p.59 #2 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
Lance B wrote:
1) I am a bit chuffed. I was lucky enough to see a Brown Marsupial Mouse (Antechinus), only my second time seeing one. These are not rodents but marsupials like Kangaroos, Wallabies and Koalas etc. They are not necessarily rare but are very, very uncommen to see and are only found in a norrow strip of coastline on the east coast on NSW.
I was shooting helmeted hornbill with TCx2 as it was perching on top of a very tall tree from a boat. Suddenly it flew across the water over our boat unexpected so this is my bif shot with 1600mm
No cropping. Most shots I did not get the whole bird in the frame but I got a couple.
1600mm, f13, 1/1000, iso 640.
Looking back, I should have faster shutterspeed for this focal lenght but at the time, I was just surprised and all I could do was pointed the camera at the bird.
p.59 #6 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
woodstork wrote:
Cool capture of an amazing bird! I don’t think I’d have even thought to attempt that combo.
Also, Did you determine if the FW update was causing the focus issues you mentioned, or was it something else?
Thanks. There are less than 100 of the helmeted hornbills left in Thailand so it was a privilege to be able to photograph them.
I sent my 800PF back to Nikon to have them take a look. The lens was fine when I was in Patagonia 2 weeks prior.
Since I came back, I updated the firmware a day before leaving for the helmeted hornbill. I hope I did not damage the lens when traveling from South America back to Thailand. I hand carried it in my backpack. The first day of the helmete hornbill trip, I got cought in a rainshower while on a boat but covered everything up quickly so it only got a little wet which I did not expect to have any problem. Anyhow, I asked Nikon to roll back fw to 1.0 since I cannot do that myself and let them test
the lens to see if it is just the firmware or if something else is wrong with the lens. Very strange. My local dealer tested the lens briefly with Z8 and confirmed the same problem before sending it back to Nikon.
p.59 #7 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
A bunch more Cedar Waxwings. I really like those birds. Fun fact - one of the few birds in North America that specializes in eating fruit. They sometimes get drunk on overripe berries.
p.59 #8 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
suteetat wrote:
Thanks. There are less than 100 of the helmeted hornbills left in Thailand so it was a privilege to be able to photograph them.
I sent my 800PF back to Nikon to have them take a look. The lens was fine when I was in Patagonia 2 weeks prior.
Since I came back, I updated the firmware a day before leaving for the helmeted hornbill. I hope I did not damage the lens when traveling from South America back to Thailand. I hand carried it in my backpack. The first day of the helmete hornbill trip, I got cought in a rainshower while on a boat but covered everything up quickly so it only got a little wet which I did not expect to have any problem. Anyhow, I asked Nikon to roll back fw to 1.0 since I cannot do that myself and let them test
the lens to see if it is just the firmware or if something else is wrong with the lens. Very strange. My local dealer tested the lens briefly with Z8 and confirmed the same problem before sending it back to Nikon.
Thank you Suteetat. What a privilege to see and photograph such a rare bird species. Hopefully you are witnessing a population recovery and not an extinction. A friend of mine was part of a team managing the very last Dusky Seaside Sparrows in captivity at a time when none remained in the wild. All 6 of the remaining birds were male. The last one died in the mid-1980's after several years in captivity. He fed it every morning knowing the whole time it was at a dead end. This haunts him decades later.
I hope Nikon quickly figures out your lens. Need to get that back in your hands and behind that great eye of yours. I haven't updated mine yet. Anyone else having problems with 1.10?
p.59 #9 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
lukemeup wrote:
A bunch more Cedar Waxwings. I really like those birds. Fun fact - one of the few birds in North America that specializes in eating fruit. They sometimes get drunk on overripe berries.
p.59 #10 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
woodstork wrote:
Thank you Suteetat. What a privilege to see and photograph such a rare bird species. Hopefully you are witnessing a population recovery and not an extinction. A friend of mine was part of a team managing the very last Dusky Seaside Sparrows in captivity at a time when none remained in the wild. All 6 of the remaining birds were male. The last one died in the mid-1980's after several years in captivity. He fed it every morning knowing the whole time it was at a dead end. This haunts him decades later.
I hope Nikon quickly figures out your lens. Need to get that back in your hands and behind that great eye of yours. I haven't updated mine yet. Anyone else having problems with 1.10? ...Show more →
Keep my fingers cross on the helmeted hornbill. They are listed under critically endangered species. In Thailand they exist mainly in 2 national parks. Indonesia also has some as well but I am not sure how many. In July I will go to Borneo and there is a cluster of about 50 helmeted hornbills there as well.
Unfortunately since ivory trade is banned, its casque became highly sought after as ivory substitute for ornamental carving. Too bad, this bird has been around for a long time and is seen in fossils as old as 50 millions years ago. It would be ashame to see them becoming extinct in our generation.
The firmware that I updated was 1.11. I don't remember if I updated the lens to fw 1.10 or not. Just remember 1.11 came out in April and since I did not hear about any problem with it, I decided to update the firmware last week
However, as soon as I hear from Nikon whether there was a problem with the lens or firmware, I will post the finding here.
p.59 #11 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
suteetat wrote:
Keep my fingers cross on the helmeted hornbill. They are listed under critically endangered species. In Thailand they exist mainly in 2 national parks. Indonesia also has some as well but I am not sure how many. In July I will go to Borneo and there is a cluster of about 50 helmeted hornbills there as well.
Unfortunately since ivory trade is banned, its casque became highly sought after as ivory substitute for ornamental carving. Too bad, this bird has been around for a long time and is seen in fossils as old as 50 millions years ago. It would be ashame to see them becoming extinct in our generation.
The firmware that I updated was 1.11. I don't remember if I updated the lens to fw 1.10 or not. Just remember 1.11 came out in April and since I did not hear about any problem with it, I decided to update the firmware last week
However, as soon as I hear from Nikon whether there was a problem with the lens or firmware, I will post the finding here.
p.59 #12 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
suteetat wrote:
Keep my fingers cross on the helmeted hornbill. They are listed under critically endangered species. In Thailand they exist mainly in 2 national parks. Indonesia also has some as well but I am not sure how many. In July I will go to Borneo and there is a cluster of about 50 helmeted hornbills there as well.
Unfortunately since ivory trade is banned, its casque became highly sought after as ivory substitute for ornamental carving. Too bad, this bird has been around for a long time and is seen in fossils as old as 50 millions years ago. It would be ashame to see them becoming extinct in our generation.
The firmware that I updated was 1.11. I don't remember if I updated the lens to fw 1.10 or not. Just remember 1.11 came out in April and since I did not hear about any problem with it, I decided to update the firmware last week
However, as soon as I hear from Nikon whether there was a problem with the lens or firmware, I will post the finding here.
Do Thailand and Borneo have endangered species laws? It is horrible to allow any humans to drag a species to extinction for $. Thankfully the ivory trade was stopped.
Over here our loss of species is mainly due to habitat loss. We do not tolerate the taking of any species for direct monetary gain.... if we know about it. Several have been caught selling bear gall bladders for the Asian market for false medicinal purposes.
Do you think this bird will be saved from extinction?
p.59 #13 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
bs kite wrote:
Do Thailand and Borneo have endangered species laws? It is horrible to allow any humans to drag a species to extinction for $. Thankfully the ivory trade was stopped.
Over here our loss of species is mainly due to habitat loss. We do not tolerate the taking of any species for direct monetary gain.... if we know about it. Several have been caught selling bear gall bladders for the Asian market for false medicinal purposes.
Do you think this bird will be saved from extinction?
Robert
Yes, trade and captivity are illegal and arrests have been made for all kinds of endangered species here. However, I don't really know how effective it is and I could not find data on what is happening to the population currently. I know that helmeted hornbill was placed on critically endangered list back in 2015. I talked to the park rangers while I was there and their last count showed that there were about 50 at this national park and the number is stable at the moment.
p.59 #14 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
suteetat wrote:
Yes, trade and captivity are illegal and arrests have been made for all kinds of endangered species here. However, I don't really know how effective it is and I could not find data on what is happening to the population currently. I know that helmeted hornbill was placed on critically endangered list back in 2015. I talked to the park rangers while I was there and their last count showed that there were about 50 at this national park and the number is stable at the moment.
Thank you for the prompt, candid response. You care!
It sounds to me that there is reason for hope.
I will occasionally (not now) post heartening short videos on the successful recoveries of species from virtual extinction.
p.59 #15 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
A bunch of lifers for me in the last 2 days. Grosbeak and female phalarope from today. I saw the teal and male phalarope two days ago but just got better photos of both today.
You may call 800PF a very 'specialized' lens but this thing lives on my Z9 most of the time since I got it a couple months ago.
p.59 #16 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
Finally got ahold of this lens this week. I had ordered from B&H on the release day, but at around 11:45am PST. I was still waiting on the preorder two weeks ago, when I found a good deal on eBay for a mint condition used one. The seller had it listed well above list price for new, but was taking offers, so I ended up saving about $500 off of new price in the end. Ironically, B&H contacted me three days after I finalized the eBay purchase with info that my pre-order was ready to be shipped. This was on 5/24/23, only 13 months+ after the pre-order. I was kicking myself a bit for the impatience, but the eBay lens is in great shape, so all is well (I cancelled the pre-order).
I'm really surprised at the reach of this thing, and the MFD is hard to get used to. Almost too much for backyard birds, particularly the tame ones. I have had heavy overcast for the first few days with the lens, so nothing spectacular to post yet. I also got the Z8 this week, so I'm breaking in both at the same time. I had been working with the Z9 and 400E hand held, so the Z8 and the 800S puts a smile on my face by comparison. The Z8 and the 800S make a great combo. The Z9 may be slightly better balanced with this lens (my lens hand is in a better place for MF with the Z9), but the lighter weight of the Z8 is welcome here when handholding or trekking with the lens, and the combo is quite useable.
I am finding I like hand held when I am up for it with this lens, it's just easier and quicker to maneuver with the extra focal length, even over a monopod/monopod gimbal head combo.
I will post some pics when I get a chance to shoot in better light.
