Great still images, pathic video

By Jacquelyn Stewart - March 20, 2011

This review is from: Nikon COOLPIX P500 12.1 CMOS Digital Camera with 36x NIKKOR Wide-Angle Optical Zoom Lens and Full HD 1080p Video

There are many reviews on the Internet and here that describe the still image performance of the P500, which is very good for a mega-zoom camera. I was really impressed by my first test images, but then I tried the hi-def video on my church choir. The worst part is during zooming: the camera makes no attempt to focus until the zooming is stopped (the manual says to avoid this by selecting the 1-time focus default where focus for the *entire* clip is set by the first frame). If you pan over to something at a different distance, the camera is locked into an out of focus setting--real nice! So, as you starting zooming the image goes out of focus, zooming stops, then the P500 takes 1-2 seconds searching for the focus. This is unacceptable, and to make it even worst, the sound dropped unequally left & right during the out of focus time. The end result of zooming is out of focus images and sound that suddenly increases up in volume and finally you have a decent picture & sound, until you decide to zoom again. Oh, and to make this even more wonderful, you can hear the zoom motor running & stopping in the sound track, even over a loud choir singing. Most cell phones can shoot better quality video.
I sent mine back for a refund and got the Canon SX30 IS that does stills and video very well.

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