The Nikon COOLPIX P1000 is a bridge camera with an extremely long zoom lens. It has an outstanding 125x zoom that makes it a solid choice for sport and wildlife photography and gives you a ton of flexibility in framing, whether taking a landscape or zooming in close up on a faraway subject. It delivers fine-quality images in broad daylight, although it isn't the best option for low-light photography due to poor noise handling. Image stabilization is good, which is necessary when using the full zoom, even on a tripod. It feels well-built overall, although it's exceptionally bulky and heavy due to the size of the lens. That said, it comes with an array of inputs and outputs, including a microphone jack, hot shoe, and remote control input. Unfortunately, it's not well-suited to video, with bad overall autofocus performance and poor video quality.
The Nikon P1000 is disappointing for travel photography. The image quality is good, particularly when it comes to noise handling, but image sharpness decreases significantly at higher ISO levels, so it's best suited to shooting in brighter conditions. It feels well-built, with robust materials and a sturdy grip. However, it's very big and heavy, so it's not very convenient to carry around while traveling. Battery life is okay, although this depends on settings and usage habits. The max aperture is also limited, so you have less flexibility in producing a shallow depth of field.
The Nikon COOLPIX P1000 isn't well-suited for landscape photography. It delivers relatively high-quality images, considering its sensor size and lens. However, it isn't recommended for low light because of its poor noise handling. On the upside, it feels well-built and fairly comfortable to use, although it's exceptionally bulky and heavy, making it harder to take to remote shooting locations. The incredibly long focal length gives you a lot of flexibility in framing, though it's less suited to very wide-angle shots.
The Nikon COOLPIX P1000 is okay for sport and wildlife photography. It has an extremely long built-in zoom lens that's great for capturing incredibly far-off subjects. The image quality is also decent for its class, although image quality degrades significantly in low light. Unfortunately, its burst shooting is mediocre. It can capture up to seven photos in a single burst, but it has to empty the buffer after each burst, slowing you down considerably. Its autofocus system also performs badly, so it can sometimes struggle to track moving subjects.
The Nikon P1000 has poor RAW photo performance. Its dynamic range is very limited, so the range of highlight and shadow detail it can capture, especially in high-contrast scenes, is disappointing. Images also lack detail and sharpness when punching in because of the sensor's relatively low resolution. It also does a bad job of managing noise in low light, with a limiting max ISO of 6400 which gives you less flexibility. Considering the camera's sensor size and exceptionally long zoom lens, you can still get very usable results in broad daylight and bright lighting conditions.
The Nikon P1000 is inadequate for vlogging. The overall video quality is poor, especially in low light, where there's a lot of noticeable grain and loss of detail. It's also extremely bulky and heavy, making it difficult to carry around for long periods. Also, its video stabilization works well in FHD but performs much worse in 4k. That said, it does have a fully articulated screen, so you can monitor yourself as you record. Lastly, its autofocus system performs poorly and is especially bad at face tracking.
The Nikon P1000 is a poor choice for studio video. The video quality is poor overall, in both FHD and 4k, with a lot of visual noise in low light especially. That said, it looks okay in more controlled lighting conditions. Its autofocus performance is terrible, especially with tracking moving subjects. On the upside, it has a fairly straightforward menu system. It also includes a microphone jack and remote control port, and it supports clean HDMI output to use an external recorder without any overlays.
The Nikon P1000 isn't meant for action video. It's far too bulky and heavy to easily carry around and isn't designed to be mounted on a helmet or other accessory. It also lacks water resistance or weather-sealing, although this isn't something we currently test. The video quality is also poor overall, especially in low light. Finally, it doesn't support frame rates above 30 fps in 4k or 60 fps in FHD, so it's unsuited for capturing high-speed action or generating smooth slow-motion video.
The Nikon COOLPIX P1000 only comes in 'Black'. You can see our unit's label here.
If you come across another variant, or your P1000 doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we'll update the review.
The Nikon COOLPIX P1000 is the follow-up to the Nikon COOLPIX P950. Both are superzoom cameras with incredibly long fixed zoom lenses. The main advantage of the P1000 is that its built-in lens has an even longer zoom range, though that comes at the cost of making the camera even bulkier.
The Nikon COOLPIX P1000 and the Canon PowerShot SX70 HS are both superzoom or bridge cameras. At more than twice the price, the Nikon is certainly a bigger investment, but it also puts the "super" in "superzoom" in a way that puts the Canon to shame. It has a whopping 125x zoom range, compared to the Canon's 65x zoom. Of course, that also makes it a whole lot less portable. If you need that kind of zoom, the Nikon is the winner, but for more casual and everyday photography, go with the Canon.
Note: The camera's display has a 4:3 aspect ratio, but when connected to an external monitor over HDMI, it stretches the menu to a 16:9 aspect ratio. As such, the screenshot above may not be fully representative of the menu system as seen on the actual camera.
Note: ISO 3200 and 6400 are only available when using the Program, Shutter priority, Aperture priority, or Manual modes. Also, in 'Movie' Manual mode, the lowest ISO you can use is 125.
Note: We had some issues charging the camera with the included charging cable. At first, the cable didn't work. We ended up charging the battery using the Nikon COOLPIX P950 and a generic charging cable, but your experience may differ.
Note: This camera only allows continuous shooting in 'High Speed' and 'Silent' modes in bursts of 7 fps before having to wait for the buffer to empty to shoot another seven frames. However, it does allow for 120 and 60 fps shooting in 'High Speed' with the image quality locked to VGA, although this feature is meant for time-lapse photography rather than a true continuous shooting mode.
Note: We were unable to follow our usual test methodology for the image stabilization test with this camera since setting ISO to Auto in 'Manual' mode fixes it at ISO 100, resulting in images that were too dark to use. As such, we tested image stabilization using 'Shutter Priority' mode. Consequently, the results may not be fully comparable to other cameras we've tested.
Note: Clean HDMI output is only available when the camera is in 'Movie' mode. Once connected, the 'HDMI' settings menu is grayed out, meaning you have to select the resolution and enable clean HDMI output before you connect the HDMI cable to the camera.
Note: We deviated from our usual methodology when testing object tracking performance by placing the camera 50 cm away from the mug instead of the usual 23 cm to achieve the proper depth of field required for this test. As such, the results may not be fully comparable to other cameras we've tested.
Note: We deviated from our usual methodology when testing object tracking performance by placing the camera 50 cm away from the mug instead of the usual 23 cm to achieve the proper depth of field required for this test. As such, the results may not be fully comparable to other cameras we've tested.
Note: This camera also has an extra port to connect a remote control, which may be useful to some, especially if you want to adjust settings without disturbing the camera and introducing camera shake on an extremely zoomed-in shot.