Nice Anniversary gift from my wife

By Harold Malmstrom (Eden Prairie, MN, USA)

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

This was a gift from my wife for our 10th. anniversary.
She bought me the red model, nice looking.

I went to the zoo in St Paul on my first trip, I was able to zoom in on animals that I could not have with my DSLR 300mm lens. Images are nice.
Being able to switch to the spot metering help solve the problem of the auto focus system wanting to focus on the chain link fence in front of the lions pens.

On another day I shot video at a local lake, I was able to capture Canadian Geese, it was chilly and a bit windy too, I hand held the camera so there are a few shaky moments, but otherwise a not bad, the mic picked up the birds chatter from all around, one thing I noted was the mic also picked up the lens zooming in and out noise. my wife thought it was good enough for CBS Sunday morning program with Charles Kuralt.

When i brought the camera in to a big box chain store too purchase a case, one of the sales girls found it very sexy and cool.
All and all I'm happy, granted there are probably more demanding photographers than myself, but most of the pictures I take will end up as a 4x6 print or a Wallpaper on my laptop or home PC

Pro's;
great lens range
picture quality
video quality
handling is fine, fits my medium size hands well, controls seem well placed, nothing hard to use, and size and weight just right.
enough overrides and controls to please almost anyone.

Con's;
Would have been nice to have threads on the front of the lens for a protective filter or lens shade, but perhaps with a 22mm lens at wide angle it would have been hard to fine a lens shade to work without causing vignetting.
Battery life is not terrific (but I highly recommend as I did buy 2 extra batteries with 1400ma higher capacity on Ebay for $3 each along with an AC charger for $5 so you don't need to use the camera for charging).

Thanks too my wife, love you dear.

PS; I tried to upload video I took of the Geese but it would have taken over 2 hours to complete, and I don't see how to uploads photo's so I can't help there either.

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