I have recently bought the Nikon P150 and used it on holidays in Thailand. It was unplanned buy (not something I normally do) at Perth airport duty free, but our older Lumix started playing up and was probably going to be a real pain over the holiday.
The recent Thailand pictures on my blog site, were mostly taken with the P150. http://wazoologist.blogspot.com.au/
I found it to be a good compact holiday camera with a great long lens, of course nowhere near the league of a good DSLR, but it’s fast and it’s easy to use and works well for what it is. The drawbacks are that you do need some type support (tree, monopod or small tripod) when the lens is at maximum, especially as with most compact cameras the screen/view finder go black for a ‘second’, ending up with a shot of the bird’s feet! At maximum, the focus is poor, especially in low light, which can be very frustrating. An example was, I had a Gould’s Frogmouth about ten feet away under a light rainforest tree canopy, the camera wouldn’t focus until the birding guide shone he’s headlamp on it. The small focus rectangle in Program Mode doesn’t appear to be the only focusing area, as the camera often focuses on the background. Having said all this, there are ways around these issues.
It has a nice feel, but does look a little plastic, but in Chiltern Victoria last month, I did accidentally drop it on the hard ground and it still seems to work fine!
I think it’s a good compact camera, especially with it’s fantastic long lens, great for quick wildlife shots, if you don’t want to lug an DSLR and all the long heavy lens and tripod around. Even if you do, it’s a great small backup camera to have with you on holidays if something happens to your primary gear.
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Richard King
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