The Sunday after Christmas I took a 2 hour drive to Long Beach Island, NJ in hopes of finding a Snowy Owl. The first time looking for them as had this guy land about 60 feet from me on a dune. Pretty sweet to drive that far and find one a hour after getting there. A couple of idiots in a 4x4 came flying down the beach when they saw me snapping away. Needless to say they scared the hell out of it and it took off facing away from me. It was only there to get about 15 images. The park ranger was on the beach and saw the guy and confiscated his truck beach pass and fined him. There is an etiquette for Snowies as they aren't really afraid of people and shouldn't get to close to them or scare them either. Unfortunately that was the only Snowy around that day. Still I'll go back soon on a warmer day!
D500, 500mm PF 1/3200 f5.6 ISO320 HW* meter Full Manual
Eric214 wrote:
The Sunday after Christmas I took a 2 hour drive to Long Beach Island, NJ in hopes of finding a Snowy Owl. The first time looking for them as had this guy land about 60 feet from me on a dune. Pretty sweet to drive that far and find one a hour after getting there. A couple of idiots in a 4x4 came flying down the beach when they saw me snapping away. Needless to say they scared the hell out of it and it took off facing away from me. It was only there to get about 15 images. The park ranger was on the beach and saw the guy and confiscated his truck beach pass and fined him. There is an etiquette for Snowies as they aren't really afraid of people and shouldn't get to close to them or scare them either. Unfortunately that was the only Snowy around that day. Still I'll go back soon on a warmer day!
Eric214 wrote:
The Sunday after Christmas I took a 2 hour drive to Long Beach Island, NJ in hopes of finding a Snowy Owl. The first time looking for them as had this guy land about 60 feet from me on a dune. Pretty sweet to drive that far and find one a hour after getting there. A couple of idiots in a 4x4 came flying down the beach when they saw me snapping away. Needless to say they scared the hell out of it and it took off facing away from me. It was only there to get about 15 images. The park ranger was on the beach and saw the guy and confiscated his truck beach pass and fined him. There is an etiquette for Snowies as they aren't really afraid of people and shouldn't get to close to them or scare them either. Unfortunately that was the only Snowy around that day. Still I'll go back soon on a warmer day!
In general I think there are a lot more people out there that aren’t respectful of wildlife, especially the owls. I live in an area that is frequented by owls every year and this year has been the worst.. bad enough that I just move on and don’t even bother trying to get a shot. Only once this year so far have I seen one and felt comfortable enough with the few people that were observing that we weren’t stressing it out (see post on previous page).
palmor wrote:
In general I think there are a lot more people out there that aren’t respectful of wildlife, especially the owls. I live in an area that is frequented by owls every year and this year has been the worst.. bad enough that I just move on and don’t even bother trying to get a shot. Only once this year so far have I seen one and felt comfortable enough with the few people that were observing that we weren’t stressing it out (see post on previous page).
^^ what is wrong with people anymore? Same has happened to me art the local pond, including a woman who walked directly in front of me (without a mask, as required there) to get a shot!
Hi, i am soon buying this lens with a crop body (D500 or maybe a D7500 to pocket some money and buy a TC instead).
I won’t be able to buy a full frame body just yet, and i own an a7iii, Sony. So my question is, though not critical, but if i were to sometimes use this lens on my Sony full frame camera in manual focus mode (the AF adapters don’t work on this lens), just to enjoy 500mm FL, what kind of adapter i can buy so that i am able to set the aperture. Its an E type lens and there are many MF adapters for G type lenses but not E type lenses.
6683 wrote:
Hi, i am soon buying this lens with a crop body (D500 or maybe a D7500 to pocket some money and buy a TC instead).
I won’t be able to buy a full frame body just yet, and i own an a7iii, Sony. So my question is, though not critical, but if i were to sometimes use this lens on my Sony full frame camera in manual focus mode (the AF adapters don’t work on this lens), just to enjoy 500mm FL, what kind of adapter i can buy so that i am able to set the aperture. Its an E type lens and there are many MF adapters for G type lenses but not E type lenses. ...Show more →
I have the Commlite AF adapter so it would work even if you don't want AF. But there may be a cheaper adapter that doesn't support AF. I don't know much about the other adapters.
If you manually pre-focus within a few inches (say a setup perch) then the Commlite on the Sony A9 will AF the 500PF. The green dots dance around the subject and it takes sharp shots. I'm not sure how the A7III would fair in comparison. But if you try to drive focus over any sort of difference then the Commlite just hunts and hunts the 500PF. In contrast with the 300PF you can actually get some okay AF performance out of the Commlite on the A9 (again not sure how the A7III compares).
Fred Amico wrote: ^^ what is wrong with people anymore? Same has happened to me art the local pond, including a woman who walked directly in front of me (without a mask, as required there) to get a shot!
Despicable behavior!
It's the same here... I just move on if there are too many people surrounding whatever is there.
I'll add that depending on where the wildlife is I'll go a ways off in the direction I think they'll go to next and hope I'm right... that's worked a few times
6683 wrote:
Hejnar replacement foot:
There are 2 models listed on Hejnar page.
129 and 129-500
For D500+500pf combination, which one is more suitable?
My understanding is the difference is where the mounting point is along the foot. The 129-500 has the mounting block closer to the middle of the foot. The 129 has it right near the rear.
I believe this has to do with mounting it on a gimbal head. I think the 129-500 was created in order to allow balance on a gimbal to be achieved if you have a heavier or gripped camera on the lens.
I would email Chris Hejnar to double check. He is very helpful when I've emailed him in the past even offering to custom design a foot.
Personally I never mount my 500PF on a tripod so I would choose the 129 as it provides a longer portion to act as a carrying handle. I rarely use a strap either so my replacement feet are used to act as a handle and sometimes provide a better rest on my palm when handholding.
Which kit would you chose if you had the choice? Please set aside flexibility and cost. I'm interested in the head to head comparison. The subject is birds in flight.
Ambercat wrote:
Which kit would you chose if you had the choice? Please set aside flexibility and cost. I'm interested in the head to head comparison. The subject is birds in flight.
I'm thinking both would have the same reach, the D850 would have more pixels and less light. Would the auto-focus work as well at F6.3?
-A
I have tried using a Nikon 1.4 vs II with my 500pf lens on the D500 and the D850. I didn't like the combo on either body at all. The AF is much slower if it will AF at all and t think IQ is degraded. To shoot the 500pf you need a lot of light or to jack up the ISO. If you add the 1.4 Tele your max aperture becomes F8. Most experts recommend a shutter speed at least equal to the focal length and usually faster to maximize sharpness but with the Image Stabilization you can go under just a bit. When shooting wildlife I find shooting at F5.6 in the shadows or at dusk challenging at times. At F8 shooting in those conditions become much more difficult. Lowering the shutter speed or increasing the ISO become a detriment to getting sharp images.
For me I shoot the 500pf with the D500 most of the time. With the cropped sensor it is easier to get a focus point on the bird at longer distances and therefore get sharper images. While the D850 may give more trouble getting a focus point on the subject, you can crop beyond where you can with a D500 if you have a very sharp photo.
What is surprising is the use of a 1.4 Teleconverter with the Nikon 300pf. The AF works well and IQ is very good.
Ambercat wrote:
Which kit would you chose if you had the choice? Please set aside flexibility and cost. I'm interested in the head to head comparison. The subject is birds in flight.
I'm thinking both would have the same reach, the D850 would have more pixels and less light. Would the auto-focus work as well at F6.3?
-A
You don't need the 1.4TC to equalize the "reach". The pixel density is almost identical on those two sensors. If you put the 500PF on the D850 (no TC) and crop it to DX size you will have an almost identical image to the D500 image you'd get without cropping. I said "almost" because if you dig down into the data the D500 image has just slightly more DR, slightly more MPs and slightly better ISO noise than the DX crop from the D850. But slightly is like 1/3 stop at best. Basically meaningless so I wouldn't make a decision based on that.
Now I found the D500 AF to be just slightly better than D850 but again, the difference is very small.
D500 benefit is less expensive, unlimited buffer, a larger view of the subject in the OVF and the very slight benefits I discussed above.
D850 benefit is you have a FF and DX camera all in one. If subject is close enough you can make use of better DR and IQ of the FF sensor, if subject is smaller than DX area then you are just back to what you'd have had with D500.
D850 has benefit of a wider FOV so that sometimes makes it easier to keep on your BIF. But keep in mind the actual AF points only will cover about the DX area of the sensor. So you still need to get the bird back into the centre but that can be easier when you can still see it in the outer FX sensor area.
Now both of those cameras have issues getting consistent results with 500PF/1.4TC. If you do careful AFMA then they can work but I wouldn't do much BIF shooting with the 1.4TC (although I have done it with some success). I've read that the D5/D6 can focus the 500PF/1.4TC much better but then you really do need the 1.4TC to equalize the reach of a D500/D850.
Since you mention disregard cost and disregard flexibility then as long as your subjects aren't going to overfill the DX frame, I'd go for the D500. That was my choice in the end, I sold off my D850 and kept my D500/500PF and I have the TCs if I need them. But that was more because I was using my D850 money to buy other cameras from other manufacturers
D500 pixel density is 5.68 MP/cm² and the D850 is 532 MP/cm² so more pixel density with the D500. The more pixels on your subject, the more detail captured.
The D850 is 1 full stop better ISO quality then the D500. So the D850 looks the same at 6400 as the D500 looks at 3200. This is completely negated once you crop the D850 45.7MP image down to the FOV of the D500 image at it's native 20.9MP image. doing so also yields D850 image at 19.2MP, so about 1.7 less MP, than that of the D500 at full size 20.9MP. So the D850 will only have more pixels on the subject if you fill the D850 frame 3/4 or fully fill it. Otherwise you will need that TC to get roughly the same equivalent focal range with a 500mm lens (D850 720mm to D500 750mm). But you loose a stop of light. F8,not the F6.3 you mentioned.
The D850 is worth getting over the D500 if you are able to fill the frame with BIF/Wildlife or you do other genre of photography like Weddings/Portraits/Macro/Landscape. Where you will be able to utilize the full frame sensor. If you find yourself already cropping a D500 image 50% or more of the time, you probably want to go with a D500 as the amount you'll be cropping a D850 will be worse than the D500.
If you do mostly (like 90%) wildlife/BIF then the D500 is more likely the better option.
