Let me start by saying I have been waiting for this camera since early February. And waiting and waiting long after it was supposed to be released February 15th. Today I finally got mine! (obviously only having it for a few hours won't allow me to give the best review but I would like to point out some of the things I have noticed)I am an avid camera collector and Nikon fan, taking classes in high school and college (and the last thing I needed was yet another camera) but I was unhappy with my options. My DSLR took fantastic pictures but was too heavy to carry around for everyday use and my basic point and shoot was the perfect pocket size, but took less than decent pictures. I was hoping a bridge camera would solve all of my problems.
Pros so far:
Camera powers on very quickly.
Its surprisingly light and compact without sacrificing amazing picture quality.
The camera body has a nice grip on it so it's easy to hold on to and stays in your hand.
The pop out screen makes it oh so easy to see pictures you're taking at weird angles.
Easy to use (especially for those people who aren't comfortable with adjusting ISO and shutter speed manually but can be adjusted for those who are)
Has tons of settings (hard to say forsure but seems like it performs well in low light situations)
The zoom is INCREDIBLE (I can take a picture of a lego mini figure from 20 feet away with better clarity and image quality than I could right in front of the object with my point and shoot)
The downsides I have noticed so far:
-Video is alright, when I blow it up on my computer it doesn't look to be true HD quality but it's good. Also the zoom on the video can be heard no matter what which is a little annoying.
-The zoom on the actual camera is very slow if you're extending it the full range and it takes a few seconds to focus.
Battery life is not that good would definitely recommend getting a back up!
Overall I LOVE this camera. Sure you may find a Canon or Olympus that has slightly better reviews in one feature or another, but let's be real, no camera has it all. However, in my opinion so far this comes pretty close!
I have put together a slide show on the capabilities of the P510. It can be a telescope, as well as a macro camera as you can see in the video. By far the most versatile camera I have ever owned. It is an upgrade to my Nikon P90, and it is amazing.
The pictures of the moon and Venus were done on a tripod, but can you think of another point and shoot camera that can see Venus in its crescent phase? Incredible. And no sacrifice in macro mode as well. I have taken action shots in soccer from across the field with no vibration issues. I can't say enough about this camera! You can use it in action situations, for wildlife at a distance as well as amateur astronomy.
Please note that windows moviemaker reduced resolution to 640x480 on the video use it to gauge its versatility, not its resolution. The pictures are very sharp!This is the perfect compromise camera for me. I gave up my DSLR to my daughter who is a serious photographer. It was a great camera but more than I needed. This is light, full of features and takes great pictures.
I've heard concerns about Nikon's battery life, but so far I've had tons of pictures and video off a single charge.
The picture quality looks terrific.
The zoom is amazing.
I usually don't care as much about these things, but the red color is great.
I doubt I'll ever use the GPS feature. It is usually pretty obvious where I am when taking pictures.
I highly recommend these extras. For $500 total you get an nice bundle.
1. The 2 extra batteries plus the wall charger will be very handy -2 Pack Battery And Charger Kit For Nikon P100 P500 P510 Digital Camera Includes 2 Extended (1100 Mah) Replacement Nikon EN-EL5 Batteries + AC/DC Rapid Charger + LCD Screen Protectors + ButterflyPhoto MicroFiber Cleaning Cloth $19.95
2. This bag is the perfect size for the camera, extra batteries and charger -Case Logic DCB-304 High/Fixed Zoom Camera Case (Black) $15.28
3. I'd get two memory cards. They have more space than you'll probably ever use. Each holds over 3,400 pictures, but if you take videos you'll have plenty of room and of course you want a backup. -Transcend 16 GB SDHC Class 10 Flash Memory Card TS16GSDHC10E $14.98I have had the Nikon P510 for a week now and have been comparing it to a Panasonic FZ150 that I am also testing.
The P510 is a very nice looking camera that has a quality look and feel. It has a nice textured rubberized material on the hand grip and it has a solid feel.
The camera powers on quickly. I took both indoor and outdoor pictures and I was happy with the results. The shot to shot speed is slower than the FZ150 and overall it does not feel as fast or snappy as the FZ150 in everyday use.
The 42X zoom is incredible but it was slow to focus, or would not focus at all sometimes with the zoom at it's outer reaches.
Overall I slightly preferred the picture quality on the FZ150 and had more keepers with the FZ150 due to its faster and more accurate auto focus. But if I wasn't doing a side by side comparison I would be happy with the picture quality on the Nikon.
The biggest problem I have with the P510 is it's video performance. The actual video image quality is excellent. In fact the low light video quality is impressive and considerably better than the FZ150. There are, however, three big problems.
1)Inability to focus at extended zoom range. After you zoom about two thirds of the range it is unable to auto focus. So while it has an incredible 42X zoom, it is not usable with video. And it's not like you know when it will loose focus so you just end up with a video scene that suddenly turns blurry as you zoom.
2)It refocuses every time you touch the zoom control. Even if you just slightly zoom, the camera looses focus for about one second before locking in again. You end up with a video clip that has multiple one second blurry segments intermixed within an otherwise clear video.
3)The sound of the lens zooming is picked up while recording. This is not just heard during very quiet scenes, it is heard all the time. I was surprised how loud it was when playing back a video.
If video performance is not important to you, the Nikon is a really nice camera. I am looking for a camera does well at both photos and video and therefore will be returning this camera.I bought both the Nikon p510 camera and the Sony hx200v camera to see which I prefer. I took numerous pictures with both, but decided to keep the Nikon p510. Although both cameras took very nice pictures, I liked the way that people shots came out with the Nikon p510, especially indoors. The Nikon p510 seems to give a nice "matte" finish to skin shots and with a bit more color, whereas the Sony hx200v showed/emphasized more skin flaws. Also, indoor pics with the Sony were inconsistent sometimes too yellow, and other times too white (overexposed). Although the Sony hx200v does have a "soft skin" setting, I felt it looked too unnatural (gave the skin too much of a porcelain doll finish). Also, the Nikon p510 seems to handle indoor pics better where there is a lot of backlight. Outdoor pics are nice with both cameras, but again I preferred the people pics with the Nikon p510 (the outdoor people pics taken with the Sony were more neutral toned). The only reason I give this review 4 stars is because the zoom can be a bit flaky when trying to focus with maximum zoom, in particular on small objects such as birds; sometimes it would focus right away, but a lot of times I had to keep adjusting the zoom before it decided to focus. Yet, I haven't had this problem with other types of pictures.
4/22/12 update: I think I found the solution to the problem I had with zooming on small objects. Pg 72 of the disc manual ("Using Focus Modes") talks about how to change focus modes. It seems that when I change the focus to "infinity", it focuses on the subject a lot quicker. I'm still going to play with this setting a bit more, but so far it seems to have helped. Also, after reading page 73 ("Available Focus Modes"), it looks like "manual focus" may also be helpful on zooming in on small objects. I will play with these settings for a while. If I find these settings consistently work, I will change my rating to 5 stars.
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