Got a Nikon? Share your thoughts and photos here or ask a question! (III)

Holy smokes, you totally nailed those shots!

^^ those are great.

Hardcore wrote in post #15823295
Went out this morning after testing my new 300mm F2.8 VRII last night. Was lucky to happen accross my 2 eagle buddies on the river. I try not to bother them when they are perched, but this guy jumped off and flew right by me. He must have been curious.

I had the 2x extender on and my heart skipped a beat as I thought he would be too close. These were taken at F6.3 @ 600mm. Had I had a zoom on, I probably would have quickly zoomed out due as I'm not very experienced with birds in flight, thus loosing a lot of resolution.

Great job getting the shot!

Thanks everyone! I was happy to see that it tracked the eagle very well. Took about 8 consecutive shots and all of them were in focus.

I went out of my way to AF fine tune my Sigma 35 on my D800 today. I never bothered AF fine tuning anything on my D800 because I never had any issues. I tested it as a -1, pretty darn close considering all the internet complaints about AF accuracy.

dgrPhotos wrote in post #15823668
I went out of my way to AF fine tune my Sigma 35 on my D800 today. I never bothered AF fine tuning anything on my D800 because I never had any issues. I tested it as a -1, pretty darn close considering all the internet complaints about AF accuracy.

Mine needs around -10. It nails focus all the time with center point. Outside points are a whole different story. Backfocus galore!

Hardcore wrote in post #15823295
Went out this morning after testing my new 300mm F2.8 VRII last night. Was lucky to happen accross my 2 eagle buddies on the river. I try not to bother them when they are perched, but this guy jumped off and flew right by me. He must have been curious.

I had the 2x extender on and my heart skipped a beat as I thought he would be too close. These were taken at F6.3 @ 600mm. Had I had a zoom on, I probably would have quickly zoomed out due as I'm not very experienced with birds in flight, thus loosing a lot of resolution.]

Sweet shots !! that 300mm with the 2x holds some nice detail.

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Damn, that 300mm nailed the shot! Really sharp!

rick_reno wrote in post #15822604
I"ve looked at a lot of sample shots on Dpreview, FM, Nikonians and Nikon cafe, Lensrentals, etc, many people have been posting photos and various comparisons. I've decided a better route for me would be the 300 f4 with a TC. The tests I have seen comparing this combination with the 80-400 indicate very minimal IQ improvement with the 80-400, certainly not enough of a bump to justify the cost difference.
Another combo I'm considering is the 300 2.8 with a TC, I've already got the TC, the big 300 does very well with TC's and the cost difference between a used or refurb 300 isn't a huge hit over the 80-400.
The 80-400 looks pretty good, but not at the current price point. I've read people don't expect the price to drop on it very fast, it is reportedly selling quite well.

Looks like we're all thinking the same way here. I was looking into the 300/f4 and TC too, but then they just brought the new 80-400 out, and for a zoom to have (slightly) better optics, and of course the zoom... very tempting. I think I'm going to see if the price does go down because it is overpriced at the minute.
Of course at 300mm the 80-400 can't compete, I saw a review saying 300mm was its weakest point.

A Shootin Mistake

I went shooting last week with my Dad and brother in law. As usual my camera was along. My dad picked up my D600 and took a few photos, but there was a problem.

The previous night I was doing some astrophotography so my camera was set up with a high ISO (4000) and was set to Aperture priority. So the camera shot at 1/4000 sec. at 4000 ISO and F5.6. Of course, EVERYTHING was blown out. I could barely see an image, mosly just bright white frames.

I decided to see what I could do with them anyway. I pulled the exposure as low as I could go and then pulled the highlights all the way down.

After doing this, I kind of like what I got out of them. They definitely aren't anywhere close to being correct, but I think I might like to use this effect in some different shooting situations.

It turned out to be a happy mistake. I need to keep this in mind for some different shoots and see what I can come up with.

Here's a photo my Dad took of me getting ready to shoot my 300 Black Out.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/55229792@N03/8​645935611/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/55229792@N03/8​645935843/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …/55229792@N03/8​646159527/

45-50 megs isn't too bad. How are they to process? Like, a dual-core i7 processor with 8 GB?

nphsbuckeye wrote in post #15825206
45-50 megs isn't too bad. How are they to process? Like, a dual-core i7 processor with 8 GB?

I have a dual-core i7 with 8GB, and it isn't optimal. It can handle the files, but it does get a bit sluggish at times.

What do you use? Lightroom? Photoshop with a few layers?

nphsbuckeye wrote in post #15825206
45-50 megs isn't too bad. How are they to process? Like, a dual-core i7 processor with 8 GB?

Most of my processing is done on a 4 core I7 with 20 gb memory. It's fine, I don't detect any issues with the system.

nphsbuckeye wrote in post #15825269
What do you use? Lightroom? Photoshop with a few layers?

Lightroom 4, and I have the Nik plugins as well. Trying to open the Nik plugins takes a little while. I have been considering building a PC, because trying to edit on my 13" MacBook Pro isn't the greatest, even with a big IPS monitor hooked up to it.