Nikon COOLPIX P520 18.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 42x Zoom Lens and Full HD 1080p Video (Black)..
Special Price Nikon COOLPIX P520 18.1 MP CMOS Digital Camera with 42x Zoom Lens and Full HD 1080p Video (Black) By NikonMost helpful customer reviews
325 of 342 people found the following review helpful.
Good Camera, But Not Great
By NatNapoletano
Review of Nikon Coolpix P520 by Nat Napoletano
Everything is relative so I will be comparing Nikon's Coolpix P250 to its main competitor the Canon SX50 (they sell for the same price).
WHAT NIKON DID RIGHT:
Under ideal conditions, the 18.1 megapixel Nikon creates images with higher resolution than the Canon. My images shot at a resolution chart showed that the Nikon had a real resolution of about 12 megapixels (18.1 advertized) and the cannon resolved about 9 megapixels (12 advertized). But under actual conditions, in daylight, they both perform about the same because the Canon has a much better lens. When zoomed or at in high contrast situations, the Nikon makes larger files that are not as clear and sharp as the Canon and have some purple fringing around the edges when blown up.
The image sensor in the Nikon is a newer technology and really does perform much better in low light.
Nikon has a timer feature that I have found on no other camera. You can set it up to start snapping pictures every 30 seconds, or 1 minute or 5 minutes. This is very cool, you can set it on a tripod and take nature shots all night waiting for a deer to come eat your corn, or you can put together a time laps movie from the frames, or set it up to catch violators in the act. The possibilities are huge! Other cameras, including the Canon, won't do this. (and it would have been so easy in their software)
The viewing screen is big and bright. The best I've seen and much better than the Canon.
Nikon has a built in GPS. I didn't test it; I'll never use it. Canon doesn't have this feature.
WHAT NIKON DID WRONG:
The Nikon has focus problems when using the self timer and in movie mode. If you start the movie recording, and then step in front of the camera, it mostly focuses on the back wall and your face is fuzzy. The camera never seems to recover. This is very bad (come on Nikon). I have tried every combination of focus modes. Face detect doesn't seem to work after the movie is recording. I never had a camera this bad. You are forced to use manual focus. This problem does not affect traditional movie recording, focus works fine when you are behind the camera shooting a subject in front of you.
In order to use Nikon's electronic viewfinder, you need to fold and tuck the flip out screen. This is a big nuisance on a sunny day going back and forth. Every other camera in the world changes displays using the display button; the Canon does. (and it would have been so easy to implement in Nikon's software, the button is already there)
The Nikon camera feels cheap. The lens rattles (but doesn't exhibit any problems) and the flip screen doesn't lock in place. The Canon feels solid as a rock.
The charging system that ships with the Nikon uses a cable that charges the battery in the camera. This is a nuisance and I don't need another charging unit with a cord to get tangled in the drawer. So you have to fork out another $30 or$ 40 for a charger and spare battery. The Canon ships with a nice charger that plugs into the wall and holds the battery.
All outdoor images are slightly overexposed. This can be corrected by bumping down the aperture 2 stops when shooting, but what was Nikon thinking. The Canon is right on the mark.
WHAT CANON DID RIGHT:
The Canon super zoom is much more powerful, 50X vs 42X. The Canon lens is truly remarkable. You can photograph the moons of Jupiter on a clear night. I tested it next to the Nikon on distant road signs and you could read text from a mile away using the Canon. There was no comparison. The Nikon doesn't have the range and the image was a little fuzzy at the longest extent compared Canon's superior optics.
318 of 339 people found the following review helpful.
Pretty good but not 'great'. 24mm-1,000mm lens, Wi-Fi & GPS but no RAW.
By D. Graves
For the price, this is a good camera. Not a "great" camera, but a fairly good one. I would consider it high end for the average consumer, with features superior to other point-and-shoots in its price range: Wi-fi capable (ability to connect to iOS and Android devices for viewing/sharing your photos and videos via the optional WU-1a adapter), built-in GPS (to geotag your photos), 18MP CMOS sensor, a zoom lens with incredible focal range (24mm-1,000mm), and 1080 HD video. For the price, that's a nice set-up, a camera with advanced features with a decent ease-of-use, requiring little knowledge of photographic techniques.
Many of us, however, want to go beyond 'picture-taking' and seek an advanced camera that is not in an advanced price range. And this is where the P520 is attractive but, ultimately, falls a bit short of our desires. For example, there's no RAW: your images are captured in JPEG only. There's a decent pop-up flash but no hot shoe. Also, the impressive zoom is not so impressive with regard to its speed, either its lens speed (f/3.0-5.9) or autofocus speed (fairly slow but not quite horrible). However, it is a nice, glass, Nikkor lens; and, to be fair, it would be quite a feat to bring such a long zoom well under f/3, given the price range. Personally, I would have traded focal length for speed: yes, it's impressive to go out to 1000mm, but I would have taken 800mm with an f/2.8-5.0 lens; though Nikon has built-in stabilization features for both photos and video (called 'Active VR mode' for video), you're not going to do hand-held shots at that 1000mm focal length, especially video.
Other aspects of the camera will please everyone: full manual exposure control along with multiple auto/semi-auto exposure modes, a nice and large tilting Vari-Angle LCD monitor, an excellent CMOS sensor (1/2.3 in.), and a nice weight and feel to the body. This last point is what drew me to the 520 in the first place: I just bought a P310 and although I love it, especially for its small size and portability (shirt pocket), I cannot get used to shooting outdoors with such a small camera. The 520 is just perfect; that solid DSLR feel but with a modest weight (20 ounces).
Yes, I wish the P520 had a few more pro-like features and wasn't so extreme in its focal length, but this is a very good camera overall. I'm giving it 3 stars for the reasons stated above. However, if you're someone not interested in advanced photography and just want a very nice camera with higher-end consumer features, this is a borderline 4-star camera and not bad for the price.
98 of 102 people found the following review helpful.
Nikon P520 Coolpix Camera Dark Gray body (or silver to some)
By E. Simonson
Did a lot of research and read reviews as well as YouTube about this camera. Mostly very good comments.
Now that I have used this camera for a couple weeks I can say that I made a good decision in purchasing it.
I get all the manual control that I had on my old SLR camera,but with this camera it is a lot easier to use and do the the manual settings that I like.
One feature I wished it had is Stop Down Metering, I have found no camera of this type that offers this feature either so I didn't mark it down for this.
My pictures are very good and the video (which was not the reason I bought this camera) works great even at max zoom of 1000mm which allowed me to get fantastic videos at a recent outdoor concert, as long as I had good lighting the focusing worked great and was pretty fast.
The zoom works good and very smooth, the VR (Vibration Reduction) works way better than I imagined at the long Zoom range.
I have read some folks wished there was a button to switch between the EVF and the main viewing screen but I like the fact that when I fold the large view screen flat in it's storage area the EVF comes on automatically and when I unfold the large viewing screen it comes on automatically so I have no extra buttons to push.
I was concerned about the focusing of this camera as some have mentioned in that it sometimes will not focus sharply.
Now that I have this camera and am using it I have found that if I press down the shutter quickly I will sometimes get out of focus photos, but when I press the shutter button part way down (or maybe slowly) the camera has more time to get the correct focus?
I have found this seems to be the best method for sharp photos and I have not had any problems since.
The Nikon P520 menu system only took me about an hour to make all the settings that I prefer to use which I felt was very easy.
Most of all I really like the looks of this camera, it feels great in my hands, very comfortable and not too heavy.
The battery last longer than what I was expecting even with using fill flash for many of my sunny outdoor photos, so I can't complain about the battery life.
Comes with everything needed to copy photos from the camera to the PC and charging the battery.
Same cord that I use to charge the camera battery also copies the photos to the PC as you can remove the AC connector and use the USB end to connect to the PC.
The only gripe I have is that there are no threads in the lens barrel to attach a filter to protect the lens glass, for a camera of this type that should be a no brainer.
I have ordered a slip on adapter kit for this camera that is threaded at one end for adding filters (the kit also comes with 3 filters), I will see how this works and report on this later.
All in all I am enjoying taking photos with this camera, I find myself looking for any reason to go out picture taking, this camera is really fun and I highly recommend it. The price was very fair on Amazon.
UPDATE ON THE LENS ADAPTER.
I received the lens adapter with 3 filters and one of them being a polarizing filter.
The adapter is a hard plastic and slips over the outside of the camera lens barrel, fits nice and tight.
There is a small recess in the adapter so that it will only let you push the adapter on to the camera lens just a 1/4 inch so this is really nice and very easy to put on the camera lens, feels very snug and firm.
The adapter is threaded on one end where you would screw on the filters, this feels really secure and works well.
So I can say that I'm very happy with the lens adapter and the filters it comes with. So far so good.
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