Nikon has just announced an update to its popular line of superzoom cameras with the Nikon COOLPIX P1100.
I just finished chatting with my father. He and my mother were vacationing in Chile at the time, and he was filling me in on all the shenanigans the two of them had gotten up to on their trip. As vacation chats tend to do, we got around to discussing whether or not he had the chance to take any photos, which gave him a chance to once again sing the praises of his favorite camera.
Now, my father has bought a lot of cameras through the years. Not because he had any desire to be a professional photographer—more because he just likes to buy things. But every few years, we tend to have a discussion about what camera would be best for him and why he should or shouldn’t upgrade for the umpteenth time to something more powerful.
As with anyone who asks for a suggestion, the first question I ask is how he intends to use it. Because these mostly travel photos are unlikely to end up anywhere other than a slideshow on the screensaver of his desktop computer, it’s pretty easy to quickly move past any urge to pump up the megapixels. His stated main goal tends to be that he wants the camera to be small. This always led to serious examination and purchases of all the usual suspects in the small-footprint category. The Fuji X100V made the cut for a birthday gift one year, as it’s hard to get much smaller than that for someone like my dad, who travels frequently.
But as the years passed and that camera ended up mostly sitting on the shelf, a clear winner emerged. It wasn’t the most expensive camera. It wasn’t the one with the highest specs. Instead, what my father really needed could be summed up simply as: “Zoom, Baby, Zoom.”
The Nikon COOLPIX P900 ended up being the perfect camera for him. With an 83x zoom range, the camera allowed him to capture pretty much whatever, whenever. So whether he was on a cruise and wanted to photograph something ashore or saw a bird flying over the Vatican that he wanted to have a closer look at, he’d be ready. It has turned into the perfect all-around camera for him to travel with, and he never leaves it at home.
Well, I guess now he might finally be in for an upgrade. Today, Nikon announced the latest version of its superzoom line of cameras with the brand-new COOLPIX P1100. There are big updates to the older model to fit in with the times. Beginning at a 24mm wide-angle equivalent, the new camera offers a stunning 125x zoom range. That means the furthest end reaches an equivalent of 3000mm! If, for some reason, that isn’t enough, you can even enable an additional digital zoom via Dynamic Fine Zoom mode, which will take you out to the 250x zoom range. The camera has four stops of vibration reduction and offers a “Bird Watching Mode” for autofocus to capture our winged friends in flight.
Bringing it into the modern age, the camera has a fully articulating LCD screen so you can record yourself on your travels. It is capable of capturing 30 fps 4K video and timelapse—perfect for nature scenes.
The system comes in at 3.1 pounds (1,410 grams), which should make it a manageable travel companion, and it sports a 16 MP CMOS sensor.
The camera will retail for $1,099.95 and is expected to hit shelves in late February.
