P950, Some gulls at full zoom

[sherman_levine]

These are all taken at full zoom, on tripod, using red dot sight (Oly EE1) for aiming. Target-finding autofocus.

S mode. Shutter speed 1/1000 sec, Auto ISO. Capture NX-D with zero luminance NR; exported as TIF to Neat Image 8 for NR and final sharpening

I was extremely impressed by the speed and accuracy of the autofocus. These are crops, all posted at 100%.

Nikon has done an incredible job with the autofocus.













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Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

 

[threed123]

Thumbs up! Got to get me one of those red dots...;o).

 

[jshen808]

..Simply awesome!!!..

..Cheers, John..

 

[sherman_levine]

Thumbs up! Got to get me one of those red dots...;o).

Absolutely essential for birding at full zoom

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Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

 

[bill hansen]

Superb captures. I think these would be the envy of any camera out there. You've done a wonderful job with your P950.

 

[Mcbrig]

I tried some BIFs for the first time ever and was happy with the results and then saw yours and decided not to post.

Pretty fantastic pictures!!

 

[Augustin Man]

Extremely impressive!

It's almost incredible how many perfect BIF images you got

Congratulations and happy shooting,

Augustin

 

[Dave_59]

Fantastic shots Sherman...I’ll look out for one of these dot sights although on Amazon in the UK they are out of stock at the moment.

Can they be used with the camera handheld as well or do you need to use a tripod?

Many thanks,

Dave

 

[Baron LaCat]

The Dot Sight attaches to the camera's hot-shoe on top and does not need a tripod.

Much better and more accurate hand held.

There are some Dot Sight videos on YouTube.

Baron

 

[ANAYV]

Excellent results, Sherm!

Good to hear of the AF improvements !

ANAYV

 

[sherman_levine]

Fantastic shots Sherman...I’ll look out for one of these dot sights although on Amazon in the UK they are out of stock at the moment.

Can they be used with the camera handheld as well or do you need to use a tripod?

Many thanks,

Dave

Dave

Thank you. The Nikon and Olympus units seem pretty much the same, however the Olympus is generally priced lower.

I very much prefer them to their non-collapsable equivalents because I know they power down when they're collapsed and I won't accidentally drain the battery in storage.

You certainly don't need a tripod, however I prefer to use one to support the camera and aim with the long zoom.

For yesterday's shots, I used only the RDS for aiming, and I had a fair number of empty frames. I think that's because there's a bit of variation in the target depending on the relationship of my eye to the sight. I can envision two solutions - one is to handhold with the camera against my face so I'm always looking into the RDS in the same manner. The other is to open the LCD, use the RDS for tracking and the LCD in my peripheral vision for in-view confirmation. For the latter, it's much easier for me to use the tripod than to hold the camera away from my body.

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Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

 

[sherman_levine]

..Simply awesome!!!..

..Cheers, John..

Thank you, John.

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Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

 

[sherman_levine]

Excellent results, Sherm!

Good to hear of the AF improvements !

ANAYV

ANAYV

Thank you. The autofocus seems even better than Panasonic's DFD. The camera almost never took time to focus, even when the gull was small against sky or water, and managed to focus on the eyes quite consistently.

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Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

 

[sherman_levine]

Extremely impressive!

It's almost incredible how many perfect BIF images you got

Congratulations and happy shooting,

Augustin

Thank you.

I was at the beach for about 1/2 hour and took about 200 shots. Of those, I have 22 which I'd consider good enough to post. The autofocus is exceptional.

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Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

 

[sherman_levine]

Superb captures. I think these would be the envy of any camera out there. You've done a wonderful job with your P950.

Bill,

Thank you. Far more the camera than me, however.

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Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

 

[sherman_levine]

I tried some BIFs for the first time ever and was happy with the results and then saw yours and decided not to post.

Pretty fantastic pictures!!

Mark,

Thank you. The weather was finally decent, and I figured that if I didn't go out and shoot, you'd be posting a picture of an eagle carrying a fox carrying a rabbit, and I'd be playing "Me too" with my gull shots

--

Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

 

[ANAYV]

Excellent results, Sherm!

Good to hear of the AF improvements !

ANAYV

ANAYV

Thank you. The autofocus seems even better than Panasonic's DFD.

Really good to hear this!!

The camera almost never took time to focus, even when the gull was small against sky or water, and managed to focus on the eyes quite consistently.

--

Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album

Looks like this P950 is a winner !

ANAYV

 

[CMCM]

These are really good, Sherman! I have never gotten photos like this with my P900, and believe me, I've tried hard! I do fine with my DSLR, but I had to conclude that the P900 couldn't grab focus very well nor could it track well when following a flying bird.

I don't know what all Nikon changed from the P900 to P950, but something (or perhaps a bunch of things) has definitely been improved to allow such shots. This is a capability the P900 just didn't have.

How about the P1000? I noticed you have that too, so how does it compare in this regard?

 

[jshen808]

These are really good, Sherman! I have never gotten photos like this with my P900, and believe me, I've tried hard! I do fine with my DSLR, but I had to conclude that the P900 couldn't grab focus very well nor could it track well when following a flying bird.

I don't know what all Nikon changed from the P900 to P950, but something (or perhaps a bunch of things) has definitely been improved to allow such shots. This is a capability the P900 just didn't have.

How about the P1000? I noticed you have that too, so how does it compare in this regard?

..Even "if" the P1000 camera is "capable" of similar bird-in-flights..

..the difference between the P1000 versus P950 handling goes like this..

..imagine using both the D7500+200-500mm & D7500+100-400mm for bif's..

..sure "both" setups is "capable".. but which one is more preferred in using?..

..my choice between those two is the D7500+100-400mm, because it is a lighter and more compact setup, easier to use & handle..

..this would be the similar thing when compared between the P1000 & P950 cameras..

..the P950 would be the overall winner..

..Cheers, John..

 

[Avian2016]

I agree with others. These shots show distinctly better capabilities from the P950 that have been anticipated. And that's some good news.

As for the RDS, I have the Oly EE-1 too, and I use it on my Nikon D7500 the way Mr. Mathieu Gasquet does in his video:

Mathieu Gasquet using the EE-1 (Screenshot - Courtesy YT video by M. Gasquet)


Kind regards,
Avian