p.64 #1 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
OwlsEyes wrote:
I spent a few days up north and did a mix of landscapes and wildlife. A group of Franklin's ground squirrels were a perfect muse for the 800PF... this is a sampling of what I was seeing, however there remains many edits to be done. I am also adding a "bonus" blackburnian warbler. During my 36 hours of travel and shooting, I managed to photograph 4 life birds as well as many others... quite a bit of fun in a short period of time!
Nice stuff, Bruce. Glad to see you are out and about. Were these from northern MN? I plan to make it up again at the very end of the month or the beginning of August.
p.64 #2 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
ahamp wrote:
Nice stuff, Bruce. Glad to see you are out and about. Were these from northern MN? I plan to make it up again at the very end of the month or the beginning of August.
Thanks for the note...
The Franklin's ground squirrels in Gooseberry Falls State Park... a place that I generally go for landscape photography. The birds were more of an adventure into some deep boreal forests west of Silver Bay MN. I shot yellow warbler, blackburnian, magnolia, yellow-rumped, red-eyed vireo, blue-headed vireo, and red-phase ruffed grouse in a 3 hour stretch... the photography was challenging with a lot of sticks, mosquitos, and deer flies.
p.64 #3 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
Pete Zwiers wrote:
Greeting all!
I'm the proud new owner of a Z9 & Z 800mm that I bought off the Buy & Sell forum here. I'm switching from the Canon 1Dx (m1) + Canon 800mm f/5.6 lens; with the only reason being the Z 800mm weight & length advantages (and going mirrorless also I guess).
First impressions of my switch from Canon:
1. The lens itself is spectacular! The weight savings, and the shorter length are game changers for sure. There was no way I could take photos from a kayak handheld with my Canon system. I can't get over how easier it is to carry this setup around, and I'm thinking I might never use a tripod again. Nikon is rockin' their long lens offerings!
2. The Z9 is going to take some time to get used to - mostly because of the ergonomics. The vertical power switch is really easy to accidently turn on (which results in some odd blasts of photos). I put on piece of electrical tape over it to solve the problem (I very rarely shoot vertical). There are probably settings for this, but I haven't been diving too much into the manual yet. Loving the mirrorless auto-focus!
My first outing with this lens was in the kayak, with extreme smoke conditions from here in the central interior of British Columbia. Hard to properly describe how bad the air here is (my hair smelled like a campfire after 4 hours), but the photos below were all taken during a 'sunny' cloudless sky - just smoke. This creates some wild effects!
I've cleaned these up with Topaz Gigapixel, DeNoise, and Sharpen. I crop quite heavily for a lot of my photos, as the wildlife & birds around here are not very used to people or boats. ...Show more →
Really nice job on these and congratulations on getting some awesome gear!!
p.64 #5 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
Had about 2 minutes to play before sundown - literally stuck the lens out my front door and found these little guys ~28 ft away in a bush. I'll get out for a proper test later this week.
Z9, ISO 7200, F6.3
DOF sure is thin! Left hand bird isn't quite in focus.
p.64 #6 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
These are from the past few days here in BC's central interior region. Thankfully the wildfire smoke has subsided a lot in the past 36 hours. All of these are from the kayak.
Coming from the Canon 1Dx to the Nikon Z9 makes for a steep learning curve! I think I'm getting a handle on all the settings and control options. One thing I noticed with the 3D Auto Focus is that it's horrible for tracking birds in lily pad fields.
Spotted Sandpiper / Z9 + Z 800mm @ f/8, 1/3200, ISO 640, Exp Comp -1
Young Beaver / Z9 + Z 800mm @ f/8, 1/3200, ISO 400
Bald Eagle / Z9 + Z 800mm @ f/8, 1/3200, ISO 2200, Exp Comp -1
River Otter / Z9 + Z 800mm @ f/8, 1/2500, ISO 2200, Exp Comp +.7
Red-necked Grebe Chick / Z9 + Z 800mm @ f/8, 1/3200, ISO 720, Exp Comp -1
American Wigeon Family / Z9 + Z 800mm @ f/9, 1/2500, ISO 3600, Exp Comp +.7
Red-necked Grebe Chick / Z9 + Z 800mm @ f/8, 1/3200, ISO 560, Exp Comp -1
2) Grey Shrike-thrush. I posted this image as there is no crop whatsoever - to show the size of the bird and probably very close to MFD. The bird is about 6"-7" (150-175mm) from tip of beak to tip of tail.
10) Golden Whistler - female. Again, this is close to MFD of the 800 PF and little cropping done, maybe 15%. This bird is about 4"-5" tip of beak to tip of tail.
p.64 #8 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
Pete Zwiers wrote:
These are from the past few days here in BC's central interior region. Thankfully the wildfire smoke has subsided a lot in the past 36 hours. All of these are from the kayak.
Coming from the Canon 1Dx to the Nikon Z9 makes for a steep learning curve! I think I'm getting a handle on all the settings and control options. One thing I noticed with the 3D Auto Focus is that it's horrible for tracking birds in lily pad fields.
p.64 #12 · Official 800PF image and discussion thread
Got out again yesterday briefly before the mosquitos ate me alive - I really need to put more effort into finding a solution for that haha. The VR on the 800PF is incredible, I think it's still the best I have used within the Nikon system.
