Nikon Coolpix P500 Review

All-in-One Super-zoom Camera

by Wayne Rasku

The Nikon Coopix P500 digital compact camera is anything but a typical point and shoot. On the short end, it has the equivalent of a 23mm lens, but on the long end, it is like having one of the huge lenses you see at sporting events - a whopping 810mm equivalent.

In addition to the ginormous focal range, the P500 has a few other features to make a photographer's heart go "pitty-pat." For one, it has a speedy image processor with some special modes. There is an Easy Panorama mode and an HDR mode. Both these modes will make you feel like a real pro once the images are printed. Panarama and HDR are the current rage among advanced photographers.

There is also a 3" fully articulated LCD panel so that you can get shots from nearly impossible angles and for use with video mode.

Quite a-typical of compact cameras is the continuous shooting rate of 8 frames per second. Granted, you can only capture 5 JPEGs before the buffer is full, but you can get some great action shots with that kind of burst rate.

Did you catch the 36x zoom thing? The thing that is so incredible about this feature is the image quality across the focal range. While the images are not quite SLR quality, they are very good for point and shoot sensor size. Keep in mind that the sensor is a fraction of the size of an APC-S sensor found in most entry level DSLRs. What this means is that there are lots more pixels in a small area. It is possible to get good pictures, but when the ISO is raised to a high level, the quality of the photo will deteriorate considerably faster than a DSLR with the same megapixel count.

Nikon Coolpix P500 Specifications in a nutshell:

• 12.0 Megapixel CMOS Sensor
• Largest picture size - 4000 x 3000 pixels
• Video - 1920 x 1080, 1280 720, 960 x 540, 640 x 480, 320 x 240
• Sensor size - 1/2.3"
• Focal Length equivalent - 23mm - 810mm
• Digital zoom - yes
• Aperture Range - f/3.4 (wide angle) to f/8 (telephoto)
• LCD - 3" fully articulating screen with 921,000 dot resolution
• Shutter speed - 8sec max, 1/1500sec min
• ISO - 160 - 3200
• Flash - Internal flash / auto, red-eye reduction, flash off, fill flash, slow sync
• External flash - no
• Battery - Lithium-ion rechargeable
• Amazon User Rating - 4.1 out of 5 stars

Bottom Line:

Is the Nikon Coolpix P500 For You?

Super zoom cameras are the choice of many who simply want an all-in-one answer to digital photography. Nikon has tried to provide the total photography package in this model. Image quality is as good as can be expected from a camera that tries to do it all.

There are cameras available that can do some of the thing photographers look for in a digital camera, but there is none that does everything better. In particular, the zoom range is phenominal. Getting 810mm of telephoto power in a DSLR would cost upwards of $10,000. In our opinion, that makes the Nikon Coolpix P500 a good value.

Click here to go to the Nikon COOLPIX P500 product page