I took my TC20e iii in for service today but I burrowed the store's TC20e iii briefly to play with 500/5.6 PF again. With D850, as previously mentioned, it cannot not focus at f11 with 500/5.6 PF and TC20e iii at all. However, I was told that Z7 works fine so I brought my Z7 and 500PF along. Sure enough, Z7 can AF with TC20e iii better than I expected. It is a little slow and hunts occasionally but for relatively static or slowly moving object, it actually works ok.
At least at relatively close distance 15-20m, IQ is actually quite ok, I think.
In the past, I did not like the result of 500/4e FL with TC20e iii very much this the 500PF surprised me a bit.
PS the person was walking slowly away from me so at least in good light AF was reasonable.
Looking at the histogram, the curve just had a tiny bit that touched the right hand side
of the graph. I was in A mode with matrix metering. Sorry, I did not adjust the raw picture at all and just did the 100% crop and coverted to jpg. I was at iso 2000 only because I was shooting somebody with dark hair in the shadow before this gentleman happened to walk by in the bright light.
ELinder wrote:
I got an email from RRS today, and they said they have not finalized the design of the foot yet for this lens. I told them that in that case, they should make the inside smooth and rounded like the 200-400 f/4 foot to make it more comfortable to hold it like a handle. The 70-200 foot is a bit too angular. They said they'd forwardd the suggestion to the design team.
Erich
One can only hope that the people at RRS get it right for a change. The feet I have looked at in the past were only 1/2 inch longer than the Nikon stock foot and so I have added Wimberley plates to the factory feet to get the length I wanted. The guys making these feet do not allow for balance with lighter cameras or having room to mount a flash bracket which is why the Wimberley plates in general work better. One exception is the plate that ships with the Gitzo gimbal head which uses 3 retention screws to mount to a lens and works perfectly with my 600mm f/4E lens.
Colin F wrote:
So in a nutshell, it sounds like this VR weak-spot won't be a problem for those who normally shoot at higher shutter speeds (bird/sports photographers), but there could & would be those times for bird photographers (shooting in low light conditions) where it would be an issue. Something to keep in mind for sure.
Said in my best Stewie voice: "I guess that 500 f/4 isn't looking so bad now eh?"
VR may be a problem when shooting with VR enabled and doing a burst of shots. But if I am shooting in low light and using a very slow shutter speed (ad 1/100s with 500mm lens on D500 or D850 is -4 stops) and depending upon VR then the last thing I would do is shot in bursts but rather utilize LiveView to nail the focus or mirror lockup and a cable release.
There are also two VR modes available with the 500mm PF lens, normal and sport. If I thought it necessary to shoot bursts of shots at very slow shutter speeds and wanted VR to assist with image stabilization I would start by using Sport mode and if that did not work well then I would try Normal mode.
Every piece of photo gear has its limitations and I simply work around them.
elkhornsun wrote:
One can only hope that the people at RRS get it right for a change. The feet I have looked at in the past were only 1/2 inch longer than the Nikon stock foot and so I have added Wimberley plates to the factory feet to get the length I wanted. The guys making these feet do not allow for balance with lighter cameras or having room to mount a flash bracket which is why the Wimberley plates in general work better. One exception is the plate that ships with the Gitzo gimbal head which uses 3 retention screws to mount to a lens and works perfectly with my 600mm f/4E lens. ...Show more →
RRS feet have always been too short and too expensive
I also prefer Wimberley
RandyR wrote:
RRS feet have always been too short and too expensive
I also prefer Wimberley
Agreed, I don't know why people buy RRS feet...they have to be the most useless ones out there unless all you want to do is mimic the length and height of the stock foot but then might as well just add a plate to the stock foot. I bought the 600II RRS foot back in the day when I didn't know any better and just got caught up in the RRS forum hype.
Lots of better brands, especially Henjar who will mill you whatever you ask for.
Imagemaster wrote:
Hence the advantage of zooms in those cases. Nobody can change focal-lengths as quickly using primes with TC's as they can with a zoom.
I am enjoying using the D850 as I can change it quickly from full frame to DX mode and change the effective view angle significantly and while not the same as a zoom it does provide new capabilities nonetheless.
arbitrage wrote:
Agreed, I don't know why people buy RRS feet...they have to be the most useless ones out there unless all you want to do is mimic the length and height of the stock foot but then might as well just add a plate to the stock foot. I bought the 600II RRS foot back in the day when I didn't know any better and just got caught up in the RRS forum hype.
Lots of better brands, especially Henjar who will mill you whatever you ask for.
It's not a well run company:
I tried to return the 1st version of the 200-500 foot because it wasn't long enough to safely balance an ungripped D500 on a Wimberly. After giving me a bunch of BS about how they tested it and it worked fine and no one else complained but me, 6 months latter than re-released the foot and made it longer. RRS is all myth. I will never buy anything from them again. Even Wimberly's plates are longer and less money every time....
1) Female Fairy Wren. These guys like to flit about all over the place and in order to get a shot you need to react *fast*. The Z7 came through as well as my D850 could, actually better as it was lighter and quicker to maneuver.
I find with fairy wrens it's best to stay in a spot and they'll often approach close. I had one jump on my shoe whilst I was sitting on the ground while they were feeding off grass seeds. In the shrubs they are hyperactive.
Pixel Perfect wrote:
I find with fairy wrens it's best to stay in a spot and they'll often approach close. I had one jump on my shoe whilst I was sitting on the ground while they were feeding off grass seeds. In the shrubs they are hyperactive.
Yes, you are correct, they can be quite a funny bird behavioural-wise sometimes. I've had them jump on my shoes and even look up at me as if to say, "what are you looking at?" whilst I curse at them for being too close! Same applies to the white-browed scrub wrens. Yet at other times, they won't go anywhere near you. Thankfully, these guys were so busy looking for food that they were less interested in me and more interested in getting the food - obviously had to feed some chicks in the nest.
