Nikon B600 camera

[Sir Henry]

I have a Nikon D7500 that is dedicated to my Kowa TSN-99A and it’s perfect for viewing out my front door however it’s not very user friendly when mobile. My solution was to buy a cheaper Nikon B600. It’s a 60x compared to the 99x of the Kowa. We are talking scope and camera at $5K compared to less than $300 for the B600.

It’s rainy outside and I didn’t want to get the camera wet so I just took a few quick pictures. The Kowa is too complicated to take pictures and download so I just used it for viewing. With the B600 I can take better pictures than my iPhone and pair them and download in just seconds.

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Don’t judge the subject composition just the wide angle and telephoto capabilities. My iPhone wins the wide angle however I seldom take pictures that wide.

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The B600 at its widest.

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The iPhone at the highest telephoto.

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The B600 high optic zoom.

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The B600 highest optic plus another 4 power digital zoom for a total of 60x.

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Keep in mind the 60x picture was handheld.

[North Country Gal]

Yup, a wet day up here in the north woods. Oh, well.

[clovishound]

Keep in mind that 60x figure is the zoom ratio. IOW ratio of full wide angle of the lens to full telephoto.

The B600 has a lens that is 4.3 - 258 mm. This is 35mm format equivalent of 24-1440mm. The longest 35mm format interchangeable lens Nikon sells is 800mm. The Coolpix p1000 has an equivalent of 24-3000mm lens.

The Coolpix cameras are rather remarkable for such a small package. The telephoto capability makes them popular with a lot of bird watchers.


My Z5 with telephoto zoom is a beast to haul around, and it maxes out at 500mm. The camera and lens weigh in at over 6 lbs. At my age, the tripod is nearly a requirement if I am going to be doing much shooting with this rig in a session. It gets heavy pretty quickly between the weight and length.

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[daytime dave]

That digital zoom looks pretty good, especially for handheld. Looks like a winner to me.
I still prefer my DSLRs and good lenses, but the phone on the camera is handy.

[Sir Henry]

Keep in mind that 60x figure is the zoom ratio. IOW ratio of full wide angle of the lens to full telephoto.

The B600 has a lens that is 4.3 - 258 mm. This is 35mm format equivalent of 24-1440mm. The longest 35mm format interchangeable lens Nikon sells is 800mm. The Coolpix p1000 has an equivalent of 24-3000mm lens.

The Coolpix cameras are rather remarkable for such a small package. The telephoto capability makes them popular with a lot of bird watchers.


My Z5 with telephoto zoom is a beast to haul around, and it maxes out at 500mm. The camera and lens weigh in at over 6 lbs. At my age, the tripod is nearly a requirement if I am going to be doing much shooting with this rig in a session. It gets heavy pretty quickly between the weight and length.

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Thanks I did not know that about the zoom. I figured it was from 1:1. I had a Nikon B500 and loved it but it met its death on Mt Stuart. I recently bought another used one for $50. I haven’t received it yet.

[Sir Henry]

That digital zoom looks pretty good, especially for handheld. Looks like a winner to me.
I still prefer my DSLRs and good lenses, but the phone on the camera is handy.

It took me a dozen tries. That’s what is nice about digital. You can take hundreds of pictures for the same cost as taking one.

[daytime dave]

That digital zoom looks pretty good, especially for handheld. Looks like a winner to me.
I still prefer my DSLRs and good lenses, but the phone on the camera is handy.

It took me a dozen tries. That’s what is nice about digital. You can take hundreds of pictures for the same cost as taking one.

I was taught in highschool to take several shots of the same thing. Try one setting above and below and don't forget to get the focus right. Nowadays, you can see the results faster than the one hour photo booth.
I do the same thing. I take several of something I like and usually one comes out pretty good.

[clovishound]

Thanks I did not know that about the zoom. I figured it was from 1:1. I had a Nikon B500 and loved it but it met its death on Mt Stuart. I recently bought another used one for $50. I haven’t received it yet.

Yes, the specs bandied about by the manufacturers can be confusing. After posting, I thought I'd got it wrong, since Nikon lists it as "lens zoom". With interchangeable zoom lenses, they normally list it as zoom ratio. However, after doing a little more research, it appears that most non interchangeable lens cameras have the lens zoom ratio listed this way. Also, if you look at the numbers, 258/4.3 = 60.

If you were to do the calculation like a pair of binoculars, 1440/50 = 28.8. 50 being "normal" field of view in mm and 1440 being the maximum lens mm.

At the end of the day, no matter what you call it, this camera has amazing reach, and still produces a respectable 16MP image.

[Sir Henry]

I took these a few minutes ago just testing the camera. They are taken from my front door with the camera up against the doorway for support. The tower is about 3,500 feet away.

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I’m guessing the cabin is about 6 feet six inches from the floor to the top of the window opening.

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[daytime dave]

Wow, that did a great job. I'd say impressive.

[dave77]

That digital zoom looks pretty good, especially for handheld. Looks like a winner to me.
I still prefer my DSLRs and good lenses, but the phone on the camera is handy.

From what I see the B600 has optical zoom, it gets it's long focal length due to it's 1/2.3" sensor size.

APS-C has a 1.52 crop factor
Micro 4/3 has a 2 crop factor
1/2.3" has a 5.62 crop factor

Digital zoom just crops the photo in the camera, you get the same results as you would get by cropping the photo with a photo editing program.

https://www.coolblue.nl/en/advice/diffe ... -zoom.html

[Sir Henry]

I’m beginning to explore the cameras possibilities. This is a telephoto view of my house from Timms Hill. This is at the highest optical view with no digital magnification.

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My house is 3,694 feet from the tower. Earlier I estimated it at 3,500 feet.

[clovishound]

Nice

[RetiredSeabee]

Looks like you found a real gem of a small camera. I like the wide angle on that over the shot you took with the phone. Perspective and proportions look better. The phone shot looks stretched.
I have been looking for a camera to take out for quick shots that is easier to carry than my Nikon D5000. But don’t want to spend big bucks. I will start looking for a similar gem.

[Sir Henry]

Looks like you found a real gem of a small camera. I like the wide angle on that over the shot you took with the phone. Perspective and proportions look better. The phone shot looks stretched.
I have been looking for a camera to take out for quick shots that is easier to carry than my Nikon D5000. But don’t want to spend big bucks. I will start looking for a similar gem.

I have a D7500 and prefer the B600 the most. The B600 only costs about 15% of the D750 too.

[Sir Henry]

I thought I would try the macro mode. My biggest problem was holding the camera steady for the 1/15th of a second exposure. I need a table tripod.

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