Nikon Coolpix P600 with 60X zoom for bird lovers

Till now all was well and we were having a great time shooting birds with the massive zoom of 50x by the Canon SX50 HS PAS camera. And there are thousands of fans and followers of this camera including me. I also loved the pictures that were produced by this camera. It was a minibeast which could give tough competition to any decent DSLR.

I liked the Canon SX50 HS untill I was informed about the Nikon Coolpix P600. During a photowalk at Gopalpur-on-sea one of the team members informed that Nikon has come up with a zoom camera with 60X zoom. That was awesome news for me. But then Fujifilm too had a camera with the same 60X zoom spanning to the same 1200mm which Canon got at 50X zoom, so I was not that much happier, except that the price of the Nikon camera was bit less.

The next evening I was in the famous IBC computers and peripherals store in the city and was looking at the documents and the camera for details. The things that I saw was awesome and this is the zeist of what I found out there.

The Nikon Coolpix P600 is a new super-zoom compact camera with a mechanically-stabilized 60x optical zoom that offers a massive focal range of 24-1440mm. It also offers an innovative side zoom control, a 1/2.3” Back Side Illuminated CMOS sensor with 16.1 megapixels, sensitivity range of ISO 100 to 6400, and full HD 60i video recording with stereo sound and slow-motion video at up to 120fps. The Nikon P600 appeals further to the keen photographer with a full range of manual shooting modes, burst shooting at 7fps, 99-point autofocus system, focus peaking, built-in Wi-Fi connectivity, electronic viewfinder and a 3-inch 921K-dot vari-angle RGBW LCD screen.

1440mm focal length. That is truly awesome. I was all ears to listen to all good things about this camera and then google helped me quench my thirst for knowledge on this camera and the various groups on social media and Flickr helped me gain more information.

As of now there is not a clear verdict on which camera should be bought for bird photography, but if you are planning for more zoom, than Nikon is the best bet. But the people who already have the Canon also have the say that the Nikon does not have RAW photography capability, Macro distance is Zero in Canon, There is hotshoe for Flash in Canon and many more differences. It will be decided later which is better but as of now many websites have claimed that the new Nikon camera may not be as good as Canon sx50 HS.

So it is upto the readers to decide what you want. I am a die hard fan of Nikon and I have a Nikon DSLR and I know the picture quality of the Nikon is second to none and so I would definitely go for the Nikon Coolpix P600 because;

1. It is 1440mm zoom in comparision to 1200mm of Canon
2. Cheaper than Canon (Canon SX50 HS @ 24k+ / Nikon Coolpix P600 @20K+)
3. I do not need flash for this camera because I got a DSLR which can do that job
4. I do not need RAW shooting modes, because JPEG is also equally good. (I hv been using raw files in last few months only, earlier I was using jpegs only and I used photoshop to do the tweaks to the photos)
5. It has a high resolution screen
6. It has an external MIC jack
7. It can create in camera panorama photos
8. Its battery life is good (330 vs 200 of Canon)

9. It has built-in WI FI facilty to connect to my smart phone
10. It has a bigger LCD screen (3 Inches)

Which camera should I buy for Bird Watching ?

When I first became the member of bird watching groups on facebook I was mesmerized at the quality of images the members posted and my Fujifilm S-2980 Bridge camera with 18x Zoom could not offer that quality of Photos, so I asked this question "What camera should I buy for bird watching ?" in all groups, forums and pages and no one responded in a clear tone. Every time the people said it is some DSLR or the other and the telephoto lens etc. It was confusing and then I decided to update my camera and so Six months back when I procured my first DSLR I was thrilled and then the feeling did not last long when I realised the pictures I am taking are far too short of the quality that I have been going through on the facebook and other social networks. What was wrong with me ? It happened that the zooming ability of my camera was not that big and so I always fell short of it.

I had become a big bird watcher and was going out every morning in search of birds and was shooting them and although I have shot more than a hundred different variety of birds in my city alone, I always felt If the camera could go a few meters close to the birds.

Then one day I got the information that bird lovers do not depend much on DSLRs but they are using a point and shoot camera. That was again a disappointment for me, since the money I had spend on getting the DSLR and the lens could have been saved too. But somehow I came to know that Canon SX50 HS was the camera that most bird lovers used and then I started doing research online on this camera.

I was bowled over by the capability of the camera to produce such nice quality photos that I became a fan of the camera and although I have not purchased one yet, I had the opportunity to use it and see the results when a friend of mine got that one and while we were doing a bird walk in my city, I got to see the camera and took couple of shots.

I suggested every other newbie in photography to go for this camera because of the things which it could do. It had 12 megapixel back-illuminated sensor, DIGIC 5 image processor, 4.5-stop optical Image Stabilizer with Intelligent IS technology, full manual controls, ISO 80-6400, 12-bit RAW format support, full 1080p HD movie recording with stereo sound and a HDMI port, 10fps burst shooting, a 2.8 inch vari-angle LCD screen, a range of Creative Filters, external flash hotshoe and an electronic viewfinder.

The best thing about this camera was the massive 50X zoom which in terms of 35mm sensor meant a whoping 1200mm focal length at the farthest end. While if you plan to buy a lens for your DSLR with the same focal length, you may have to sell your house to get it.

For all bird lovers and photography enthusiasts I would suggest you opt for this tiny thing which can show you much better results and you can get clear shots of birds and flying objects too.