It's time for more super zoom eye candy! The second episode of my super zoom variety series for the P1100 is now available! This episode has five new super zoom tests that showcase the amazing zoom range of the Nikon COOLPIX P1100 Super Zoom camera. The P1100's zoom range starts at a focal length of 24mm and goes all the way up to a focal length of 3000mm. And that's before applying the P1100's digital zoom!

Read on to learn about the super zoom tests that are included in Episode #2.

#1 - KEYS VIEWS OVERLOOK

The "Keys View" overlook is located on top of the San Bernardino Mountains in southern California (USA). The overlook is within Joshua Tree National Park and offers panoramic views of the Coachella Valley. The valley is home to a few small desert towns as well as the infamous San Andreas Fault line. This fault line is where two of the Earth's tectonic plates meet up and it has generated some big earthquakes. It's interesting to know that the fault line is down there, but I didn't see any visual indications it of while I was at Keys View.

Click on the picture to visit Keys View on Google Maps

For my super zoom test at Key Views, I zoomed in to a section of a small desert town called Indio Hills. Indio Hills is about 6.7 miles, or 10.8 kilometers, away from Keys View. The zoom out starts with this super telephoto view:

(video frame capture)

And the zoom out ends with this wide-angle view:

(video frame capture)

The zoom out in episode 2 is a 4K video, so the images above are frames captures from that video clip.

#2 - MOUNTAIN HIKER SILHOUETTES

Later that day, as the sun was setting at Joshua Tree National Park, I was photographing silhouettes of the large granite rock formations and the iconic Joshua trees at the park.

Click to see a full-size picture

As I was photographing this particular rock formation, some hikers appeared at the top. The top of the rock formation is about 1/4-mile (0.4 kilometers) away from the camera. The 3000mm pictures below were taken from the same location where I took the 24mm picture above.

Click to see a full-size picture

Notice that you can see the frames of the hiker's eyeglasses from about 1/4-mile (0.4 kilometers) away! Those frames are probably about 1/4-inch (6.4 mm) thick! And in the picture below, you can see the hiker's shoe laces! That's amazing!

Click to see a full-size picture

I like these pictures from a technical perspective because it shows that you can indeed get a sharp image from the Nikon P1100 at high focal lengths. Sometimes, people take pictures of subjects that are a few miles away and they are not happy with the results because none of the images appear to be sharp. More times than not, this lack of sharpness is due to atmospheric distortion which is common when shooting across such long distances. In those circumstances, pictures from any camera would not look sharp.

#3 - A HOUSE FINCH

Super zoom number three in episode two gives us a good view of what I think are a male and a female House Finch bird. The bird with the orange coloring is the male.

Click to see a full-size picture

The picture above was taken at a focal length of 860mm. For reference, that's about how close you could get with a 400mm telephoto lens and a 2X teleconverter. But we have a Nikon P1100 super zoom camera, so we can get even closer! The picture below shows how close you can get when you zoom in to 3000mm. Now THAT'S a close-up view of a house finch!

Click to see a full-size picture

There are a few branches in the picture that the default autofocus mode was locking onto, causing the bird to be out of focus. To avoid that, I took this picture in "Bird Mode" and selected the "Center Normal" autofocus area size. This put the branches outside of the camera's focus area so I could get the bird in focus.

However, upon looking at the picture on my computer when I got home, I realized that the camera's Center Normal focus mode area put the bird's chest feathers in focus which resulted in the bird's head not being as sharp as I would like. Perhaps I using the smaller focus area of "Center Spot" would have isolated the bird's head better?

The ability to choose the size of the autofocus area in Bird Mode is only available on the P1100. This feature is not available on the Nikon P1000. You can read more about this very helpful feature in my article that details the differences between the P1100 and the P1000.

#4 - PLANES AT SKY HARBOR AIRPORT

For the 4^th super zoon test in this episode, I took the Nikon P1100 to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport (PHX) for some plane spotting. The P1100 is a great camera for plane spotting. You can take a wide angle picture of planes on the ground like this image taken at a focal length of 47mm:

Click to see a full-size picture

Or you can take a telephoto picture of the captain and the first officer inside the cockpit like this image which was taken at a focal length of 3000mm:

Click to see a full-size picture

I brightened the shadows a little in my photo editing software in postproduction to get a better view of the pilots inside. Also, the telephoto picture was taken before the wide angle picture, so the plane is actually farther away in the telephoto picture.

In episode 2, I also zoom in on an airplane taking off from Sky Harbor Airport. When you watch the video, you'll see why I really need to keep an eye on that battery indicator!

(video frame capture)

#5 - OVERLOOK ZOOM-OUT

The Nikon P1100 has many magical powers. One of those powers is to eliminate the distance between two locations that are far apart. For example, one moment we're down by the road watching the cars go by:

(video frame capture)

And nine seconds later, we are up on the mountain, enjoying amazing vistas:

(video frame capture)

Why nine seconds? That's about how long it takes the P1100 to change from a focal length of 3000mm to a focal length of 24mm using its slow zoom speed. The amazing part is that the camera was in the exact same spot when I recorded the video of the cars and the overlook. The arrow in the 24mm picture points to where the cars were in the 3000mm picture. It's much better to watch the full zoom-out video in Episode 2 :)

And for the record, the pictures above are 4K video frame captures. The P1100 takes much better quality photographs.

WATCH EPISODE #2

Click to see a full-size picture

This cute little chipmunk loved watching episode #2 of my P1100 Variety Series! You too can watch the episode on YouTube by clicking on the image below.

Click to Watch the Video on YouTube

Well, it's official! The P1100 Variety videos are now a series, because two videos a series makes! And there will be a lot more videos in the variety series in the future. You can view my other P1100 videos on YouTube here. Or you can browse through all of my super zoom articles. Thanks for stopping by my website!