I go out for walks a couple of hours per day. When I was interested in plants, my 10x cell phone camera was fine for learning plant names and sharing images with friends and family. Then I became interested in birds. Needless to say, it was time to buy a camera. I have a nice pair of binoculars and I was able to spot birds, nests, etc. But in order to get pictures during my walk, I needed a camera with no tripod that had great reach. I have absolutely no plans on being a professional photographer. I only want to learn about birds and share a few pictures with friends and family. Also, I didn't want to spend $3000+, though would if I had to.I got the P1000 after not doing very much research at all. I didn't really realize how rare this zoom actually is. I have been using this camera for just under 3 months around the neighborhood, in nearby parks as well as on vacation in National Parks. It is freaking amazing what I can photograph (at an amateur quality) with this thing. Yes, low light is a problem, and I wish so much that I could capture birds in flight, but for $1000, I feel like I have a superpower in my new birding hobby. This can "see" further than my (much clearer) binoculars can. I take both everywhere I go for walks. I can not only capture images of birds on electric wires, I can see the antennae on the bugs the birds are eating. I can point-and-shoot grizzly bears so far away, you can almost not see them with the naked eye. No - the images are not great, but identification of wildlife with the P1000 is very valuable to me. Other people took cell phone pictures of my view screen as souveniers to show their friends.Close up pictures (a moose on the side of the road), come out beautifully! Nearby birds in perfect light come out great! Not professional quality great, bit great enough for ordinary people like me to be amazed.For $1000, this is a no-brainer for beginner wildlife photography for people who don't have time to sit there all day with a tripod (though this DOES help immensely) and very heavy professional gear.I have been looking into getting a mirrorless or DSLR camera so I can get those in-flight shots, but to get the reach this camera has, I would have to be like those funny people I see who carry their extremely expensive gear out in a wheelbarrow to take photos of birds and animals in the nearby wildlife refuge.Even when I have the money to spend, I just can't do it - I would be giving up too much (light weight, all-in-one design, super long zoom).I haven't learned how to use all the manual settings yet - the wildlife I see never stands still long enough for me to practice. I guess I will have to practice on some other type of subject when I get tired of birds and other animals. But I am still having a complete blast with this camera. It really is tons of fun. I highly recommend getting it for travel and casual outings where you might want to photograph wildlife.Oh yes - other people have mentioned issues with water-tightness, so I have been trying to make sure I don't get it too wet. I have taken it out in light rain only once and used it under an umbrella.The Vermilion Flycatcher picture is handheld camera while I was walking around in a park The bird is 30 feet away maybe. Just used the bird setting and autofocus.The moose is about 50 yards away on a day with a lot of light after I slammed on my breaks from 70 MPH and shot it out of the driver's side window in a hurry. Autofocus worked great for this point-and-shoot opportunity.The Osprey picture is a cropped, zoomed in picture (just short of max zoom, which has trouble with autofocus) using a very cheap tripod on a day with tons of light using the standard auto-focus setting. That Osprey is on a tree top not too far from me with another Osprey. I included a less zoomed picture of them for a little bit of reference. As you can see, tripod helps immensely when using a lot of zoom.None of my pictures are professional quality, but they are all so much fun to shoot and to share with friends and family.Update 10/31/23: Starting to get better in flight birds in bright light (see ducks in flight photo). 1/1250 shutter speed. I had to lighten the photo because it was still early morning.Update 11/2/23: Added diving pelican pictures. I think I am getting the hang of this, though white birds are still washed out at 1/1250Update 11/22/23: added a video (close range) of a robin eating berries on standard autofocus settings. Also a seagull changing directions - same 1/1250 setting, but just got lucky this time with a white bird - maybe because it was closer? not sure. Also sometimes I extract a frame from a video. The resolution is lower, but it is the easiest way for beginners to get action shots. Notice how blurry the crow is while harassing the eagle. That's why I started checking out the other settings - to see what the minimum setting for freezing action was.