Nikon COOLPIX P900 - Ideal for a complete noob?

FloppyPoppy

FloppyPoppy

FloppyPoppy

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Hello everyone hope you are all fantastic this weekend.

I have been looking at cameras recently and the Nikon COOLPIX P900 stands out to me but i am "uuming and aarrhing" about picking one up as i've never owned a standalone camera before. The closest thing i have had to a decent camera was a Nokia Lumia 1020.... ( sorry if that's a sin in here? )

Now the reason the P900 caught my attention was a few videos i have seen of it shooting the moon. This absolutely fascinates me as i do spend a good chunk of time looking at the night sky ( at work mostly ) wishing i could share what i was seeing with others and also see it more vividly. When i saw those moon shots i almost bought one immediately but held off.

Is it going to be an ideal camera for shooting more than just the moon? How about a broad shot of stars like below and is it going to be simple/user friendly enough for someone who doesn't have a clue what 95% of the buttons will do.

miikeeyy92 said:
DSC_0169 by Mike Booker, on Flickr
Click to expand...

Mikes shot is fantastic here and the amount of stars being captured blows my mind, is there specific equipment required for such shots as my very minor knowledge of photography leads me to believe that a certain amount of light needs to enter the sensor???? I think the P900 might have a narrow sensor so would this hinder those types of shots?

Sorry for the lack of lingo and waffling.... i struggle to articulate.
 
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Hi Harry, I really don't know a lot about the P900 but a quick search there suggests it isn't ideal for night shots due to it's limited shutter speed range. For something like the moon it's fine as you wouldn't want to be using a particularly long shutter speed as it's so bright but on a dark moonless night for stars, you'll want to use a longer shutter speed and that's where it seems you'll run into problems.
 
For starfields, the larger the sensor the more light you will get, the aperture on the lens will be a factor too. A cheap DSLR on a tripod with a long exposure setting is probably the way to go.

I took this with my D650, 30 second exposure at f3.5 (aperture) and ISO 3200. It's not a particularly good photo but shows you can see the milky way glow with this kit.


Milky Way Glow by Andrew Young, on Flickr


Alternatively you can 'stack' photos in phototshop to get rotation of the stars, this one was several shots taken and stacked together. Both photos also benefited a lot from tweaking the image in Lightroom.


Azimuth by Andrew Young, on Flickr
 
Thanks for the replys gents, I think I'm going to go for the p900 as the photos I've seen from it fascinate me.

Needless to say this may spark a new hobby of photography!

Beautiful shots there Andrew and will think about your advice. Do most cameras abide by a universal tripod mount mechanism (similar to how TVs/screens have vesa mounts)?
 
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