Move from a P900 to????

daveznspace

My mom has a P900 but it's not really user-friendly for non-photographic people. For example, they don't want to use a tripod and don't understand the farther the lens goes out the less chance they have for a decent shot.

She wants to sell it and get something else. Does anyone have any suggestions for one in the more point n shoot vein that has very good image quality and at least a decent zoom? She mostly shoots things like moose, elk, raptors from 50 yards to several hundred yards and ones like moose will usually be in the shade.

BVS

The question is how much zoom does she actually need and use? If she has to have 2000mm then the P900 is pretty much the only game in town. There's also the newer P1000, but that's even bigger and heavier and more zoom, so that might just compound the problem. There's also some smaller cheaper models like the B500 and B600 that 'only' go to 900mm and 1440mm, which might indirectly solve the problem.

If she can live with only 600mm then you might look at the Sony RX10 IV. It's supposed to have top notch AF, has a larger 1" type sensor (vs. the 2/3" sensor in the P900) and can do 4K video and such as well. Kinda pricey though.

Another option is to pick up one of the old Nikon 1 cameras (also 1" sensors) and pair it with the Nikon 1 70-300 VR which gives you 189-810mm equivalent range.

Yet another option is to get a micro four thirds camera with the Panasonic 100-400 lens for 200-800mm equivalent range. In this case you get an even larger sensor and can swap lenses for other uses. The 100-400 is only f/6.3 at max zoom though.

mhedges

Also if 450mm is long enough maybe a DX DSLR with a 70-300? May be more complicated then what you are looking for though.

daveznspace

BVS said:

The question is how much zoom does she actually need and use? If she has to have 2000mm then the P900 is pretty much the only game in town.

I keep going over that I don't think she needs all that zoom, enough for 200-300 yards at most. To put that in perspective, here's a video from the P900 in Virginia from my old deck to the blue ridge parkway over 7 miles away

https://instagram.com/p/Bi0oOBoAe6K/

That's nuts lol.

I thought about the sony but not for $1600. The Nikon ones might be a good idea, I planned on getting one anyways. The canon might be ok too.

The other issue with the P9000 are things like birds. Like yesterday I had both camera's and stopped to get some shots of a male Northern Harrier catching dinner then the female came in then 2 red-tailed hawks and was treated to a sweet hawk vs hawk old school dog fight (the redtail really wanted whatever the harrier caught. But that was maddening with p9000 over a d750 with a 200-500mm.

I think a 4/3 might be too complicated, they need simple.

Good answers there tho thanks

daveznspace

mhedges said:

Also if 450mm is long enough maybe a DX DSLR with a 70-300? May be more complicated then what you are looking for though.

She bought a D3300 in 2015, let just say a few days later it ended up on my doorstep.
They like simple so they can just stick it out the window.

mhedges

daveznspace said:

She bought a D3300 in 2015, let just say a few days later it ended up on my doorstep.
They like simple so they can just stick it out the window.

Ha.

Is it really much more complicated than a P900 though if you just leave it on the full auto mode?

daveznspace

mhedges said:

daveznspace said:

Ha.

Is it really much more complicated than a P900 though if you just leave it on the full auto mode?

Actually, I think the p900 is more complicated, especially the af system. It's a great fun camera don't get me wrong and if you have lots of light it's actually pretty good.

So last weekend I turned on zoom memory (or something) and had the lens stop at certain ranges so that she could see how far other models would reach. I maxed it out at 600mm and we had great sun and the pix came out much better.

I just don't see anything better unless you spend $1700 for the sony