Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I have a D610 camera with sevral lenses, which I use for my landscape photography. However I have developed an interest in bird watching lately. I wanted to photograph the birds that I see, so that I can look at those pictures at leisure after returning home, and try to identify them with the help of field guides. I felt that I did not have enough time on the field, to look at the birds carefully remember its markings and consult a filed guide on the spot. Too much time wasted in what could be used to watch more birds. I looked into spotting scopes through which pictures could be taken using a phone adopter, but the quality was not good and also they require tripods and are expensive. I also thought of buying the Tamron or Sigma 150-600 mm lens, but although their price is reasonable, they weigh quite a bit. I have some back pain and cannot realistically carry that much weight along with the binoculars. Too difficult for me at the age of 62. So when I learnt of this camera from Nikon, and looked at the sample pictures, I decided to pre-order. Got it yesterday and must say that I am VERY impressed. Took it to the neighboring state park and got a lot of good photos. They, understandably , are not in the same league as those with full frame cameras, but are highly useable and are greatly increasing my ability to learn the names of the birds. Connecting it to my iPhone 6 was very easy. Weight is very manageable. I did not use a tripod even when using at the maximum zoom range of 2000, but still got good, decently sharp pictures. However I do intend to use a tripod whenever I can. But it does not seem essential. I had thought that not having RAW would be a great disadvantage, as I invariably use RAW for my full frame Nikons, but I have actually felt relieved, being forced not to able do a lot of post-processing. Saves time to spend on the field. I did some simple editing in Lightroom, mainly an S curve, noise reduction and some sharpening. Do remember to customize it at "U" setting, so that you have the spot focusing available to you. Otherwise you may end up with sharply focussed branches rather than the bird. Use fine JPEG setting. I am looking forward to the moon eclipse on April 4th. Highly recommended.