Need advice

[Allison Williams]

I have a Coolpix P510 which can be great for capturing birds in my backyard http://365project.org/allie912/365/2020-07-21 but sometimes it focuses on something in the background instead of the subject and all I get is a blur. I am not a photography maven so I keep it on auto mode. I know enough to hold the button down half way to get it to focus and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. It can be very frustrating. Any tips would be appreciated. My other camera is a Sony 6000 which focuses beautifully but even with the additional zoom lens is not as good for distance.

[Larry L]

I not familiar with the P-510, but pulled up the manual on the web, it doesn't look like there's a lot of settings for focus mode.

I did see this "When the digital zoom is in effect, the camera focuses on the subject at the center of the screen, and the focus area is not displayed. When
the subject is in focus, the focus indicator (A8) lights in green"

For some reason, I sometimes have problems getting my Fujifilm X-T3 to focus on birds. If it struggles, I just focus on something else to sort of "reset" it, then start over.


Hope that helps some....
http://download.nikonimglib.com/archive2/R8ZrX00tSkUW01aCgg5592OwxH18/P510RM_(En)03.pdf

[Allison Williams]

Thanks for going to the trouble of reading the online manual. I do follow those steps and get the green box around the subject. Sometimes the sharpness is terrific, other times just so-so. If it was always mediocre, I would just write it off as a poor camera, but the fact that some shots are so much better than others keeps me looking for help.l