Most people are posting quality pics here .. but the following 3 posts are not going to follow that trend
I was interested in 3 aspects :
1) to see just how well the 200-500 can handle the TC20EIII giving 1,000mm and how well in low light (I have a May trip to Myanmar, Nepal & Bhutan, where lots of birding days have been set aside). When the D500 arrives I\'ll add that to the trip arsenal to give me 1,500mm and no need for a spotting scope - it may even work well enough handheld to forego the tripod, a massive advantage over a scope.
2) Tracking head-on
3) 500mm vs 400mm resized (see Mansurov\'s \'Photographylife\' article for the reasons why this is important).
So the following is for Birders, when we need to ID a bird at distance (200-300m or more) without having to take a pretty picture - even a poor pic that can help ID the bird and keep a record so there is no dispute, is worth it\'s weight in gold.
This was handheld and taken in very low light (sun at between 10 and 25 degrees above the horizon). I took a few of different birds, all were very similar and the only ones that didn\'t work (1:3) were where I missed focus (not always easy at those distances) ! Even a poor birder could ID the bird in this pic (the bird, a Pale Thrush, is at about 200m).
I will say I was surprised how well the AF worked at f11 (on a D800E) - I hadn\'t expected it to be able to lock-on but it did, even in poor light, though it took a while. In good light I expect it will do just fine if slow AF is good enough for you. In the shot below I had to MF of course and I found the focussing ring to be set too far back for comfort - a bit of a stretch for my thumb when trying to hand-hold the lens.
Most people are posting quality pics here .. but the following 3 posts are not going to follow that trend
I was interested in 3 aspects :
1) to see just how well the 200-500 can handle the TC20EIII giving 1,000mm and how well in low light (I have a May trip to Myanmar/Nepal?Bhutan where lots of birding days have been set aside). When the D500 arrives I\'ll add that to the trip arsenal to give me 1,500mm and no need for a spotting scope - it may even work well enough handheld to forego the tripod, a massive advantage over a scope.
2) Tracking head-on
3) 500mm vs 400mm resized (see Mansurov\'s \'Photographylife\' article for the reasons why this is important).
So the following is for Birders, when we need to ID a bird at distance (200-300m or more) without having to take a pretty picture - even a poor pic that can help ID the bird and keep a record so there is no dispute, is worth it\'s weight in gold.
This was handheld and taken in very low light (sun at between 10 and 25 degrees above the horizon). I took a few of different birds, all were very similar and the only ones that didn\'t work (1:3) were where I missed focus (not always easy at those distances) ! Even a poor birder could ID the bird in this pic (the bird, a Pale Thrush, is at about 200m).
I will say I was surprised how well the AF worked at f11 (on a D800E) - I hadn\'t expected it to be able to lock-on but it did, even in poor light, though it took a while. In good light I expect it will do just fine if slow AF is good enough for you. In the shot below I had to MF of course and I found the focussing ring to be set too far back for comfort - a bit of a stretch for my thumb when trying to hand-hold the lens.
Most people are posting quality pics here .. but the following 3 posts are not going to follow that trend
I was interested in 3 aspects :
1) to see just how well the 200-500 can handle the TC20EIII giving 1,000mm and how well in low light (I have a May trip to Myanmar/Nepal?Bhutan where lots of birding days have been set aside). When the D500 arrives I\'ll add that to the trip arsenal to give me 1,500mm and no need for a spotting scope - it may even work well enough handheld to forego the tripod, a massive advantage over a scope.
2) Tracking head-on
3) 500mm vs 400mm resized (see Mansurov\'s \'Photographylife\' article for the reasons why this is important).
So the following is for Birders, when we need to ID a bird at distance (200-300m or more) without having to take a pretty picture - even a poor pic that can help ID the bird and keep a record so there is no dispute, is worth it\'s weight in gold.
This was handheld and taken in very low light (sun at between 10 and 25 degrees above the horizon). I took a few of different birds, all were very similar and the only ones that didn\'t work (1:3) were where I missed focus (not always easy at those distances) ! Even a poor birder could ID the bird in this pic (the bird, a Pale Thrush, is at about 200m).
I will say I was surprised how well the AF worked at f11 - I hadn\'t expected it to be able to lock-on but it did, even in poor light, though it took a while. In good light I expect it will do just fine if slow AF is good enough for you. In the shot below I had to MF of course.
Most people are posting quality pics here .. but the following 3 posts are not going to follow that trend
I was interested in 3 aspects :
1) to see just how well the 200-500 can handle the TC20EIII giving 1,000mm and how well in low light (I have a May trip to Myanmar/Nepal?Bhutan where lots of birding days have been set aside). When the D500 arrives I\'ll add that to the trip arsenal to give me 1,500mm and no need for a spotting scope - it may even work well enough handheld to forego the tripod, a massive advantage over a scope.
2) Tracking head-on
3) 500mm vs 400mm resized (see Mansurov\'s \'Photographylife\' article for the reasons why this is important).
So the following is for Birders, when we need to ID a bird at distance (200-300m or more) without having to take a pretty picture - even a poor pic that can help ID the bird and keep a record so there is no dispute, is worth it\'s weight in gold.
This was handheld and taken in very low light (sun at between 10 and 25 degrees above the horizon). I took a few of different birds, all were very similar and the only ones that didn\'t work (1:3) were where I missed focus (not always easy at those distances) ! Even a poor birder could ID the bird in this pic (the bird, a Pale Thrush, is at about 200m).
Mar 18, 2016 at 05:14 AM
Previous versions of Frogfish's message #13469370 « Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR »
