disp button is rather busy.

Fortunately most of the clutter disappears when the shutter button is half pressed, except the aperture, shutter speed, battery status indicator (why does that stay up ?), AF box and framing assist lines.

Neither the monitor nor EVF can be configured for ‘viewfinder style’ with camera data beneath the image preview.

The EVF is of lower quality than the monitor which is disappointing as this camera needs to be used with EVF for stability any time the lens is extended.

Yes, I know, some people claim they can hold a camera steady with monitor view at the long end of a superzoom. They are kidding themselves.

EVF display style and data are the same as the monitor.

The EVF is small, provides inaccurate colors and low sharpness. The slow refresh time/long blackout time has already been mentioned.

Even with EVF brightness set to the maximum it still looks a bit dim to me in bright light.

When Auto ISO is set, there is no indication of actual ISO in the monitor or viewfinder.

The EVF eyecup is small, hard and rectangular, allowing stray light to intrude in bright conditions.

Viewing Score 11/20

This is fairly typical of many of my photos hand held at FLE2000mm. Hazy bright day.
Nothing is really sharp.
ISO 220, 1/640 second. A faster shutter speed might help but that would push up the ISO.

Operating The key criterion for evaluating operation is : The camera should allow the user to adjust all primary and secondary exposure and focussing parameters while looking continuously through the viewfinder and without having to shift grip with either hand.’

The better cameras can manage all this, the P900 cannot. If it were a cheapo general purpose snapshooter’s compact I would say ‘so what ?’. But to me the P900 looks like a camera suggesting bigger and better things.

The ‘bigger’ part of that is undeniable. The ‘better’ comes with expectations which I think owners of this camera are likely to have.

Aperture can be adjusted in A Mode but the right thumb has to drop down to the multi selector which disrupts grip with the right hand.

Shutter speed is adjusted in S mode with the command dial but in order to do that the right hand has to take little hitch upwards so the interphalangeal joint can flex and bring the distal phalanx to bear on the dial. This is a minor problem but again it does involve shifting grip with the right hand.

For comparison see the thumb support and rear dial configuration as found on the FZ1000 or my Mockup #13.

On these cameras the thumb takes up the preferred diagonal posture in holding position. To operate the dial the lower right corner of the camera stays in place on the base of the thumb which has only to swing right without flexing to work the dial without disruption to the grip.

Back to the P900: There is no direct access to ISO setting. ISO is a primary exposure parameter but yet again we see Nikon failing to provide direct access. In the last few years I have owned and used a D5200, V2, P7800 and now the P900 from Nikon and in every one there has been an indirect or roundabout access to setting ISO.

Exposure compensation is easily accessed although the right hand grip is disrupted.

You can zoom with the lever in front of the shutter button or with the one on the left side of the lens barrel. Zoom is prompt and reasonably precise for a power type.

Position of the AF box can be moved readily enough. Press [OK] and the box becomes active. Now it can be moved anywhere within a bounding box using the multi selector keys. A neat touch is that the camera will work with the AF box active. You don’t have to press the [OK] button first.

But the box only moves in single steps, one at a time. It takes 9 presses to get the box from center to one of the corners of the bounding box.

Then there is no ‘one press recenter’ function. You have to do all 9 presses to get it back to the middle of the frame. Fortunately a little dot appears in the middle of the AF box when it is recentered.

Now let us say you are out and about with the AF box at the default [Normal] size and you spot a little bird. You want to reduce the AF box size to [Spot].

You can only change the AF box size via the AF Area Mode and for that you must go through the Shooting menu or the Fn button.

Many button presses later….bye bye birdie………..

So you leave the AF box at the [Spot] setting but this camera uses Contrast Detect AF and a smaller area is likely to be less sensitive and/or accurate for general photography.

Proper cameras let you adjust AF box size on the fly just by turning the command dial when the box is active.

High backlighting handled decently well by the sensor. FLE320mm, ISO 280, 1/400 second.

Operating Score 8/25

Review Phase I found arrangements in Review Phase disappointing.

Each review image can be quickly enlarged with the zoom control.

But I could find no way to scroll from one enlarged frame to the next. I had to zoom back out to full frame before scrolling could proceed. The command dial could have been used for this as in other cameras but that dial just does the same thing as the zoom lever.

I also found that aperture, shutter speed and ISO are only presented on one of the three screen styles selectable via the Disp button. From that screen I am unable to scroll from one image to the next or last.

Review Phase Score 2/5

Total Ergonomic Score 50/100

Comment A score of 50/100 would be expected from a consumer compact with no pretensions to greatness.

But the P900 is touted by Nikon in its promotional material as having ‘superior image quality’, ‘performance that goes above and beyond’ (above and beyond what, I wonder ?) and being ‘designed to impress’.

It certainly looks impressive and in some respects such as the lens, image quality from the 7.66mm sensor, the VR and the price, it actually does impress.

But there is plenty of room for improvement.

I doubt that any single issue with the P900’s ergonomics would be a deal breaker.

But there are many small problems and operational issues leading to a suboptimal user experience.

I suspect some of these issues are the consequence of Nikon’s decision to use the old, slow, Expeed C2 processor.

But many are just a consequence of suboptimal design which could be corrected with existing technology.

Next: Summary and conclusions

Đọc thêm »

Nikon P900 Review Part 3 Performance

Mẹo sử dụng đồ gia dụng 22:22

P900 Focal Length Equivalent 220mm, 1/500 sec. Hand held. Bright sun, front lit, static subject. On close inspection at 100% there is some loss of detail in the fine foliage. However in the original you can see individual leaves on the eucalyptus trees behind the houses. Overall a very good result.

On the basis of specifications and appearance the P900 seems as though it might be ideal for birds, wildlife, sport and action photos. In practice it does birds and some wildlife well (but with reservations) and sport/action not well.

Here are some of the details:

* The lens zooms from one end to the other in 3.5 seconds which I think is very good considering the amount of glass which has to move a substantial distance.

* Using single shot, single AF, ADL off, focussing on each frame, the shot to shot time is 1.0 seconds at the wide end, 1.1 seconds at mid zoom and 1.2 seconds at the long end.

Most of my long zoom, running dog photos were out of focus or more often out of the frame due to the limited continuous shooting performance of the P900. Some like this were good. FLE600mm 1/1000 sec. There is loss of hair detail on the dog's back.

* EVF blackout time. When you press the shutter button to make a photo the EVF blacks out for about half a second. Some time during this blackout the exposure is made.

This blackout has consequences. At the long end hand held, subject framing alters significantly between the action of pressing the shutter button and the actual capture. This produces a lot of incorrectly framed photos in my hands which are reasonably steady.

The slow shot to shot time and long EVF (or monitor) blackout time make it difficult to photograph moving subjects when zoomed out.

* AF speed. Compared to other consumer type superzoom cameras the AF speed is commendably fast and is quite adequate for static subjects. But P900 AF speed is not in the same class as some other cameras such as the Panasonic FZ1000 which I tested alongside the P900.

* AF accuracy. I found this to be very good outdoors with few frames out of focus. Sometimes the shutter would fire without focus having been attained and a few photos of dark subjects at the long end were a little off focus.

Indoors I found the AF system more reluctant to grab focus but at least it put up the red box to warn me that I should try again.

Generally a reliable performance with single shot capture.

FLE1400mm, 1/500 second. The dog stood still for a second.

* Continuous shooting/predictive AF. In order to capture sport/action a camera needs to have the capacity for predictive AF at a reasonable frame rate. The P900 does not manage this well.

In Continuous High the EVF locks up at the first frame so cannot follow a moving subject. This setting might be useful for checking, say, a golf swing.

In Continuous Low the frame rate is about 2 fps. The AF box disappears after the first frame. The view you see in the EVF is a review of the previous frame not a preview of the next one. The EVF blackout means you are looking at a black rectangle more than half the total time. These factors make it extremely difficult to hold a moving subject in frame especially if it is moving across the frame.

With cars moving slowly towards the camera and the zoom at FLE400mm I got about 60% of frames sharp. With surfers moving across the frame and FLE about 1000mm, I got no useful shots at all.

The camera locks up after shooting a burst of exposures while data is writing to the memory card. I used a Sandisk Extreme Pro 95MB/sec card, which is about the fastest available.

There is a Sports mode available via the [Scene] setting on the Mode Dial. Some users posting on forums are getting good results with this. However as described in the Reference Manual (Page 5 of the Reference section) exposure and focus are set at the first frame of the set of 7.

The P900 is difficult to use for sport/action with limitations on follow focus and continuous viewing.

I spent a morning at the local wetlands photographing birds, switching back and forth between the P900 and the FZ1000. I used the FZ1000 up to FLE800mm with JPG capture (i-Zoom).

I found the FZ1000 was better for overall speed and responsiveness, highlight/shadow detail, autofocus speed, autofocus accuracy, continuous AF/follow focus, EVF quality, EVF refresh, write time to memory and overall picture quality up to FLE600mm.

The P900 was better for zoom reach and picture quality above FLE600mm.

The point of this is that up to about FLE600mm there are better cameras to be had than the P900. So the P900 has to be very convincing in the higher focal length range to make a case for someone to buy one.

Loss of highlight detail on the trunks of the Casuarinas. I forgot to set Active D Lighting. If the camera allowed RAW capture I probably wouldn't have to remember ADL at all.

Auto Panorama is one of those features the market seems to think that consumer cameras must have these days. The P900 has it but the resolution and sharpness are rather low.

The self timer is easy enough to set but it self cancels after every shot.

I forgot about this every time I used the camera on a tripod. Proper cameras provide an option to hold the self timer function until the camera is powered off or a different mode is selected.

FLE550mm, 1/320 sec, ISO 1600. Very good result for ISO 1600 from a small sensor. Note shallow depth of focus. The wing is sharp, the eye not quite sharp.

Vibration reduction (VR) performance Nikon claims in its promotional material that “ ….shots are stabilised at a shutter speed of approximately 5.0 stops faster…..”.

Faster than what, they do not say.

A footnote says “..Based on CIPA standard measured at approximately 350mm (35mm format equivalent)”.

I ran as series of tests in controlled conditions and compared the results to my photos out and about.

The controlled test was to photograph a page of newspaper, hand held with VR off then on, with the zoom at widest, mid and longest positions, hand held, standing, viewing through the EVF.

Zoom range	Slowest sharp shutter speed VR OFF	Slowest sharp shutter speed VR ON	Advantage Stops or EV steps	Real world slowest sharp shutter speed VR ON
Wide FLE 24mm	1/20	1/10	1.0	About 1/15
Mid FLE 240mm	1/100	1/20	2.3	About 1/125
Long FLE 2000mm	1/1000	1/320	2.0	About 1/800

Notes:

* VR stabilises the EVF image and allows the remarkably long zoom to be used hand held, with some limitations, if the camera is held very steady.

* When I review my ‘out and about’ photos (hundreds of them) I find that the shutter speeds I need to use for reasonably reliable sharpness are higher than those obtained in controlled testing.

* VR works well up to FLE about 800-1000mm with a decently high percentage of sharp enough frames. But in my hands , which are quite steady with no rest or intention tremor, the percentage of sharp frames falls as focal length increases to FLE2000.

I am seeing photos published on user forums which would suggest that some other P900 users are getting better results at the long end. Maybe there is sample variation in VR effectiveness. Maybe other users have better technique than me. Many factors affect sharpness at the long end.

By the way, when testing I several times left VR ON with the camera on tripod, with no apparent ill effect.

Nikon advises switching VR OFF with tripod use but in practice it seems OK to leave it ON.

In fact it may be advantageous. The reason is that at FLE2000mm the preview image becomes unstable in the slightest breeze. In addition if the shutter is actuated by pressing the shutter button with the timer set to 2 seconds, which is my practice, the camera can take all of that time to settle down and leaving VR ON helps it to do so.

VR effectiveness on the P900 is of the same order as IS effectiveness on the Canon SX60 which I tested concurrently.

Work boat about 500 meters from the camera. Bright sun.
Hand held. FLE1500mm 1/400sec ISO 100.

Next: Ergonomics

Đọc thêm »

Hướng dẫn vô hiệu hóa js mặc định cho blogspot

Mẹo sử dụng đồ gia dụng 10:07 Thủ Thuật Blogger (Blogspot) , Xóa JS Mặc Định Blogspot

Đây là vấn đề thường gặp khi bạn là một thiết kế hay là bạn chỉnh sửa cho blogspot của mình, khi thêm css vào blog nhưng mà nó không như ý muốn. bởi vì js mặc định nó đã làm điều đó làm bạn khó chịu.JS mặc định ở đây là những đoạn js ở cuối blog khi bạn ctrl + U.

Những link js mặc đinh thường có dạng như sau :

<script type="text/javascript"> if (window.jstiming) window.jstiming.load.tick('widgetJsBefore'); </script>
<script type="text/javascript" src="https://www.blogger.com/static/v1/widgets/3186034670-widgets.js"></script>
< script type="text/javascript" src="https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"></script>

Cũng lưu ý một điều cho các bạn là newbi, nếu bạn không biết gì về css thì đôi khi blog sẽ bị vỡ khung khi làm điều này nên rất xấu xí :))
Vậy chúng ta bắt đầu thực hiện nhé, đăng nhập vào templates blogspot tìm đến các thẻ sau :

<html>
<head>
...
</head>
<body>
...
</body>
</html>

Và thay thế chúng bằng

<html>
<head>
... </head>
<body>
... 

</body>
</html>

Trong đó ... là code trên blog của các bạn.

Như vậy là đã xong, nhưng đôi khi làm việc này thì các bạn mất quyền kiểm soát comments blog, có nghĩa là bạn không thể xóa comments trên blogspot được, nếu bị như vậy các bạn làm như sau :

Thêm đoạn code này vào phầm css của blog bạn

div.blog-admin, div.pid-xxxxxxxxx { display:block; }
span.blog-admin, span.pid-xxxxxxxxx { display:inline; }

Trong đó bạn thay xxxxxxxxx thành ID blog của bạn. Mọi việc tới đây dường như có vẻ đã ổn, và các bạn có thể kiểm tra kết quả như hình dưới.

Hướng dẫn vô hiệu hóa js mặc định của blogspot

Đọc thêm »

Code hiện tổng bài đăng cho blogspot

Đây là đoạn code giúp hiển thị tổng số bài đăng, có nghĩa là blog của bạn có tất cả bao nhiu bài viết, và đây cũng là một thủ thuật rất là đơn giản nhưng mà có một bạn yêu cầu nên mình chia sẻ cho tất cả cùng làm.

Code hiện tổng bài đăng cho blogspot

Để làm điều này các bạn làm theo hai bước sau :

Bước 1: Các bạn vào phần bố cục thêm tiện ích HTML/Javascript và dán vào đó đoạn code dưới

Hiện có : <script type="text/javascript">
// Posts Count :: http://www.thuthuatblogger.org/function showpostcount(json) {
document.write(parseInt(json.feed.openSearch$totalResults.$t,10));
}
</script>
<script src="/feeds/posts/summary?max-results=0&alt=json-in-script&callback=showpostcount"></script> bài đăng

Thay link blog thành link blogspot của bạn
Sửa chữ hiện có và bài đăng theo ý các bạn

Bước 2 : Lưu tiện ích lại và xem thành quả của bạn vừa làm đc nhé. Chúc các bạn online vui vẻ.

Đọc thêm »

Nikon P900 Review Part 2 Picture Quality

Mẹo sử dụng đồ gia dụng 02:58

Active D Lighting on HIGH. Compare this with the next photo below. Look at the level of highlight detail in the sunlit boat superstructures then at the foliage detail. Fine foliage is smudged more in this photo than the next. Both this and the photo below have been edited in the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop. The unedited, out of camera version of this photo has flat mid tones which I do not find appealing.

Considering the tiny sensor used in this camera, the massive zoom range and lack of RAW capture, the P900 can make pictures of very good quality in the right conditions.

Output picture quality is dependent on many factors, some of which are as follows:

Camera factors: Shooting mode (Auto,PASM), ISO setting, shutter speed, lens focal length, vibration reduction effectiveness, JPG picture control settings.

User factors: Camera holding technique to minimise shake, experience with the camera and with monitoring exposure parameters during Capture Phase of use.

Subject factors: Amount and direction of light, type of subject (with or without fine detail, with or without human faces and hair), subject movement.

All these things and more have a big effect on photo output which can vary from very good to disappointing.

At the time of writing I have made more than 1500 photos with the P900, experimented with many camera settings and tried a range of subject types and lighting conditions.

Active D Lighting OFF. There is less highlight detail but fine foliage is less smudged.

My conclusion thus far is that the camera delivers best results hand held most of the time with the following settings:

* Shooting Mode, P (on the Mode Dial) or S when direct control of shutter speed is required, at the long end of the zoom and/or low light.

* Picture Control, Standard with Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation at default levels. (in the Shooting Menu).

* Noise reduction filter at LOW (in the Shooting Menu). Even at the LOW setting, images from the P900 appear to me to have a high level of noise reduction. There is very little granular type noise even at ISO 1600. I would like to see Nikon introduce a lower NR setting in a firmware update. That might overcome the mushy appearance of fine details which is easily seen in P900 images.

* Active D Lighting (ADL) OFF with front lit subjects or when subject brightness range is low. (Set this in the Shooting Menu).

* Active D Lighting HIGH with backlit subjects or when subject brightness range is high. (bright highlights, dark shadows).

The camera has menu resume (menu will open at the last used tab) in the Shooting Menu so if you go to the [Active D-Lighting] tab when preparing the camera for an outing the menu will open there for quick access next time you use it.

ADL works. It delivers improved highlight and shadow detail when subject brightness range is high. I suggest some experimentation with the levels available to see what is most effective.

I noted in my tests that pictures with ADL on HIGH have slighly more smudging of fine details than companion images with ADL OFF.

* Image Quality Fine, Image Size 16 M, White Balance Auto1, Metering Matrix, Single shot, AF-S, AF Area Mode Manual Normal, ISO Auto.

In general I have found it best to let the camera figure out the best combination of shutter speed, aperture (which will almost always be the widest available) and ISO sensitivity.

The exception to this is with the lens zoomed out and less than bright light levels when the camera will allow the shutter speed to drop below a safe hand held level.

In my hands if I am holding the camera very steady, this is about 1/800sec at E2000mm and about 1/200 sec at E800mm.

I then switch to S (shutter priority) Mode and control the shutter speed directly.

At Focal Length E24mm shutter speeds of around 1/15-1/30 are achievable and even slower with a bit of luck but that takes no account of subject movement.

I note that P900 users are posting in online forums decently sharp photos taken at lower shutter speeds than those quoted above. I too, have had occasional sharp shots at low shutter speeds but for consistency have found that in my hands the speeds above are more realistic.

The camera does have a [minimum shutter speed] setting but it is fixed and does not adjust for zoom.

Nikon should reconfigure this in firmware if possible. I find 1/30 sec or slower is fine at the wide end but useless at the long end.

I have read numerous posts in user forums about the P900, some in praise some in despair. It seems to me that several of the despairing posters might have been trying too hard to exert control over the camera, using M Mode, or using shutter speeds which are unrealistically slow or shooting through hazy hot air.

There have been some reviews heavily critical of the image quality. One such review described the sensor as ‘hellishly crappy’ and the images as being ‘like oatmeal’ and ‘like porridge’.

I have to say, my initial reaction to the P900 images was something like “oh, yuck, I can’t live with these JPGs”, having used RAW capture with almost every other digital camera I have owned.

However after experimenting with various settings and becoming accustomed to the camera I am not quite so negative about the JPGs although I still wish Raw was available.

As I see it, there are three main problems with JPG pictures, including those produced by the P900.

1. Image editing is done by the camera according to its own algorithms then baked in and at least half the original data discarded. This means opportunities for post capture adjustment are limited.

2. Overexposed and unrecoverable highlights are common when subject brightness range is high.

3. Fine textures and subject details tend to be lost in the JPG creation process leading to a mushy appearance of some types of subject, typically fine foliage, hair and skin texture.

However I must say that the JPGs from the P900 are better than those from the Canon SX60 and Panasonic TZ70 which I tested alongside the P900.

By ‘better’ I mean they have less noise, more detail and generally more accurate color.

The moored yachts are about 750 meters from the camera. Overcast day. FLE 2000mm. I made 10 exposures hand held at 1/400sec. This is the sharpest. I am unable to get reliable sharpness at the long end at this shutter speed.

The lens I rate the P900 lens as quite remarkable, astounding even, given the price of the camera.

It delivers very good to excellent sharpness right across the frame from the wide end of the zoom range to about E1200mm . There is a bit of softening in the edges and corners but this is not noticed in most photos.

From there to the long end sharpness and contrast decline somewhat but remain capable of decent picture quality even at E2000mm in the right conditions (see below). My copy is a bit soft on the right side at FLE2000.

In practice I found that the camera in P Mode selects the widest available aperture almost all the time and that works well. I could see no optical benefit to stopping down the aperture.

My strong suspicion is that the JPG engine is not allowing the lens to display its full potential.

There is no appreciable distortion or chromatic aberration presumably as a result of software correction in camera post capture.

Some purple fringing may appear at high brightness/contrast edges.

Objects behind the plane of focus tend to exhibit double line type nisen bokeh which can be distracting with some subjects.

Flare can be an issue with the sun or bright light shining towards the camera. There is no lens hood supplied.

The lens takes a standard 67mm diameter screw in filter. I have a u.v. filter fitted permanently to protect the front element.

On my camera the lens has about 2mm free play along the optical axis. I find this somewhat disconcerting as the lens flops in and out if the camera is shaken back and forth or tipped up one way then the other.

This is the best frame from a run of 10 hand held at 1/800 sec. I got a greater percentage of acceptable shots at this shutter speed but you can see the increased granularity due to the need for higher ISO.

Vibration Reduction (VR) This camera and all other super zooms would notbe usable hand held without a highly efficient vibration reduction system. The P900 has one of the best VR systems I have encountered but it does struggle a bit at FLE2000.

It allows me to hand hold (with careful technique) down to about 1/400 second, sometimes slower, at a focal length in the FLE600-800mm range.

Towards the long end of the zoom I find I need to use at least 1/800sec or faster for reasonable consistency.

At this point a tight little nexus between focal length, ISO, shutter speed and picture quality sets in.

The problem is that if shutter speed is increased to counter camera shake then ISO must increase and that brings increased noise reduction which impairs picture quality.

So there must always be a balance between focal length, shutter speed and ISO setting. I suggest each individual photographer run trials on this to determine the optimum relationship for that person’s own camera technique.

In light levels which are less than bright it may be impossible to achieve hand held sharpness at the long end with any camera settings.

Bear in mind that VR does nothing for subject movement.

Now the same thing on tripod, with timer delay 2 sec. With ISO at base level and no camera shake this is the best result. Only the individual photographer can decide whether the benefits of the tripod outweigh the drudgery of carrying it. The fact that I am even suggesting the use of such an amazing focal length without a tripod is remarkable.

Sharpness at the long end Over more than a thousand frames I have repeatedly found that my rate of sharp photos declines as focal length increases, particularly over about FLE1000mm.

This could be and probably is due to several factors. To mention a few:

* Atmospheric haze and turbulence distortion with distant subjects. This can be a major issue on a sunny day in the afternoon.

* Camera shake hand held.

* VR is very good, but in my hands which are reasonably steady, not quite good enough for reliable sharpness at the long end.

* Just framing a subject is difficult enough at the long end let alone holding the camera still. The ‘Snap-Back-Zoom’ button is useful for locating a subject.

* The lens loses some sharpness and contrast at the long end which is of course just when sharpness and contrast are most needed.

* It is possible that AF is not as accurate at the long end. I have several photos which are not sharp, apparently out of focus.

I usually find it is possible to improve sharpness at the long end by mounting the camera on a VERY sturdy tripod, with no breeze at all and firing the shutter by timer delay or remote device.

Beware the lightweight tripod for long zoom work. The slightest breeze can move the camera enough to make sharp results impossible.

The tripod socket is off to the left side and quite forward in the baseplate of the camera which doesn’t help at all.

If Nikon does a follow up model I would like them to redesign this part of the camera for better tripod stability.

As it stands you have 185mm of lens (at full zoom) cantilevered out in front of a 15mm support platform (the distance between the center of the tripod socket and the front of the baseplate). This is not sufficiently stable and makes setting up a tripod shot at the long end difficult as the lens drags the camera down even with the tripod head controls locked.

Wattlebird. Small birds like this make themselves hard to see clearly, ducking behind foliage repeatedly. Anyway I finally grabbed a shot of this one about to take off. All right, they are always about to take off. FLE 1100mm.
I got one reasonable shot in 20 of the wattlebirds that day.

Sharpness at the long end: Tripod vs VR. I ran a series of tests at two distances, 19 meters and 750 meters from camera to subject.

I found that with a static subject, no breeze, ISO 100 and 2sec timer I reliably got better picture quality with the tripod at either distance.

ISO range image quality I found with that with camera settings as detailed above and with the provisos also mentioned above about smudging of fine textural detail and the risk of blown out highlights, image quality is very good at base ISO and declines only slowly as ISO is increased with gradual loss of sharpness, detail rendition and color.

I found JPGs from the P900 to be visibly better especially at high ISO settings than JPGs from the Panasonic TZ70 or Canon SX60 which I tested concurrently with the P900.

I am happy to use the P900 at ISO 800 or even ISO 1600. This is the best high ISO performance I have seen from a camera with the 7.66mm diagonal sensor.

This makes the P900 usable indoors without flash.

It also gives me cause to rethink the potential of the 7.66mm sensor in modern digital camera practice.

As mentioned above I think Nikon could and should include a lower setting for NR which would hopefully boost fine detail rendition. I doubt the increase in grain would be a problem.

JPG vs RAW workflow considerations I use Adobe Photoshop.

I have found that in the great majority of photos I can improve the out-of-camera JPG by editing with the Camera Raw filter in Photoshop.

o I do just as much post capture editing on JPGs as RAW images but with less useful effect.

At the capture end of the workflow cycle, shooting RAW (where available) is much easier than shooting JPG. I don’t have to worry about setting Active D Lighting or not and don’t have to worry about applying exposure compensation or thinking about other settings which will be ‘baked in’ to a JPG.

The point is that for the user who does normally run a RAW based workflow, JPG capture is more troublesome and less effective than RAW capture.

Next: performance