Nikon COOLPIX P1000 Review: The World's Most Extreme Superzoom

Last updated on 2022-09-21
By Yvonne

Nikon COOLPIX PN1000 Review - The World's Most Extreme Superzoom CameraWe reviewed the Nikon COOLPIX P1000 camera, which offers an incredible 125x zoom range and a bulky design.

Nikon COOLPIX P1000

We like this

Unbeatable optical zoom range
Impressive video quality
Great ergonomics

The Things We Hate

High-end
Unbeatable battery life
It is difficult to use the maximum range of telephoto lenses
Unimpressive performance in low light
Screen with poor articulation

Nikon COOLPIX P1000 superzoom camera is the undisputed king. It offers an unparalleled shooting experience. First, however, one must accept the high cost and bulky dimensions of this camera, as well as all the compromises Nikon made to get its incredible specs.

So that our expert reviewer could fully test it and give his opinion, we purchased Nikon COOLPIXP1000. Continue reading to see our complete product review.

Current leader in superzoom is the Nikon COOLPIX P1000. The P1000's zoom range of 125x-24-3000mm is unmatched by any other camera. These extreme capabilities are not possible without making compromises, so it's important to carefully think about these compromises before you invest in Nikon's Telephoto Titan.

Design: Made like a cardboard tank

Invariably, the Nikon COOLPIXP1000 provokes shocked reactions. How long is the lens? Is it heavy? This camera is truly remarkable and stands out among a competitive market. It looks like a professional-level DSLR at first glance. But, the P1000 has more similarities than its interchangeable lens brethren.

Although the body of P1000 feels solid and large, it is lighter than you would expect for a small device. This is a big camera—some might say too big, though in some ways the size can be an advantage over a more portable point-and-shoot. This camera is more comfortable to hold than any high-end DSLR or mirrorless cameras for those who have large hands.

We found that it was comfortable to use for long periods of time—our fingers never slipped off the textured rubber grip, and the massive lens barrel offered a comfortable second hold for steady shooting.

There is no other camera that offers such a wide zoom range.

It's very easy to hold the camera and it is light enough to be carried around. However, it can sometimes become difficult to use the most extreme ranges of its telephoto capabilities because it lacks weight. Heavy cameras provide greater stability while lighter cameras can be prone to shaking.

The P1000 can be mounted on a tripod. This stability problem is not solved by the fact the tripod mount is at the rear of the camera, instead of its middle. Although this is the usual location for a tripod mounting on a camera's back, large DSLR-sized telephoto lenses often have built-in tripod mounts. If the tripod mount was located at the barrel of the lens, the P1000 will be more stable.

The P1000 battery took only a few hours from full to fully charge in our tests. The battery took many hundreds of pictures, recorded timelapses and produced a lot of 4K footage before needing to be recharged.

Installation: Pay and Go

The P1000 was up and running in no time. It is as simple as inserting your memory card or battery and plugging the device into an electrical outlet. It's ready for use after a couple of hours of charging.

A series of menus guided the user through an easy process, including setting the date and time. The only problem was the inability to charge the battery externally. This meant that the camera had to be plugged into an electrical outlet for many hours. Although internal charging is a nice option, an external charging station would be much more convenient.

Be aware that the camera will refuse to function without an SD card—you can't even use it as a digital spotting scope.

Controls - Many pro-level features

The P1000 does not lack for controls—the body is absolutely covered in buttons, dials, and switches. Although it might seem overwhelming to a novice photographer, the P1000's extensive array of controls is sure to appeal more advanced users. There was some variance in quality between these controls. For example, we felt that the knob around the OK button felt a little flimsy. The controls are tactile and easy to use for most of the time.

On the top of the P1000 is a standard mode dial with various manual and auto modes. There is also a dial to adjust settings, plus a power button and a programmeable function button. The shutter button has the primary zoom control. It would be nice to have a switch instead of a button. Or for it to be more difficult to accidentally press.

You can control zoom using buttons at the barrel of your lens or the ring on the end. You can customize the zoom and ring buttons to adjust the controls for different features of the camera. You can also use the'snap back button to quickly zoom in or out, when you are tracking your subject or shooting at longer focal ranges.

There are a few menu buttons located on the back of the camera. These controls can be found to the right side of the screen. The Manual/Autofocus selector switch is worth mentioning. It is a very useful feature as switching between autofocus and manual mode with the P1000 can be quite frequent.

Navigation System: Intuitive navigation

The P1000's intuitive and simple menu system made it easy to find and change the settings for the camera. Be aware, however that different modes have different availability.

Durability: A delicate beast

Although the camera does not have weatherproofing or ruggedization, it feels solid. The camera is safe to use in mildly damp conditions, however we would not recommend it for rainy or dusty situations.

You should also be cautious when you fold the vari-angle display out. Flip the display upside down and place it in the socket with the face up. This will reduce damage to the screen's surface.

Connectivity and Ports: There are many things to do

We liked the variety of ports on the P1000, as well as the rubberized covers protecting them. The camera features a miniature HDMI, USB and a headphone socket. It also has a remote shutter release. Both the remote shutter release and headphones ports can be found in separate compartments. The USB and HDMI ports, however, share one compartment.

This design—the compartmentalization coupled with the excellent port covers—is superior to many DSLRs. There is not a headphone jack to allow for audio monitoring.

You can use the hot shoe mount with a wide range of accessories including microphones and flashes.

Wi-Fi image transfers are also available, making it possible to edit and share images from anywhere. Snapbridge is free and allows you to quickly and easily transfer images.

Quality Photo: Mixed bag

Although the P1000 can capture good images under optimal lighting conditions it has trouble in low light conditions. The image quality drops quickly after ISO 400. We wouldn't recommend taking images above ISO 800. Images at ISO 6400 are blurred and covered in noise. Images are sharper and more detailed at ISO 400 or lower.

Nikon knew that low light was a problem with this camera and included an extremely powerful flash to combat it. It has a spring-loaded mechanism that works well and brightens subjects at all telephoto distances. It does an acceptable job for a flash built-in.

Image quality goes downhill quickly past ISO 400.

A highly effective image stabilization function, that helps with low light photography, is also very useful. It minimizes vibrations at high zoom ranges. However, at 3000mm this stabilization is not able to offset shakes or judders caused by the extreme focal range.

Like many superzoom cameras the COOLPIX P1000 produces stunning images with short focal ranges. The maximum aperture of 2.8 will be available at wide angles. After that, it becomes steadily smaller. The camera can still achieve an aperture of 5x at 1500mm. Image quality and brightness are good beyond that point. Below 1500mm the quality of the photos begins to decline quickly. The aperture then shrinks to an aperture of f/6. Next, f/7. Finally, you're stuck at f/8, its maximum depth 3000mm. This is quite dark.

JPEG quality will be comparable to what you would expect for a point and shoot. While it will be a popular choice for casual photographers, more advanced shooters may prefer RAW files because of their post-processing capabilities. You can capture JPEG or RAW files simultaneously if you are unsure.

Video Quality - Surprisingly skilled

Nikon COOLPIX P1000 produces crisp, beautiful 4K video in a variety of framerate and resolution settings. The camera can be set to shoot at 1080p resolution, or lower, and up to 60 frames per second. However this does not offer slow-motion capability.

This camera has all the necessary equipment to record basic video. The 4K footage is very impressive—we found that it compares favorably with professional interchangeable-lens cameras.

Notably, the 4K shooter has no additional crop, unlike 1080p. This is something many cameras, especially Canon, have struggled with. Although the P1000 has an excellent external microphone port and a headphone socket for audio monitoring, we have already mentioned that there are no headphones ports.

Autofocus is fine, except that it's not

When it comes to focus in low light conditions, the P1000 can be slow and sluggish.

We also found in our testing that the camera has a hard time distinguishing subject from background, like when we tried to photograph a bird against the sky—it often just focused on the sky. There is an autofocus/manual switch that can be used to focus the camera. The smooth and satisfying adjustment mechanism on the barrel of the lens allows for precise autofocusing. It also includes a useful feature called 'focus peaking.

Focus peaking is a feature that allows the camera to detect areas in the image that are within focus, and highlight them on the screen. This makes it possible to manually focus the photo while still seeing what is in focus.

You can also program the secondary zoom buttons to fine-focus control on the lens barrel. This feature allows you to make manual focus adjustments that are large and sweeping using the main adjustment rings, as well as micro adjustments with these buttons.

Display/LVF - The amazing and the mediocre

The display of the P1000 is very fragile, as we have already mentioned. It does have the advantage of being vari-angle and is very clear with a resolution at 921,000 dots.

The LVF (Live Viewfinder) is a different story altogether—with 2.36 million dots, it is large, comfortable and crystal clear. It is one of our favorite LVFs, even if it's not comparable to LVFs on top-end interchangeable lenses cameras.

The sensor detects your eye when it is raised to the LVF and switches between the live view and screen. We found this system to be very effective. It can, however, be accidentally activated, which is a common problem with sensors such as this. This functionality is toggleable so the display or LVF can remain on.

Astrophotography - Over the Moon

The P1000 can be used to capture amazing images of the night sky, which is one of the best things that you can do. With 3000mm, it is perfectly possible to snap recognizable photos of other planets—Saturn's rings and Jupiter's cloud formations and moons are particularly spectacular.

There are also modes on the P1000 that can be used for astrophotography. These include a command dial mode for taking photos of the moon. Although the P1000 can take excellent photos of the moon we don't recommend it. It only allows you to select different colors for the moon. We recommend that you use manual mode to do most of your astrophotography.

The P1000 can be used to capture amazing images of the night sky.

You can also use the 'Star Trail’ timelapse mode on this camera. This works well as long as you have a sturdy tripod and a fully charged battery. We didn't find the P1000 particularly effective at shooting the whole night sky—it's just not sensitive enough. It's hard not to use for large, close-to Earth celestial bodies.

Safaris: Designed for

The P1000 is obviously meant to appeal to wildlife photographers—if you're photographing wild animals, the more distance between you and your subject, the better. The 3000mm lens allows you to see wildlife far from home. The P1000 allows you to see mountain goats face-to-face, while other cameras can capture distant mountains.

The P1000 may not be the best for birdwatching, although it does have a separate mode for bird photography, which can also be found on the main dial. This mode was not much different from the standard auto mode. But the problems with photographing birds exist in whatever mode the camera is set to—birds are very fast and unpredictable. To capture birds, you need to have a fast shutter speed and a good autofocus. The shutter speed issue with the P1000 was already addressed. But the autofocus problem is worse.

Although the'snap back zoom' button can be useful in tracking wildlife and birds, we found it a bit slow. Although it's an excellent feature, the interface needs to work better.

Sport: Get in the Front Row

The Nikon COOLPIX 1000 is ideal for photographing sporting events. You can even zoom in to the point that you can see sweat running down the face of the quarterback, even if your camera is at the very top.

Low-light performance and poor autofocus might cause you problems, but this camera could be used to bring you closer to the action, particularly if your position is far from the field.

Macro is close, but not a microscope

Although the P1000 can be quite capable in macro photography, it does have some quirks. At focal ranges of up to 135mm, it can achieve a distance of 0.4 inches. You can take very good photos or video with tiny subjects, which is quite impressive. You will need to access the Macro mode in Scene mode if autofocus is required at these distances.

You have two choices in Macro mode: a single shot or a multishot noise reduction mode. This is great for macro photography where undesirable noise may be a problem. You will need to use this feature.

The front lens element was so large that you can't get close enough for good magnification.

Cost: A lot for the built-in zoom

Its MSRP is $999. That's a large price for an ultrazoom camera or any other point-and shoot model. You could purchase a full-frame mirrorless budget camera such as the Sony a7 or the Sony a7II at a reduced price. You could also buy a low-cost DSLR, such as the Canon T3 or a Sigma 150 600mm C lens, and capture amazing super telephoto photos. Or, simply purchase a superzoom camera for less than $500 (many rival models are often available at $500).

All this being said, it is easy to conclude that the P1000's price tag is too high. You must also remember that the P1000 is an exceptional, world-record breaking camera. It's unlike anything else, and the price is a reflection of how much you value bragging rights.

Nikon COOLPIX P1000 vs. Canon SX70 HS

Although the P1000 is up against stiff competition, many cameras offer different features. However, the Canon SX70HS offers more functionality and features than its predecessor. The SX70 is more affordable than the P1000 in many aspects, but it costs half as much. It offers superior image stabilization and low-light performance.

Also, the screen on the SX70's is much better than the P1000. The vari-angle screens of both cameras are brighter and sharper than the Canon's. However, they feel much more solid and built to match those found on Canon's DSLRs and mirrorless cameras. The Nikon, on the other hand, seems very dim and fragile.

Although the Nikon offers a greater focal range than the Canon's, its body is more comfortable to hold because of its larger size. The Canon excels at macro photography and has faster autofocus across its zoom range. It is also smaller.

Because it does not have the additional crop Canon implemented in its SX70, the P1000 is able to record 4K videos at 4K better than the Canon.

It all comes down to your preference for the P1000's extra video quality and zoom. The Canon SX70, unless you really need it or are enamored of the P1000's considerable cool factor, is a better choice.

Final Verdict

The zooming is a bit cumbersome and expensive, but it's really great fun.

A Nikon COOLPIX 1000 is like owning an expensive sports car. It's cool, but not very practical. The camera is bulky, expensive and has many annoying quirks. This camera can bring a lot joy to some, but if you want fun and an amazing zoom range at a reasonable price (and you don't mind paying the high price), the Nikon COOLPIX P1000 might be for you.