This is the one I purchased as well... I had the RRS foot, but the Hejnar feels as if it was integrated with the collar. It makes for a solid support and good handle for transport or waiting for action.
@BSKite... while not as fast, long, or glamorous as the 600mm f/4.. the 500PF is sharp and not without its merits. The lens is a keeper and will serve to meet my long lens needs now and into the future as Nikon transitions into the mirrorless world.
I was disappointed today when Adobe released LR Classic 8.1 with a bunch of new camera and lens profiles but did not release one for the 500PF....I guess even Adobe can't find a copy of this lens
I worked the first big pool with the a9+100-400 and mostly used the D500+500PF wasting my time in the north pool area trying to get a Harrier. I did use the 500PF for a couple of Sandies too.
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Ken excellent work on the Sandies!
I worked the first big pool with the a9+100-400 and mostly used the D500+500PF wasting my time in the north pool area trying to get a Harrier. I did use the 500PF for a couple of Sandies too.
Sorry our paths didn't cross!
Is this what you were looking for? I believe this is a Norther Harrier?
Haha! If that is a Harrier I was looking for the wrong thing!
I don't know many bierds but I'd guess that to be an Avocet. Not betting any money though!
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Haha! If that is a Harrier I was looking for the wrong thing!
I don't know many bierds but I'd guess that to be an Avocet. Not betting any money though!
I guess I should have looked at another web site for bird identification...def not a harrier species...
Christian H wrote:
This is where the poor subject isolation of an f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm comes home to roost, as it were. If only they'd made it f/4 or 600 mm :-(
While I'm a big fan of large-aperture lenses, partly for this reason, it is still in many cases a better solution if one can control the background in such a way as to avoid a complicated composition. When looking at the Natural History Museum's WPY contest results, typically in the gallery of 100 winning of highly commended images, only about 10% of telephoto shots are taken at wider apertures than f/5.6, and in many cases small apertures are used, with very clean compositions, rather than relying on the lens to clean up the background by use of a large aperture.
"Very poor" is an exaggeration, in many cases f/5.6 gives perfectly smooth backgrounds, it depends on the subject size in the frame (magnification). If the subject is small or only a part of the subject is in the image, then the depth of field at f/5.6 can be really shallow.
This is at f/5.6, slightly cropped (D850, 500mm f/5.6 PF, 1/200s, ISO 22800):
The noise is from ISO 22800, not related to out of focus rendering, but it does relate to the maximum aperture and light level, of course. I think it is a bit funny how different ideas photographers can have about what is "low light". Nevertheless, I suspect the black bird would not have landed so close to me if I had had a 500/4 and tripod to carry, set in place and shoot.
Christian H wrote:
This is where the poor subject isolation of an f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm comes home to roost, as it were. If only they'd made it f/4 or 600 mm :-(
I'm content with paying 1/3 of the price for the performance and look.
Christian H wrote:
This is where the poor subject isolation of an f/5.6 lens @ 500 mm comes home to roost, as it were. If only they'd made it f/4 or 600 mm :-(
I don't think a 600/5.6 or 500/4 would have helped much in knocking out the background birds in that particular shot. I think choosing ones' subjects and backgrounds more selectively is more important than the one stop of background blur.
Even 800 f/11 can give you decent subject to background when you get low enough to have the background far away....
Of course that dust/hair spot I should have cloned out on the left side of frame likely wouldn't have been so prominent with a 800/5.6 lens
800mm f/11 (f/11 out of necessity due to max aperture...this is not a 500PF shot)
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Tired of processing Cranes and Snow Geese, walked the neighborhood today.
700mm really comes in handy, just not everyday I can fill the frame.
Nice specimen to find on a neighborhood walk!! Wish I was so lucky. I've been using the PF at 700mm a lot...despite having to dial in an MFA value way more than I expected, it has been a sweet 700mm lens.
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Tired of processing Cranes and Snow Geese, walked the neighborhood today.
700mm really comes in handy, just not everyday I can fill the frame.
Haha... when you’re done with yours, you can work on mine....
hey guy's my first post here I've bin using the 500PF for 2 weeks now, only had a few days of good light to test it but here is a good example of the bokeh from this lens
