Nikon Coolpix recommendations.

[usonian]

1. Got to be a used one.

Nikon discontinued all the small coolpix cameras, so only the Mount Palomar models remain. P950 and P1100.

The earlier P series featured pretty nice zoom, effectively 24mm to 1000mm or so full frame. I have been using a P510 for over 10 years. So the rubber grippy material came off twice. (what cement to use?)

That's pretty good testimony to the quality. (Electromechanical) and the autofocus, despite being very old, captured many fast moving objects (like hummingbirds in the wild that I could barely see in the display. )

However the 500 series seems to be the last that were relatively small and lightweight. Nikon made a slew of smaller coolpix cameras, about which I know nothing. If well cared for, expect high quality optics and jazzy zoom, but not "telescopic" like the P500 series. I got really spoiled for the long focal length.

Might cruise nikonusa.com on the internet archive wayback machine for info.

Note: all Coolpix models seem to use a small (crop factor of 6) sensor of 16 megapixels. The small size enables the extreme zoom in a relatively small form factor.

I got great pictures anyway.

HTH