WOW Ray, fantastic flowers!
It seems you can always get gorgeous flowers not matters which lens.

This is just to show as a polarizer can reduce haze and bring colours to a subject ~12 km away. The lens is 1600mm x 1.5 (DX crop) = 2400mm.


No CPL filter:


Tower 12 Km away - no CPL filter by labecoaves, on Flickr

D300 + TC20EIII + Nikkor 800mm f/5.6 AIS IF-ED (=1600mm f/11) + tripod, ISO 200, f/22 at 1/80s.


With a Circular Polarizer filter:


Tower 12 Km away - CPL filter applied by labecoaves, on Flickr

This second image is with a Nikon 52mm drop in CPL.
D300 + TC20EIII + Nikkor 800mm f/5.6 AIS IF-ED (=1600mm f/11) + tripod, ISO 200, f/22 at 1/15s.

Te bluish haze cast is gone and deep/truest colours appears through 12km of atmosphere!


Just as a reference, this is the view of the same tower in the montain with a D3 + 200mm f/4 ais:


Early night at Pico do Jaraguá with the Nikkor 200mm f/4 ai-s by labecoaves, on Flickr

Early night at Pico do Jaraguá with the Nikkor 200mm f/4 ai-s
The "Pico do Jaraguá" is around 12 km from my balcony. The deep red can be attractive, but this is mainly result of air pollution by millions of cars.
D3 + Nikkor 200mm f/4 ai-s + tripod, f/8 at 2s of exposure, ISO 200.

asiostygius wrote:
WOW Ray, fantastic flowers!
It seems you can always get gorgeous flowers not matters which lens.
Thank you Jose. Nikki is well balanced and very sharp, even wide open!
Wow the photo of the sunset is simply amazing!

Ray, fantastic start with Nikki, beautiful!

Here's one from my break

28 3.5 PC, shifted.

And a hawk, with a rather flexible neck. Used the 180 2.8 AIS for this one, and the next instant the hawk was off to a branch to hide.

Nice Hawk Samy.
Welcome back!

asiostygius wrote:
Nice Hawk Samy.
Welcome back!

+1 Samy, I still haven't shot the Heinkel-remains here. But it's on my to-do-list.

rafaelcasd wrote:
Hi all, been busy with the customer in town and my kid transferring college. So far so Good. will catch up to everyones postings later in the week. Wanted to share my personal observations on the 20mm 1:3.5 UD that I own. I have used the lens on film with good success, here is a sample of a scanned slide, likely at 1:11.
[url=httpkr


Note the interesting rainbow rays at full aperture, only lens I own that does this.

My observation is that this lens is very usable at 3.5 on the D800, center is very sharp and gracefully softens towards the corners, probably mostly due to curvature of field as the edge sharpness is strongly dependent on distance, at middle apertures the center only gets a tiny bit sharper and the edges and corners get progressibly better, the corners never do get totally sharp but the edges do. Contrast is fine. The HN-9 shade vignettes a little mounted on a filter.

At 3.5 the 20mm performs significantly better than my 18mm 3.5 ais, but at 8.0 the 18mm is a lot better across the frame, both are equally shap in the center.

Again these are personal comments on one sample of each.




I agree Rafael - that's been my experience with the 20mm 3.5UD too (don't have the 18)

ben

Jose, impressive long-lens-technique! Is a single stable tripod enough for the 800mm+TC20-combo?
I would think even loud music from one of your neighbors could induce visible vibrations. Amazing!
The pictures taken with the TC14A a excellent too.

Ray, wow, what a start with Nikki! Love the blue flowers-shot and the blossoms on the "naked twigs".

Rafael, wonderful shots taken with the rather exotic 20/3.5 UD and the lovely 45/2.8! My copy of the 20/3.5 UD has a big spot on the frontlens - I still think about having it cleaned, but don't wanna spend big Euros for a repair. Decisions...

Philippe, love the skating-image!

Silly bokeh-play:

strange something von georgsfoto auf Flickr
Nikkor 24/2Ai wide-open reversed via BR-2A on a D700, bounced flash - any guesses on the subject? ;-))

georgms wrote:
Silly bokeh-play:- any guesses on the subject? ;-))

Vacuum Tubes?

montym wrote:
georgms wrote:
Silly bokeh-play:- any guesses on the subject? ;-))

Vacuum Tubes?

Sorry, Monty, much smaller than the vacuum-tubes I'm aware of;-)

Like so many others, my wife love to have her picture taken.
Monty

Thank you Leighton and Georg

Philippe, nice image of the skaters. Judging from the snow on her knees, she had taken a spill or two.

Rafael, good comparison of the 18 and 20mm Nikkors. The 20mm 3.5 Ai is my "wide angle" workhorse on my D7000 unless I use my DX lens. I find it gives me great results stopped down for landscape work.

Jose, thank you for the comment. Interesting comparison of what the cpl will do.

Ray, great start with Nikki. Wonderful flower images.

Samy, welcome back. The hawk does look a bit double jointed.

bruni wrote:
Lieutenant Z wrote:
bruni wrote:
Lieutenant Z wrote:
A few more from the Champs Elysées with the 50/1.8 :




Phillippe -

Thanks Ben.
Actually I never go to the Champs but I had an apppointment there and a few minutes for shooting before an other appointment in La Defense (#3 & # 4 in the 1st set).

Yep I was close enough to hear what she was saying but she is a french girl and a french girl never call the police when a guy like me is too close to her -)

!


so french girls don't mind you getting that close huh? - well, it's the same for me with Australian girls - but only if they're dummies!

ben


nikon 24mm PCE by benmorgan28, on Flickr

Great shot Ben! Maybe you will have more luck with them when you call them mannequins instead of dummies

jhinkey wrote:
rafaelcasd wrote:

John, I posted this before, this lens performs about the same as you described. Not as easy to find but classier and cheaper. This is the C version.


Did you AI convert yours or was it a factory conversion?

Do you use it much?

- John


John, found a factory ai ring in e-bay, and I don't use it much. It would get a lot more use if my cameras were smaller.
Rafael

Thanks Jose! Those are amazing results - and the "not recommended" even looks good (just missed focus). I tried some close work with the TC last night. Well, see how this shakes out. I already have a 1.4x TC (an AF universal version by Tamron) that seems to produce identical results up close. The loaner is considering trading me for a gimbal tripod head.

Shot with Nikkor 105mm f2.5 ais + 20mm extension tube + Nikon TC-14a TC
Title: Driftwood

asiostygius wrote:
James Markus wrote:
Lots of wonderful photos! Anyone have any experience with the Nikon TC-14a? Bjørn Rørslett gave it a craptacular rating. I have one on loan at the moment - and from what I have read they are intended for use on 200mm (some say 300mm) or shorter lenses. Uwe Steinmueller seems to have gotten decent results on a 80-400 vr.


James, this TC is the only which will fit in 200mm or smaller Nikkor focal lenghts. I have some samples shots:


Cetoniinae Flower Scarab (genus Gymnetis) with "77mm f/5" Micro Nikkor by labecoaves, on Flickr

Cetoniinae Flower Scarab (genus Gymnetis) with "77mm f/5" Micro Nikkor
D7000 + TC14A + Micro Nikkor 55mm f/3.5 AI (=77mm f/5) + SB800 flash with diffuser + tripod. ~10% crop. ISO 320, f/11 at 1/60s.




Sayaca Tanager x banana 60% crop by labecoaves, on Flickr

Sayaca Tanager x banana 60% crop
Sayaca Tanager (Thraupis sayaca) around 3 m of distance. D7000 + TC14A + Nikkor 180mm f/2.8 ais (= 252mm f/4); hand held, ISO 320, f/5.6 & 1/500s. The image is a ~ 60% crop.
Late afternoon.



And some "not recommended" setups, that is, with longer than 200mm lenses:


_DTR1662dpreview by labecoaves, on Flickr

Candid shot of a couple, D300 + 800mm f/5.6 ais + TC14A = 1120mmf/8
ISO640, no crop, couple at ~ 120m.
I know, I know, TC14B is the correct TC according to Nikon, but this "wrong" TC14A works!




DTR1605 Adult Sayaca Tanager at 20m by labecoaves, on Flickr

Adult Sayaca Tanager at 20m
D300 + Nikkor 800mm f/5.6 + TC14A = 1120mm f/8 + tripod. 35% crop. The "wrong" TC works again.

With these longer than 200mm lenses in FX there is vignetting, but on a DX crop I think there is no concern.
Unfortunately I have no expriences with the TC14B to compare, but regarding to the TC14EII, this is sharper at borders and have less or no CA.

Nice flower shots with Nikki, Ray.

I find myself reaching for the 28-50mm f3.5 AIS a lot. I like this little lens. Here is one with it.