Nikkor Z Nikkor 800mm f/6.3 VR PF S

Bob_A wrote in post #19485683
Beautiful image.

Thank you so much, Bob!

lacogada wrote in post #19485274
Wow ... just amazing photo's.

Incredible lens.

Seems the Z9 and Z800 plus a good photographer are hard to beat.

Thank you so much for this comment, it’s very much appreciated.

It’s definitely a setup that I’ve always dreamed about having for birding, but 800mm lenses have historically been out of my price and weight tolerance range until now. Along with the capabilities of the Z9, primarily the AF and resolution, there just isn’t much more you could ask for in a birding setup. Exciting times ahead, for sure!

MatthewK wrote in post #19485803
capabilities of the Z9, primarily the AF and resolution

When you refer to the resolution .... is that beng the 45 mega pixels ?

... or is it the 45 megapixels allow you to crop more ?

If you’re able to fill the frame with a subject, the higher resolution captures exquisite feather detail; having the 800mm lens allows for me to better fill the frame and take advantage of that resolution. And like you said, the extra resolution allows for more flexibility to crop when you can’t fill the frame, but I don’t go into it with the mindset of cropping, my goal is to fill the frame as much as possible.

I’d also be happy with a smaller resolution sensor as well if I had the reach to fill the frame, but with birding you often aren’t close enough to always fill the frame, so you’d lose a little cropping latitude.

With my D500 and 500PF, I was at a 750mm field of view on an 18MP sensor; I’m now at 800mm with 45MP, so the potential for great detail captures has been substantially increased.

I see ... thanks for the explanation.

Not going to lie, this winter has been brutal for me photographically, and subsequently, mentally. Birding and photography make up a big part of my life, and when there's very little to photograph during the dead of a 6 month winter, it becomes a struggle mentally to stay positive. When I try to go out and shoot, and see nothing time after time, after time, it just beats me down and makes me despair. Spring is in the air though, we aren't out of the tunnel yet, but the light is becoming brighter by the day. With that, warmer days are happening, though as I type this we're expecting 5-9 inches of snow Wife and I are talking about moving to a place with much warmer climate, and a TON more birds, in the next year or two. That keeps me afloat, knowing there are better days ahead!

Anyways, with the longer days and slightly warmer temps, I've been getting out and putting some more shots through the Z800. It's a challenge, I'm still not used to the new setup, have been missing what should be easy shots due to the more narrow FOV, and the tendency of the Z9 to grab the background and not let go. So, having to rack the manual focus ring back to MFD before each shot, just to be sure focus doesn't get stuck out in la-la land. Not the happiest about this, makes me pine for the D500PF days of that NOT happening, but I'll chalk it up to being part of the learning curve. But man... when this Z9+800PF hits target, it's absolute perfection. The clarity, sharpness, bokeh and noise quality are easily the best I've ever dealt with.

Here's my winter nemesis bird, the Dark-eyed Junco, who despite being common as pennies here, still prove to be tough to land a 'great' shot of (these I would consider "just ok"). You can see in these shots the sort of backgrounds I'm contending with, so that may be a large part of the reason for the Z9 having issues grabbing focus on it. The shots below, 1st one is SOOC aside from White Balance tweak (no noise reduction or sharpening applied), second shot has NR and Sharpening, as well as a slight crop and removal of a small branch at lower left of frame for appearance-sake.

Despite the 7" of snow we received last night, winter's grasp is slowly slipping. Birds are starting to grow their breeding plumage, like this male Bluebird here:

Image hosted by forum (1200629) © MatthewK THIS IS A LOW QUALITY PREVIEW. Please log in to see the good quality stuff.

MatthewK wrote in post #19491444
Despite the 7" of snow we received last night, winter's grasp is slowly slipping. Birds are starting to grow their breeding plumage, like this male Bluebird here:

Hosted photo: posted by MatthewK in
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forum: Nikon Lenses

Nice, did you get my PM reply to you?

Same Bluebird as my last photo, taken in my backyard where they have a bird house that they nest in each year. Though it’s late March, we keep getting snow storms, and it’s getting kinda old…

Well, I am not up in WI although Central PA can be glum for about 3 - 4 months in the winter (not this year though, only 2 inches total snowfall -- never put the plow blade on the tractor).

I spend the winter months evaluating new equipment, or figuring out new ways to use existing cameras and lenses, and evaluating new/different RAW processors. Picked up a Nikon 500mm PF last August and have never been able to get it to work with my Fuji cameras using the star-crossed Fringer NF-FX adapter. So, rather than continue to tilt at windmills I picked up a used D500 at a good price and have been working with that and the 500mm PF for the last month or so, getting ready for spring warblers. I have to say, I can see why the Nikon guys like this combo.

Do a lot of practicing on the over-wintering sparrows, woodpeckers, cardinals, etc. and document various random ducks that are in the pond at sunrise (no ice since JAN so we have more waterfowl).

One loud squawking Canada Goose with four Ring-necked Ducks.

You’ve made a great choice, the D500PF is the best combo I think I’ve ever used for birding. As good as the new Z tech is, part of me misses that solid, simple setup, and am really considering going back to it, but before that, I’m going to try out the Nikon 400 4.5 + 1.4TC and see if it can take the place of my 500PF.

We’ve had regular snow ever since the beginning of November, and while temps are starting to trend up now, it’s still forecasting snow for the next week, but luckily it’s warm enough that it is melting fairly quick. Wouldn’t be surprised though, if it snows into April. Ugh… wife and have made the decision to move next year because of how bleak these winters are.

Since I'm on the topic of Eastern Bluebirds, here's another shot I was able to capture out behind my property, of our resident male. Him and the missus have again claimed the nesting box on our back fence, so he's regularly patrolling the area for any other blokes that might want to swoop in to challenge him.

Here’s another early Spring visitor, the Common Grackle. Along with Robins, they descend upon us in hordes starting about mid-March, and at any given time, there’s 10-20 of them in my backyard. Despite being super common now, they’re quite wary of having their photo taken, which made for a great test for my recently received 1.4TC on the 800, giving me 1,120mm at f/9.

This is is uncropped, shot handheld at a distance of about 40ft. It’s eye is in the middle of a blink, so the blue part is it’s eyelid.

Birds are starting to arrive here, finally It's the 800PF's time to shine as the migrants start to roll through. I did get it out for a few hours this past weekend, and it did well catching shots of some Eastern Phoebes, allowing me to keep ample distance from a bird that is quite elusive to capture. So far, the lens is great to employ when you have open, clear lines of sight, but for me it's a difficult lens to use in tangled, more up-close environments, which is why I added the 400 4.5 into the lineup.

Now that it's kinda warming up, and Spring migration is starting, I'm trying to get out more in the mornings as the sun comes up, before the wife/kids wake up and prior to work getting busy, so that I have some time to myself. Nothing special to photograph as yet, just the usual winter birds like Dark-eyed Juncos and Black-capped Chickadees.

These are looking like my neck of the woods now; Grackles, Eastern Phoebes, American Robins, Eastern Bluebirds, Eastern Towhees, and the winter time holdovers: Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated Sparrows. Haven't seen many White-crowned Sparrows the last three years.

Best time of the year to watch the birds; the last week of April and the first 10 days of May I should see 70 or so species on my 67 acre plot.