Nikon Coolpix P1100: For serious shutterbugs

Mint

02-05-2025

At a time when the category of fixed lens compact cameras are all but wiped out of existence by the juggernaut-esque charge of the smartphone brigade, there is one last bastion that's still standing. Bridge cameras like the latest Nikon Coolpix P1100 (
₹
83,695)—a successor to the wildly popular P1000 launched seven years ago—deliver the convenience of a point-and-click with jaw-dropping 'less telephoto, more telescope" levels of zoom, sans the sheer bulk of big lenses that sends many photographers prematurely into physiotherapy sessions.
Yet, in an age of computational photography and rapidly shrinking mirrorless cameras, does anybody need a camera like this?
Now, while it may be classified as a compact camera, both by definition (fixed, non-removable lens) and by Nikon, there's nothing compact about the P1100. It's shaped like a digital SLR camera, down to a chunky hand grip and plenty of dials and controls strewn all over. There's a fully articulating 3.2-inch rear screen, although it's oddly dated in not being a touchscreen, and there's a 2,359-dot OLED electronic viewfinder to compose shots.
The P1100's hefty dimensions are made even more so by the presence of a big lens that dominates the camera even when fully retracted. At nearly 1.5kg, you will not forget it's slung over your shoulder, or when you hold it up for use, although Nikon has got the weight distribution and ergonomics just right for a camera this size. Using the P1100 with a tripod or a monopod is highly recommended, if for no other reason but to be able to rest the camera in between shots.
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The heft starts making sense when you look at the P1100's raison d'être— zoom range. It's by far the biggest of the category—a stabilized 125x optical zoom with 24-3000mm in 35mm terms. Yes, that's 3000mm at the long end - for reference the Samsung S25 Ultra does 100x, that too in digital zoom with all processing and loss of quality. So you can start with a wide lens for landscape photography and zoom in all the way to the moon or closer to earth, birds and wildlife, all by the flick of a zoom rocker around the shutter release. And if the 3000mm reach isn't enough for you, then a digital Dynamic Fine Zoom further doubles zoom to 250x—that's 6000mm! Going from 24mm to 3000mm in one lens is nothing short of mind-boggling, and the equivalent digital SLR or mirrorless lenses to cover the same range would need a suitcase larger than the average cabin bag to transport around.
While the camera itself is large, the 16-megapixel, 1/2.3-inch image sensor is relatively small, and to put it in perspective, smaller than the sensors on many mid-range and flagship smartphones. Of course, the sensor size is dictated by the zoom range here, else the lens would have to be absolutely enormous, and with a smaller sensor comes a limited sensitivity range, from ISO 100 to 6,400. Couple that with the lens' maximum aperture, which goes from f/2.8 at 24mm to a narrow f/8 at 3000mm, thus reducing the amount of light the camera can take in, and you have a camera that is best suited for good light and massively tempered expectations when the light is less than ideal.
Even in mildly dim conditions, detail levels take a dip, and I wouldn't recommend using the camera in dark conditions whatsoever. On the plus side, you do get the ability to shoot RAW images aside from JPEG, and video at 4K/30 frames per second.
But let's be honest here—at lower zoom ranges, between 24mm and 150mm, you're probably better off shooting with a phone, as the combination of larger sensors and better computational photography blows anything the P1100 shoots out of the water. What the P1100 can do that your smartphone can't, is to take serviceable shots at much longer focal lengths, and in the 2000-3000mm territory, there isn't a phone or smaller point and shoot that can go up against the P1100 and not come back with absolutely blurry messes disguised as photographs.
It's clear as day this is a camera that's going to be bought for its reach, so what better test that to take it into the wild outdoors, or in my case, the numerous lakes that still continue to dot the Bengaluru landscape and are home to more birds than most folks can identify. You'd do well to keep in mind that the P1100 has no phase detection autofocus that is faster and better for tracking moving subjects, relying instead on the slower contrast detection autofocus that works better and more precisely for still subjects.
That said, the autofocus, even at full stretch, is quick in decent light though I did have some autofocus hunting issues when pointing the lens at birds hidden amidst thick foliage…and one does end up wishing Nikon had packed in faster autofocus into a camera that doesn't get updated all that often. To counter this, one used the snap-back zoom button, so you can zoom out to locate a subject and then zoom all the way back in, all at the touch and release of a button—this really comes into play when you lose track of the subject flying across the lake.
Complete static subjects, faraway buildings or mountain peaks for example, fare much better, as does the moon. The optical image stabilization (called Vibration Reduction) system built into the lens did well turn out sharp images during handheld shooting, even at 3000mm zoom levels, which is quite the achievement, though a tripod does improve the hit rate significantly (another reason to pack one along). And on the whole, colours are nicely saturated, if a little on the muted side.
After a full day of shooting over 200 stills and a bit of video, battery life seemed respectable, though with USB-C charging, you could top this up mid-shoot via a power bank as well.
Whether the P1100 is considered expensive for a compact camera or reasonably good value for money will come down to how much you need to use the longer end of its 125x optical zoom range—in most of my use, I rarely found the need to go the full distance, but I can't deny it is nice to have the reach at hand. What this camera does have is a very particular set of skills, skills acquired over a very long (and mature) product lifecycle for the P series, skills that make it a nightmare for the unassuming subject preening across a Bengaluru lake.
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