Nikon P1000 Field Test Part II

Nikon's latest superzoom is super fun

by Jeremy Gray | Posted 10/29/2018

53.9mm (300mm equiv.), f/4.5, 1/200s, ISO 200, Flash. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

If you have yet to read Dave Pardue's Field Test for the Nikon P1000, you should do so now. He covers a lot about the camera's design/handling and its image quality in a variety of situations.

When Nikon released the P900 during the spring of 2015, I was very excited about the camera for many reasons, not the least of which was its incredible 83x zoom range. There were some concerns, however, including sluggish autofocus and the lack of raw image recording. The P1000 doubles down on what made the P900 an intriguing camera by adding an extra 1000mm of reach, bringing the total focal length range to 24-3000mm while also improving upon some of its predecessor's weaknesses.

There's no such thing as free lunch, though. Nikon achieves the incredible feat of a 24-3000mm lens by utilizing a very small 1/2.3-inch sensor (although it can capture raw files this time around). It's a 16-megapixel BSI CMOS sensor, and 16 megapixels is a lot to put on a sensor that small. Further, the lens is quite large, making the P1000 a generally unwieldy camera. However, it is pretty light for its size, surprisingly so when you first pick it up, but it's far from compact. Small sensor, big camera and bigger lens.

7.6mm (41mm equiv.), f/5.6, 0.4s, ISO 100. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

Making the impossible possible

I photograph a lot of wildlife with APS-C and full-frame cameras and while these are excellent photographic tools, especially with a long lens, there are many times when I see an animal that is simply too far away. Even with a 200-500mm lens on a Nikon D500, there are a lot of times when I would love more reach. That's basically never a problem with the Nikon P1000. Not only can the P1000 photograph a very distant subject, it can also shoot at 24mm with the flip of a switch. That type of flexibility helps make the P1000 a very special photographic tool. It not only gives you unique opportunities that hardly any other camera can offer, but it also doesn't handcuff you by locking you into any specific type of photography.

102mm (567mm equiv.), f/5.0, 1/500s, ISO 320. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

 

117mm (650mm equiv.), f/5.0, 1/500s, ISO 110. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

117mm (650mm equiv.), f/5.0, 1/500s, ISO 110. 100 percent crop of the above image. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

117mm (650mm equiv.), f/5.0, 1/500s, ISO 110. 100 percent crop of the above image. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

But there's a price to pay when the light gets low

The P1000 has a pretty slow lens when you start to zoom in. As Dave Pardue noted, the lens may start at f/2.8, but by 105mm, it's an f/4 lens. At 800mm, it's an f/5.6 lens, and it drops down to f/6.3, f/7.1 and f/8 at 1600mm, 2200mm and 2800mm focal lengths, respectively. That is not a lot of light-gathering ability when you start zooming in. In the field, this results in pretty sluggish autofocus in low light, especially when you start to zoom in.

135mm (750mm equiv.), f/5.6, 1/250s, ISO 450, Flash. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image. As you can see, it was quite dark. Nonetheless, the P1000 was able to acquire focus. It helped that the lens was not extended very far, as the low-light autofocus capabilities decrease quite rapidly as you surpass 1,000mm and 2,000mm focal lengths.

Not only is the autofocus speed underwhelming in low light and when zoomed in, but the very small sensor leads to some issues with respect to image quality. Supposing you are photographing wildlife in early morning light, you are probably at f/5 or slower and likely need a quick-ish shutter speed. If your ISO on the P1000 gets up above 400, you will start to see some pretty noticeable degradation to image quality. If you go as high as 800 or 1600, which aren't very high by modern standards, the situation only worsens, quite dramatically at the latter ISO speed. It makes sense, given the small sensor, but it's an issue that is exacerbated by the slow lens.

252mm (1400mm equiv.), f/5.6, 1/320s, ISO 1250. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

252mm (1400mm equiv.), f/5.6, 1/320s, ISO 1250. 100 percent crop from the above image. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image. There's quite a bit of softening of fine details, but it doesn't look too bad when you zoom out. As you can see in this 100 percent crop, however, file quality decreases quite a bit at higher ISOs.

252mm (1400mm equiv.), f/5.6, 1/320s, ISO 1250. 100 percent crop from the above image. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image. There's a pretty noticeably blotchy appearance to soft areas of images at higher ISOs.

The lens is an incredible feat of engineering

Let's take a closer look at the technology involved in the 24-3000mm zoom lens. The Zoom-Nikkor ED VR lens has 17 elements in 12 groups, including 5 ED elements and a single super ED element. The lens is a 4.3-539mm focal length lens in actual terms, but there's a 5.58 times crop factor due to the small size of the sensor, which produces an equivalent focal length range of 24-3000mm. The lens can focus as close as 11.8 inches (30 centimeters) in normal focus mode and as close as 0.4 inches (1 centimeter) in macro focus mode, and we found a focal length of about 105mm equivalent produced the maximum reproduction ratio.

Where the P900 struggled some in the corners, especially at wider focal lengths, I think that the P1000's lens is pretty solid. Even when shooting a macro image at maximum reproduction where corners are often very soft, it maintains a decent amount of sharpness across the frame as shown below.

18.9mm (105mm equiv.), f/4, 1/4s, ISO 200, Macro Focus. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

 

359mm (2000mm equiv.), f/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 160. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

359mm (2000mm equiv.), f/6.3, 1/500s, ISO 160. 100 percent crop from the above image. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image. In this crop, we can see that even at 2000mm, the P1000 can produce a detailed image. With a good amount of light, its performance is really quite impressive.

 

13.5mm (75mm equiv.), f/3.5, 1/250s, ISO 360. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

13.5mm (75mm equiv.), f/3.5, 1/250s, ISO 360. 100 percent crop of the above modified image. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

The flash works surprisingly well for fill

With a max flash sync of 1/4000s, which is impressive, you can easily use the P1000's built-in flash for fill, especially on a cloudy day. While it can create some iffy shadows at times, as any on-camera flash will, the camera does a nice job of balancing the power of the flash with the situation at hand. You can get some natural, pleasing results when there is some ambient light.

135mm (750mm equiv.), f/5.6, 1/320s, ISO 250, Flash. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

135mm (750mm equiv.), f/5.6, 1/320s, ISO 250, Flash. 100 percent crop from the above modified image. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

The P1000 is pretty big, but how does it handle in the field?

The P1000's main body is basically the size of a large DSLR camera, albeit quite a bit lighter than how a robust DSLR feels in the hands. It'll feel familiar for people who have used other Nikon cameras, although there are some differences, such as the lack of a front command dial – there is instead a dial surrounding the directional pad on the back to accompany the rear command dial – and a few different button locations.

I generally liked the layout of the camera's buttons when in the field, although I found everything is a bit too clicky and buttons don't have a lot of travel distance. The zoom mechanisms, both around the shutter release and on the lens barrel itself, felt nice and offer a good blend of speed and precision. When zooming in, there is a point around the 250-350mm range where you can start to feel the extending lens throw the balance off a bit. The image stays pretty stable when zooming in, although there is some variation in framing at times as you zoom in and out.

77.8mm (433mm equiv.), f/5, 1/400s, ISO 450. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

The electronic viewfinder is a somewhat weak aspect of the P1000's design and build quality. It is a 0.39-inch type OLED viewfinder with 99 percent coverage – which is pretty good – and 2,359K dots – also pretty good. The viewfinder image itself often looks a bit flat, although it's reasonably sharp. The primary issue I have is that the on-screen text, such as shutter speed and aperture, are not high-fidelity. It may seem like a minor issue, but clean-looking text goes a long way.

The rear display is much less sharp, offering only 921,600 dots. The 3.2-inch display delivers a soft image much of the time. On the plus side, its tilt/swivel mechanism is excellent. I do really wish that the display was a touchscreen, however, as that would make overall usability much better.

Overall, the P1000 feels pretty good in the hands although there is definitely room for improvement with handling in general and with the rear display in particular.

4.3mm (24mm equiv.), f/4, 1/400s, ISO 110. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

It isn't all about stills, the P1000 has video chops, too

The Nikon P1000 is more than a stills camera, it also has some interesting video features. It can record 4K UHD video at up to 30 frames per second and Full HD video at up to 60 frames per second. Further, the camera does not crop in from the sides when recording video, and it has vibration reduction even when recording 4K UHD video.

Nikon P1000 4K Video #1 3840 x 2160 video at 30 frames per second. ISO 125 (this is the base ISO for video recording). Three clips recorded in the camera as part of a single video. Download Original (638.8 MB .MP4 File)

You can start a recording at any time by pressing on the dedicated record button on the back of the camera, which works well, but there is also a fully manual video recording mode on the mode dial. In manual video mode, you can then select an exposure mode in the camera's menu. It's rather odd that by default, M Video Mode actually goes into Aperture Priority mode, although it's easy enough to switch to a full manual mode, which gives you control over shutter speed and aperture. You can select an ISO from 125 to 6400, although by default, it is set to Auto ISO. You can also select an ISO Auto mode that goes from 125 to 400 and a second option goes from ISO 125 to 800.

Regarding video quality, it probably comes as no surprise that the P1000's small sensor does not deliver excellent 4K UHD video quality. It produces footage with quite a few artifacts, and the camera's dynamic range is not very good. Further, like with stills, low-light video is not great.

Nikon P1000 4K ISO Test Video #1 - ISO 125 3840 x 2160 video at 30 frames per second. ISO 125. Download Original (161.7 MB .MP4 File)

Nikon P1000 4K ISO Test Video #2 - ISO 800 3840 x 2160 video at 30 frames per second. ISO 800. Download Original (135.3 MB .MP4 File)

Nikon P1000 4K ISO Test Video #3 - ISO 6400 3840 x 2160 video at 30 frames per second. ISO 6400. Download Original (167.9 MB .MP4 File)

Autofocus performance is hit or miss during video recording. When you don't zoom in very far, it is pretty good, but there are times, even in good light, when the camera cannot focus at all when you fully extend the lens. Even when focus is acquired, it is quite slow to lock in and slow to adjust if your subject moves. However, with such a small sensor, perfect focus is not quite as necessary anyways, there's a bit more leeway than you'd have with most interchangeable lens cameras.

Overall, the P1000 has pretty good video features, including manual video recording, and its 4K UHD video quality is fine for this type of camera. If you want high-quality video with responsive autofocus capabilities, the P1000 probably isn't it, but it allows an incredible amount of zoom that no other camera can really match, so you take the bad with the good.

In the video below, we see a lot of aspects of the P1000's video performance at work. First, the video is handheld, so we can see how well the vibration reduction works during video recording. Further, we see autofocus speeds at different focal lengths, particularly how slow they can be at longer focal lengths, and finally we see how the camera handles exposure adjustments on the fly.

Nikon P1000 4K Test Video #4 3840 x 2160 video at 30 frames per second. Handheld with full-time autofocus. Download Original (736.1 MB .MP4 File)

Nikon P1000 Field Test Part II Summary

Very fun to use, especially in bright light

What I like:

• 125x zoom lens offers a huge amount of versatility
• Pretty good optical performance, especially in bright light
• Nice image quality at low ISO settings
• 4K video may not be great, but it is a nice inclusion
• Great tilt/swivel mechanism on the rear display

155mm (860mm equiv.), f/5.6, 1/400s, ISO 1100. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.

What I didn't like

• Autofocus speeds are not great in low light and at long focal lengths
• High ISO image quality is poor
• Continuous autofocus underwhelms
• Some aspects of the camera feel cheap
• No touchscreen

The Nikon Coolpix P1000 is a fascinating camera. While it does have its shortcomings, especially when working in dim light, its strengths are very strong. The 125x built-in zoom lens is very fun to use and is a pretty strong performer throughout its focal length range, slow aperture issues aside. Further, the image quality may suffer when you increase the ISO, but it's pretty good at lower ISO settings. Plus, the P1000 can record raw files, something its predecessor could not do.

4.3mm (24mm equiv.), f/8, 1.3s, ISO 100. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image. I recommend against stopping down to f/8 when shooting wide because of diffraction. I wanted the slower shutter speed, but you would be better off using a neutral density filter than stopping down with the P1000.

No, the P1000 is not perfect, but it is unique. You can go from photographing an expansive landscape at 24mm to photographing a very distant bird at 3,000mm in a matter of seconds. That type of versatility is special and will make the P1000 appeal to many different types of photographers. It can't replace a camera with a larger sensor when it comes to image quality, but it can make a very fun addition to any photographer's bag, especially for photographers who enjoy exploring nature and photographing everything they come across.

27.9mm (155mm equiv.), f/8, 1/50s, ISO 100. This image has been modified. Click for full-size image. Click here for RAW image.