Nikon COOLPIX P900 83x optical zoom video test on moon

June 28, 2015 4:14 PM

This is a Nikon COOLPIX 9500 with 83x optical zoom. This is what you can do if you point it at the moon.
posted by SpacemanStix (39 comments total)

So close, yet so far...
posted by lharmon at 4:28 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

Do not view after playing Majora's Mask.
posted by glhaynes at 4:28 PM on June 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

That lens is surprisingly short. I was expecting something as long as my arm.
posted by foobaz at 4:32 PM on June 28, 2015

The sensor is pretty small, which I think is why the lens can be smaller than a 2000mm lens on a full-frame SLR, which are about as long as your arm.

Makes my fixed 35mm lens feel... inadequate. I mean it's almost certainly better in every other respect, but still.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:36 PM on June 28, 2015

So, what's the innovation that's enabling these new affordable mega-zoom cameras?

I was expecting this thing to have a teeny-tiny cellphone-sized sensor, but apparently it's still 6.2mm x 4.6mm, same as my old Canon Powershot.
posted by i_have_a_computer at 4:37 PM on June 28, 2015

I wanna see the tripod they had it bolted to for those shots.
posted by jon1270 at 4:49 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

So, what's the innovation that's enabling these new affordable mega-zoom cameras?

Gizmag has a write-up on this specific camera with the tech specs, and in 2013, Digital Trends noted that these "bridge" or "megazoom" cameras are the newest response to ever-improving smart phones. In short: camera companies are doing anything they can to make relatively affordable cameras stand out against smart phones. Megapixel wars are over, this is the time of megazoom wars.
posted by filthy light thief at 4:57 PM on June 28, 2015 [3 favorites]

New Improved Panopticon with 100x zoom - coming soon to a street corner near YOU!
posted by Devonian at 5:01 PM on June 28, 2015

Enhance!!!
posted by Pendragon at 5:04 PM on June 28, 2015 [9 favorites]

This makes me feel so much better about going to an ATM and having someone on the opposite end of the parking lot zooming in so far that he can see my PIN, my face and whether or not I am ovulating.
posted by delfin at 5:07 PM on June 28, 2015 [5 favorites]

That's no space station.
posted by No-sword at 5:34 PM on June 28, 2015 [7 favorites]

Another review - with some sample images. Some of the examples are showing signs of the small size of the sensor; but, at this price and the power, I may go sell my DSLR just to have this portability.
posted by fluffycreature at 5:41 PM on June 28, 2015

> Megapixel wars are over, this is the time of megazoom wars.

Megazoom is the new marketing angle (in the way that megapixels were, or, say, CPU cycles were for computers), but that's hardly all there is.

The new generation of cameras offer a huge range of functional improvements. I got a Canon G7X last fall and its zoom is pretty modest by current standards (8.8-36.7mm -- roughly 24-100mm equivalent), but at wide angle it can stop down to f1.8 to a 1" sensor, which for the body size is crazy. And it packs many shooting features that were previously only available in pocket cameras through hack kits like CHDK. It really is a pocket camera -- it is smaller than my phone in all but thickness -- but the thickness is what keeps me from actually keeping it in a pocket. So my phone is my real pocket camera, this is a serious shooter that's effectively replacing my SLR.

The camera companies are really afraid of being left behind at the consumer end, and this is how they're catching up: They're providing functionality at more affordable prices, and in more usable packages. It's not just zoom, it's everything.
posted by ardgedee at 5:50 PM on June 28, 2015 [5 favorites]

POINT IT AT SOMEONE'S FACE.
posted by Going To Maine at 6:07 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

How great is it that his last name is Lenz?
posted by yellowcandy at 6:28 PM on June 28, 2015 [5 favorites]

I've been geeking out over Coolpix P900 videos for a few days now. It's like a magic box with a lens on the front.

Other videos:

It's a bird, it's a plane... It's definitely a plane.

Just another day in Poland.

Such Moon!

A nice little shack.

Baby barn swallows.

Jupiter and it's moons.

Jupiter and Saturn

Venus. (This and the preceding video must use some kind of image processing. 'Cause... wow.)

And finally... CSI comes to life. Enhance on that dude on the other side of town!
posted by Kevin Street at 6:59 PM on June 28, 2015 [19 favorites]

The practical application of 83X zoom has to very limited though. I can't hold my hand steady enough for my phone's zoom to be effective. This camera has to be mounted on a concrete base and they had to be extremely lucky with no wind and favorable weather.

Nice shot of the craters on the moon though.
posted by Benway at 7:08 PM on June 28, 2015

If you point it at someone's face, that face will also look like the moon.

And now I think I'll go whimper in a corner.
posted by datawrangler at 7:24 PM on June 28, 2015

Elaborating on previous thoughts... I think that one thing the camera companies latched onto is the notion is that there would be more serious camera-buying hobbyists if the only serious cameras weren't large expensive modular SLRs. After all there are a lot of things for which a single-lens reflex is damned useful, but also a lot of uses for which it's an unnecessary complication.

So there's a revival of things like rangefinder reflex cameras, single-length (non-zoom) fixed-lens cameras (with great glass and pleasing bokeh and low f-stops for using them). Some of these cost well over a grand apiece, but considering what you get for the price, and the cost of equivalent full-sized SLR equipment to perform similar functions, the prices are arguably relatively reasonable. A couple differently-specialized small rangefinder cameras aren't going to be as versatile as a single Canon SLR, and won't produce results as refined as an arsenal of EF glass could, but holy crap look at the convenience you gain and the amount of money you haven't had to spend.

It's a great time to be a hobbyist photographer.
posted by ardgedee at 7:44 PM on June 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

The practical application of 83X zoom has to very limited though. I can't hold my hand steady enough for my phone's zoom to be effective. This camera has to be mounted on a concrete base and they had to be extremely lucky with no wind and favorable weather.

Looks like some of the shots are handheld - there's a lens stabilizer in the camera that corrects for shake!
posted by Riton at 8:29 PM on June 28, 2015

That Just Another Day in Poland link is full of WTF.

(Thanks, Kevin Street).
posted by univac at 9:06 PM on June 28, 2015 [4 favorites]

How long before you can attach a zoom like that to a drone? How long before that drone can be shrunk down to the size of a humming bird? How long before that humming bird size drone can give you half an hour of flight time? Lastly, how long before that drone can be sold at convenience stores for less than twenty bucks? Because that's the day social defects can officially declare victory.

Our only hope is that police departments whine enough to get the government to regulate surveillance toys, but that only confirms what we already know, that our government hates sunlight, so we're forced to choose between creeps and fascist.
posted by Beholder at 9:31 PM on June 28, 2015

Because that's the day social defects can officially declare victory.

MIRACLE TECHNOLOGIES! WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS DOOM US TO ONE OF TWO EXTREME DYSTOPIAS?
posted by Going To Maine at 10:37 PM on June 28, 2015 [7 favorites]

I love the bird sounds in the video. It's so delightfully incongruous to be looking at the moon and feeling futuristic, while hearing mundane sounds that remind me of connectedness to the earth.
posted by Banknote of the year at 10:40 PM on June 28, 2015 [2 favorites]

That is cool. There's something about seeing actual, real-time video footage (especially with that zoom in from "I'm in the park... zooooom.... Now I can almost reach out and grab this f'ing planetoid") of the moon that reminds one "holy crap, this huge ball of craters is floating around us... Like, in space! But also, just there--so close! Always."

I don't know, it's just that so often one only sees details like this in static photos of the moon (or Apollo-era photos), and when you go outside, it's usually just "Oh, a full moon tonight... Like a white Necco wafer! Pretty."
posted by blueberry at 10:42 PM on June 28, 2015

So much potential and yet no RAW mode.
posted by I-baLL at 11:01 PM on June 28, 2015 [1 favorite]

It's a great time to be a hobbyist photographer.

No kidding. I recently bought an entry-level DSLR, having shot for years on a Sony 2006-vintage digital point-and-shoot (with good results, thank you very much), and the more research I did, the more I was like "Whoa. Embarassment of riches here."

I bought a reasonably good 35mm prime lens, and if this is the kind of zoom I can get...well shit. Buying another camera would be way cheaper than the zoom/telephoto I'd want...not that either are in the budget, but hey.

OTOH, what I can do processing RAW images if they're off-the-cuff-didn't-quite-get-the-right-exposure shots still blows my mind, so I'll keep the SLR around.

Also, would love a translation of what the guy holding the camera is saying in Just Another Day in Poland...something like "Oh, come on guys...just fuck and get it over with"?
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:06 PM on June 28, 2015

Those videos are just scary. Imagine some private investigator camped out a half mile away yet still able to get pictures of who is coming and going from your house. And they don't look like a creepy NSA-type either, it's a perfect little petite thing that nobody would give two shits about seeing you holding. Veronica Mars would definitely have one.

Just for fun I made a gfycat loop of a sequence of sample images from that dpreview gallery.
posted by Rhomboid at 5:09 AM on June 29, 2015

What happens if you point it at the abyss? Does the abyss gaze back at you? Do you get a super close-up of the abyss' pores? Could the abyss use a deep exfoliating facial scrub. Maybe you could treat the abyss to a day spa, I'm not hating, just saying as a friend.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:28 AM on June 29, 2015 [5 favorites]

Venus. (This and the preceding video must use some kind of image processing. 'Cause... wow.)

Um, totally-out-of-focus Venus, maybe. (Protip: most of the time Venus is in some gibbous or crescent phase, like the moon, because it's closer to the sun than we are. This is roughly what in-focus Venus looked like when the video was taken.)
posted by aught at 5:32 AM on June 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

This makes me a bit more nervous about walking around in my apartment naked with the blinds up in view of other distant apartment buildings.
posted by srboisvert at 5:37 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

(This and the preceding video must use some kind of image processing. 'Cause... wow.)
As aught said, the Venus one is just badly focussed. Jupiter looks about right for what I'd expect with no video processing. Given appropriate control on the video ISO settings you could probably get a quite respectable image of Jupiter out of the camera using appropriate (and standard amongst amateur astronomers) lucky imaging techniques. It's obviously rather overexposed as it is though.
posted by edd at 6:05 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

In a related totally impractical but cool category: here's a video of a someone taking a Fujinon XA55 broadcast sports production lens and adapting it onto a DSLR. The result is an astonishing 44 mm - 2415 mm zoom in a single pass. More details in a "TV Technology" magazine article.
posted by Dean358 at 6:34 AM on June 29, 2015 [3 favorites]

MIRACLE TECHNOLOGIES! WHY MUST YOU ALWAYS DOOM US TO ONE OF TWO EXTREME DYSTOPIAS?

If the internet had a set of essential truths, one of them would be that people who sarcastically post in all caps aren't as clever as they think they are.

This is already happening, but drones just take it to a whole new level. The upside, using the technology to expose corruption and abuse. The downside, using the technology to violate people's privacy, especially women being drone stalked by pervs. The feds won't regulate drones because they care about creeps taking pictures of school cheerleaders practicing. They're going to regulate drones because they don't want private citizens using the technology to track important government activity. The reason drones are either allowed or not allowed is because it's easier for the government to just ban them that to regulate how they are used.
posted by Beholder at 7:29 AM on June 29, 2015

There are downsides to this incredible zoom, and that sucks. But the idea that these socially constructed downsides are entirely intractable and so should we should get all mopey is both a good way to ruin your day and a weird point of entry into a thread in which people are geeking out about cameras. I mean, that video of baby birds getting fed was both super cute and a little incredible. I'm going to watch it again and feel good about life.
posted by Going To Maine at 8:00 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

I am really intrigued by what we are seeing in the camera world these days.... It's interesting in that it seems like the innovations on the larger format cameras are stagnating a bit -- there's only so much you can improve focus speed and the already phenomenal low-iso performance we are seeing on 4/3, APS-C and larger sensors, and you are still subject to the laws of physics for lens design -- but the smaller cameras are improving in ways that are mind-blowing.

I bought a grey-market (only because it isn't available in the US) Casio EX-100 a while back - It's a bit thicker than things like the aforementioned Canon G7X, but is still jacket pocketable - and pulls a 28-300mm equivalent, with an ungodly bright lens for something so compact. It can pull 60 images at 60FPS in full resolution at a time, it can handle a ton of high-speed video as well (although resolution leaves something to be desired at a certain point), and it has all sorts of advanced modes that will combine multiple exposures for HDR effects, stabilization of a sort, or generating out-of-focus backgrounds. It also shoots native DNG raw files - so a relatively open standard. It was about $400, all told. It does SO much - Things I'll never use, and many I'm still learning about.

I also have a Fuji APS-C camera that I use for more "pro" work, with a ton of glass. One of these is a 28-200mm equiv that I have for 'travel' -- These all-in-ones have always been compromise lenses. It's much much larger, and it gets pretty dark at the long end. Outside of the larger lens having slightly better image stabilization and weather sealing, the Casio runs circle around it, especially on the long end - to the point that unless I'm shooting in the middle of a hurricane, or I need to use some specific filter like a ND-Grad, there's no reason for me to use the larger setup whatsoever. The lens itself retails for about $800 - without the needed camera. I brought both of them on a recent trip. In the future, I'll probably just bring the Casio.

It used to be that you'd buy a APS-C or similar camera when focus speed mattered, and for overall image/lens quality. While there's still nothing that will compare with a good prime lens (which is generally my poison) or the really huge 2.8 zooms, those are more specialty applications - The majority of folk were buying 28-whatever equiv zooms for their DSLRs. The difference between those 'consumer' zooms and something pocketable has now become very very small - The focus issues have been mostly resolved, and it turns out that there are multiple advantages to smaller sensors... Having to move less glass around and having a greater depth-of-field are the big ones. Not everyone is looking for shallow depth of field, which has become the primary advantage of the larger cameras - and one that goes away with the superzoom lenses everyone was buying.

Pretty much any camera on the market at this point is absurdly capable, it's down to how well the photographer can use it. What's funny is that I was saying exactly that about 5-6 years ago - and those same cameras are still very very capable, but are completely blown away from a technical standpoint by anything available today.
posted by MysticMCJ at 8:22 AM on June 29, 2015 [2 favorites]

Enhance on that dude on the other side of town!

Today we are all paparazzi.
posted by flabdablet at 8:43 AM on June 29, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not everyone is looking for shallow depth of field, which has become the primary advantage of the larger cameras

Exactly right. If you're planning to shoot portraiture, then I don't think it makes sense to go smaller than full frame. But if you don't need that shallow depth of field, then there is almost no reason whatsoever to consider a full-frame DSLR. I love my 6D...but if I just wanted a camera to document vacations and road trips, there is no way I would buy a DSLR. There are tools that are smaller, cheaper, and better.

there's only so much you can improve focus speed and the already phenomenal low-iso performance

Ehh. There is currently a ton of variation in autofocus performance between DSLR models. And ISO performance isn't nearly as awesome as the manufacturers would have you believe. It's like first-generation Siri: almost there, but not quite useful. Maximum ISO range has been exploding, yes, but the useful range hasn't grown much. Yet.

The area where I want to see improvement is dynamic range. Look at what Sigma and Magic Lantern are doing. If I had to predict the next technological "battleground," I would probably guess that we're headed back to megapixels—due to the hardware resolution war—but I would love to see Canon and Nikon pick up the ball on dynamic range. Let's trounce film.
posted by cribcage at 2:33 PM on June 29, 2015

Oh man, those videos and specs are fantastic. I'm so tempted to get one of these for my Dad, who's celebrating his 50th wedding anniversary to my Mom this summer they're going on a month-long African safari tour. He's got a Canon Rebel T2i already, I don't know if it would be a redundant and pointless gift. Any owners here?
posted by Auden at 3:16 PM on June 29, 2015