Gary Irwin Offline Upload & Sell: On
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p.2 #8 · p.2 #8 · Would the Nikon D850 & 500mm f4E FL be the best bird-photography combo..?? | |
It's a slow weekend for birding so thought I'd "pen" a few more thoughts on my experiences with long glass for birding over the years.
When I got into birding a decade ago I went through the usual mistakes, going from (don't laugh!) 70-300VR, 300/4 w/TC and finally took a bigger plunge with a 200-400VR1. They were all mistakes. What I learned is that while zooms are sometimes convenient, reach was more important. I also learned (or already knew) that I hated being restricted to a tripod. After a couple of years of frustration I decided to write the cheque for a big prime.
I chose the 500VR because at 8.5 lbs I felt it was the biggest prime I could hand hold. It took a while to learn it's quirks. Firstly, it was not a very sharp lens at distance...better than the 200-400VR to be sure, but not nearly as good as others. Fortunately I didn't use it for distance work. As for TC's, I found the TC20EIII performed poorly in most circumstances on the 500VR, but interestingly the TC17EII worked reasonably well on my low-resolution D3/D300 bodies yielding a decent 850mm. Unfortunately the TC17EII didn't work so well with later higher resolution bodies (D800) and I had to restrict TC use to the TC14EIII ever since.
During my long tenure-ship with Nikon, I took two six-month excursions into Canonland. The fIrst was with a 1DMK4 w/800L as I was intrigued by the apparent capabilities of the 1DMK4 and the reputation of the 800L. I won't go into the issues with the 1DMK4, but suffice to say it wasn't really all that much superior to my D300, and sensor wise it was worse. As for the 800L, I found that 10 lbs was too much for me to easily hand hold, a constant f5.6 was too limiting in the less-than-ideal lighting around here, and the 3m MFD was too long more often than I'd thought. The 800L really requires a tripod most of the time.
My second foray into Canonland was to try the 7DII and 500 IS II (this was before Nikon had released the D500 & 500E). That was a more interesting experience. Without getting into details, my biggest take-way was the pleasure of handling a relatively light weight package (relative to my 500VR+D800 at the time) that still had lots of "punch". I even tried it with the Canon 2xTC (1600mm equivalent!!!) hand held in good light with mind-blowingly-good results. Why Nikon can't seem make a good 2xTC I'll never know.
But I never left Nikon because I've always found their cameras provided the best blend of sensor performance and features, and their lenses (san's TC's) were mostly adequate to the task, falling just short of Canon's offerings until Nikon released their "E" series lenses. So when Nikon finally updated their 400/500/600/800 to the E series I instantly knew the 600E would be my choice -- just light enough to hand hold, super sharp, fast enough at f4 and could take the TC14EIII with little to no image degradation. So now my main birding setup for the foreseeable future is the D850 & 600E.
But I have never forgotten the potency and sheer pleasure of handling the 7DII+500IS II combo, and based on that experience I can see why the majority of birding enthusiasts would likely consider the "best all-round" Nikon birding/wildlife setup to include the 500E, TC14EIII and their DX or FX body of choice.
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