Wonderful camera with a lot of creative potential

Apart from a few negative reviews from the following figure appear to me: "I'm used to my old camera and have no desire to change to get used to", "the first 200 pictures were all blurry," etc. -

The Nikon P500 is now my third bridge camera. At first I had a Konica Z5 with 12x optical zoom and wide angle / telephoto attachment, then a Kodak Z650 with 24x zoom, and now just the Nikon P500 with 36x zoom. All cameras are of the feeling that you have to develop for this, completely different - you would expect from a learner indeed not that he finds the pressure point of the clutch immediately, and is not surprised when the first attempts to strangled!

This happened to me with the Nikon P500. From the first shots were a lot of focus, but from the beginning I was impressed by the image stabilizer and the light output at dusk. If you look a little concerned with the camera you also notes that there is a simple solution for almost any of the equipment described in other reviews "problems".

For example, the statement that Nikon trying to make all the images as bright as possible: that is true, in fact. With the standard setting the exposure is measured, that there is a bright as a result - which of course is not desirable in mood pictures at dusk. Tip: Set the dial to "night scene", or in scene mode "Twilight" select, or begin taking pictures rather than snap to learn and adjust in manual mode shutter speed and aperture.

Speaking manual mode: The setting of shutter speed and aperture is very easy with one hand. One change at a pressure between shutter speed and aperture and provides at a thumb wheel the desired values. In addition, you have the possibility to choose between different methods of measurement autofocus: center, multipoint, etc. and you can choose an almost arbitrary point the cursor as a measuring point (my current favorite method). Of course it is not easy to achieve the desired sharpness of the whole manual focus. Tip: Practice makes perfect! One can practice easily, if several objects simply by standing on a table and adjusts along which different focus points. Anyway, I'm very happy that the Nikon gives me this freedom in order to have the focus control can! A small, lens bought for money through the huge zoom downside is that the aperture starts only at 3.4 (and they end up doing at 8.0) - Experts know that thus only a conditional Schärfeverlauf is possible. But hey: One size fits all does not exist :-)

The image stabilization is amazing. I have full 36x zoom can capture a sharp Church of the steady hand with sunlight. That was one of my first attempts with the camera what. For me bordered on a miracle (in my experience with other bridge cameras) I do not know why not create another operator of the camera. Of course, a tripod also harms nothing. Who even a top resolution expected in the price range, which should be asking again why cost good zoom lenses for SLR cameras between 500 and 1,000 EUR. Of course you can see the individual thread of a spring of a flying bird at 36x zoom is no longer necessarily. The reflection on the eyes of a distant deer's more under. Who wants that, should save on a DSLR with a good zoom lens.

The autofocus works pretty fast. Faster than my old Kodak. And, as already described above, there are numerous ways to control the AF.

The following scene modes I've extensively tested: Dawn (works beautifully to capture darker moods), pet portrait shoots a series of images and even has an "Animal Face Detection", so that automatically Katzenkopf / dog's head is focused on what works faster with a white cat as at a black against a dark background :-), night scene is particularly amazing because quite low exposure time is chosen and the picture is brightened directly into the camera - very good results.

Oh, and the ISO, I have limited to 160-400. More I do not expect my new Bridge. Exceptionally, I turn then just higher, but really needed I have not yet. Long exposure with tripod succeed very wonderful.

Conclusion: Would not the camera at any time to buy back, as it as a hobby photographer gives me a lot of creative / manual controls, for almost every situation an optimized scene mode is present borders of the image stabilizer on the miraculous, and the whole still at an affordable Price.

Who wants to buy the camera as to who should carry out right after your purchase following settings: ISO limit, select autofocus program that is one, try the scene modes and then sensing the "pressure point".