How I started Birding with a Nikon Coolpix P950

When everything shut down during the corona lockdown, I was stuck at home with my family, trying to figure out what to do with all that time. Like most people, we started off with the usual—Netflix, scrolling through the news, wondering what was going to happen next. But after a while, that got old. I wanted something that felt a bit more meaningful. Something that would keep us curious and maybe even teach us something.

So I built an ant farm. Then a nesting box with a camera.

I found some nice construction plans on NABU’s website and adjusted them to fit an old Arlo surveillance camera I had lying around. It wasn’t being used—when you’re home all day, there’s not much to surveil. I mounted the box, crossed my fingers, and waited.

Eventually, a pair of blue tits moved in. They were young and a bit clueless, honestly. We watched them try to figure out nesting and parenting like two teenagers with a newborn. It was messy, sometimes sad, sometimes funny. A few of the chicks made it out. Their first flight was awkward and kind of beautiful.

After that, I added a bird feeder to the garden. And suddenly, our backyard turned into a little nature hotspot. Hawfinch, woodpeckers, red squirrels—even a bird of prey swooping in and snatching a tit right in front of me. It was intense. I’d never seen a Hawfinch before in my life. I was 40 years old and seeing things I’d never seen before. Meanwhile, people were posting their lunch on Instagram, and I had no way to capture these moments properly.

I tried using my phone, but the footage was terrible. Everything was blurry or pixelated. I’d show my family and they’d squint, trying to figure out what they were looking at. It was frustrating. These were moments that felt special, and I wanted to share them—but the tech wasn’t up to the task.

After a couple of years of this, I decided to do something about it. I stopped paying attention to the news for a while and started watching birding videos online. That’s when I bought my first real camera: a used Lumix DMC FZ330 for around €300.

I’d never used a proper camera before—just my phone. The Lumix had a 600mm full-frame equivalent zoom and a constant f/2.8 aperture. Around the bird feeder, it made a big difference. I finally got a few decent shots.

But bridge cameras have small sensors, which means lower image quality and poor performance in low light. I learned that if I wanted a sharp photo of a small bird, I had to get close enough that I didn’t need to crop. Cropping ruins the quality. A 12MP image cropped by half becomes 6MP, and the bird ends up looking like a cartoon.

The Lumix was great in the garden, but once I tried taking it out into the field, it struggled. Birds don’t usually sit three meters away and pose. Anything beyond five meters, and the camera just couldn’t deliver. I needed more reach.

So I went back online and found a few people—Digger360’s YouTube channel, Robert G. Allen’s blog, and Kathie Thomas—who were all really happy with the Nikon Coolpix P950. Their footage looked good, so I bought one on Onbuy for around €600.

The P950 was a big step up. It has a bird mode, and the zoom is impressive. I can now get a photo of nearly every bird I spot with my eyes. The quality is good enough for A4 prints. Most of the time, the problem isn’t the camera—it’s me. I’m still learning, still messing up, but I’m getting better. I could by a proper System Camera with interchangeable lenses, but it would be much more expensive and more difficult to carry around on hikes. As for me the hiking and being outdoors is the main aspect, I think I will be quite happy with the Coolpix P950 for a while.

We went on vacation to southern France recently, and I brought the P950 with me. I got some shots I’m genuinely happy with. I’ll include a few in the gallery below. All of them were taken handheld—no tripod.

I don’t know if I’d call myself a birder. I upload my photos to iNaturalist and Merlin BirdID to keep track of what I’ve seen. I guess I’m just someone who takes average photos of nature and enjoys it a lot.

If you’re just starting out, the P950—or its bigger sibling, the P1000—is worth a look. You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to be curious.

G@RoamingWagner

First Weeks with the Nikon Coolpix P950