Nikon Coolpix P1000

Nikon's Coolpix P1000 is a bridge camera from 2018 with a fixed lens, sold as one complete package rather than a body waiting for glass. There is no lens system to buy into.

It suits photographers who want a single, ready-to-go camera and accept that it is large and heavy: about 146 by 119 by 181 millimetres and roughly 1.4 kilograms. A camera bag, not a pocket, is its realistic home.

Day-to-day shooting means composing through an electronic viewfinder or the 3.2-inch flip screen, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built in for connecting to other devices. Since there is no weather sealing, it needs shelter from rain and dust.

Stills come from a 16-megapixel CMOS sensor in the small 1/2.3-inch format, processed by Nikon's Expeed engine. That resolution handles prints and online sharing comfortably, and the compact sensor is part of what keeps a fixed-lens bridge camera in this all-in-one shape.

Autofocus relies on a single point. You place that point on your subject, lock focus and recompose, which suits static or predictable subjects but makes erratic, off-centre movement more effort than a multi-point arrangement would.

In-body stabilisation reduces camera shake, helping handheld shooting at slower shutter speeds and smoothing handheld footage. It cannot stop subject movement, so birds, sports and similar subjects still need fast shutter times, and the fastest available is 1/4000 of a second.

Continuous shooting reaches up to 7 frames per second, a maximum figure rather than a sustained-speed promise. ISO spans 100 to 6400, and the roughly 2.36-million-dot electronic viewfinder gives a detailed alternative to the rear screen when composing.

Video records at up to 4K, and the camera's maximum frame rate is 60 fps. Treat those as separate ceilings: confirm which resolution and frame rate pairings the camera supports before planning a shoot around a particular combination.

Footage saves as MPEG-4 using H.264 compression, the format to match against any playback or editing tools you plan to use.

A timelapse mode is built in, so you can create interval sequences straight from the camera with no external timer to carry or configure.

For handheld filming, in-body stabilisation cuts camera shake, and live view keeps the flip screen active so you can hold the camera low or overhead while still seeing your framing.

Framing and review happen on a 3.2-inch LCD with around 921,000 dots, and the screen flips to help with overhead or waist-level shots. There is no touch input, so menus and settings are worked through the camera's physical controls.

Lighting options are flexible for a fixed-lens camera: a flash is built in for immediate use, and an external flash is supported for times when you need more power or a different light position.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are both built in, giving the camera two wireless connection options for linking with other devices.

Two absences are worth planning around. There is no weather sealing, so rain and dust call for protective care, and there is no built-in GPS for tagging photos with location data.

Recording goes to a single SD, SDHC or SDXC card, with UHS-I compatibility for faster cards. One slot means one card at a time, so plan capacity for a full outing and carry a spare card rather than relying on a second slot.

The EN-EL20a battery carries a rating of 250 shots. The measurement conditions behind that figure are not specified, so treat it as a rough guide rather than a promise of a full day, and pack a spare for long shoots.

The battery can be charged over USB, which is convenient for travel because a cable and a suitable USB port are all the kit involved.

Because there is no second card, your recordings exist on one card only until you copy them elsewhere. Back up important work promptly after a shoot.