Apologies to most of you since you\'ve seen these images before, but just as a quick sample of what the 200-400 can do and why I keep saying that the limiting factor in its performance will almost always be the shooter.
Sharpness and resolution
Here\'s a T-38 smoking by at about 400 knots. You can clearly see the detail of the individual rivets. Not the fact that there are rivets, mind you... I mean the detail of what each rivet looks like! 1/2000 f/4 @ 400mm iso100.
Next, a T-38 getting the hell out of Dodge on afterburner. He got so far away so quickly, that I cropped this from the 24MP of the D3x all the way down to 2MP. Yes, two. Still made a great 13x19 for my wall. 1/800 f/4 @ 400mm iso100.
Open wide and say \"Aaaah...\"
With the 1.4x TC, wide-open and way-zoomed-out, a cheetah portrait from the Masai Mara in Kenya, on a D200. 1/500 f/5.6 @ 550mm iso200.
Stuff in flight
Yes, birds in flight are very tough to track. This kingfisher was kind enough to hold \"still\" , hovering above the Zambezi River while hunting. Also on the D200, 1/500 f/5.6 @ 550mm iso200.
Airplanes are bigger than birds, of course. But try tracking one that\'s doing full-bore aerobatics while holding 1/80 shutter speeds to get good prop blur! Here\'s the only surviving Super Corsair in a high-G pull, using the D300 and the 1.4x TC. 1/80 f/11 @ 550mm iso200.
A gleaming P-51 Mustang doing a wingover. Also long and slow: 1/80 f/9 @ 550mm iso200.
Lens: $6,000. Zoom: priceless
Here\'s a lion cub learning to climb in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. The usual long primes (400/500/600) would all have missed this shot. D200, 1/160 f/4 @ 240mm iso200.
Another shot you\'d have missed with a long prime: quick \"shot from the hip\" of an elephant in the shadows. 400mm one second, 210mm the next. 1/250 f/4 @ 210mm iso100.
100% crops? We don\'t need no steenkin\' crops...
One of the world\'s best masters of aerobatics, in one of the most overpowered and insanely agile aircraft on Earth, snapping left during his routine. What was that bit about the \"slooooower\" AF of the zoom? No one told my gear! D300 and a 1.4x TC, 1/100 f/9 @ 490mm iso200.
And here\'s the 100% crop of that last image. Not a single iota of post-processing on the crop shown here... none. I do like the font Sean chose for his name.
P.S. Thank the Lord above, and the Nikon corps of engineers, for the 200-400 and for VR.
Apologies to most of you since you\'ve seen these images before, but just as a quick sample of what the 200-400 can do and why I keep saying that the limiting factor in its performance will almost always be the shooter.
Sharpness and resolution
Here\'s a T-38 smoking by at about 400 knots. You can clearly see the detail of the individual rivets. Not the fact that there are rivets, mind you... I mean the detail of what each rivet looks like! 1/2000 f/4 @ 400mm iso100.
Next, a T-38 getting the hell out of Dodge on afterburner. He got so far away so quickly, that I cropped this from the 24MP of the D3x all the way down to 2MP. Yes, two. Still made a great 13x19 for my wall. 1/800 f/4 @ 400mm iso100.
Open wide and say \"Aaaah...\"
With the 1.4x TC, wide-open and way-zoomed-out, a cheetah portrait from the Masai Mara in Kenya, on a D200. 1/500 f/5.6 @ 550mm iso200.
Stuff in flight
Yes, birds in flight are very tough to track. This kingfisher was kind enough to hold \"still\" , hovering above the Zambezi River while hunting. Also on the D200, 1/500 f/5.6 @ 550mm iso200.
Airplanes are bigger than birds, of course. But try tracking one that\'s doing full-bore aerobatics while holding 1/80 shutter speeds to get good prop blur! Here\'s the only surviving Super Corsair in a high-G pull, using the D300 and the 1.4x TC. 1/80 f/11 @ 550mm iso200.
A gleaming P-51 Mustang doing a wingover. Also long and slow: 1/80 f/9 @ 550mm iso200.
Lens: $6,000. Zoom: priceless
Here\'s a lion cub learning to climb in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. The usual long primes (400/500/600) would all have missed this shot. D200, 1/160 f/4 @ 240mm iso200.
Another shot you\'d have missed with a long prime: quick \"shot from the hip\" of an elephant in the shadows. 400mm one second, 210mm the next. 1/250 f/4 @ 210mm iso100.
100% crops? We don\'t need no steenkin\' crops...
One of the world\'s best masters of aerobatics, in one of the most overpowered and insanely agile aircraft on Earth, snapping left during his routine. What was that bit about the \"slooooower\" AF of the zoom? No one told my gear! D300 and a 1.4x TC, 1/100 f/9 @ 490mm iso200.
And here\'s the 100% crop of that last image. Not a single iota of post-processing on this image... none.
P.S. Thank the Lord above, and the Nikon corps of engineers, for the 200-400 and for VR.
Nov 16, 2009 at 12:01 AM
Previous versions of Rodolfo Paiz's message #7780762 « 200-400 vs 400 2.8?? »
