Re: "Official" Nikon 500 f/5.6E PF Discussion and Image Thread
arbitrage wrote: kwilliam8 wrote:
Here are a couple more images taken recently with the 500mm PF lens. The first image was taken with the D500 camera, and the second image was taken with the D850 camera. Both images were taken from the exact same spot in the Skagit Wildlife Refuge, but on different days. The purpose of these trips was to try out the 500mm PF lens on swallows in flight. I will be posting a more complete set of the swallow images on the Nature & Wildlife forum here soon. All in all, I was pretty happy with the 500mm PF lens for swallows in flight. But, both camera bodies struggled a bit (as did the photographer) with tracking and autofocus on these very fast and highly erratic fliers. I need to go back to try out how the D5 body handles similar conditions with the 500mm PF lens.
Keith W.
Nice work Keith. I found a spot today with 30-40 violet-green swallows flying along the water...but it was heavy overcast so I didn't even bother. Next time the sun comes out I will go give the 500PF a try. Last year I was using 300PF/1.4TC for swallows and it worked fairly well.
I bet the D5 will be the best (I don't own one to try) but if you don't have enough "reach" the images may be better on the D500/D850 bodies.
That's exactly the reason that I haven't tried the D5 yet - reach. In the location that I have found, the swallows actually come extremely close to me (after sitting there for an extended period). Sometimes they are as close as 15 to 20 feet. However, when they are that close, I can't even keep my eyes on their movement, much less a camera. So, shooting them further out has led to better images. But that may be a bit too far our for the D5 at that point. However, I will try the D5 one of these days. Since the D5 has slightly better AF than either the D850 or D500, perhaps I can get a few good images of these guys closer in (than when shooting with either the D850 or D500)...
Btw, I have used the 300PF/1.4TC on swallows before. That works great too. While the 300PF/1.4TC combo is slightly easier to rapidly swing around, it doesn't give the reach of the native 500PF. So, each has slight advantages and disadvantages. Both are great for swallows. I had never gotten a good SIF image before using the 300mm PF.
Keith W.
Apr 05, 2019 at 06:57 PM
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