Chickadee (D800, new version 80-400, TC 17 E11)

[Don Kondra]

7360 wide cropped to ~ 4400 wide (4/3's ratio) and downsized to 1000 wide.

1/2000, iso 2000, F/9.5, Kuso says 650mm, no noise treatment.

I actually plan to use the lens/teleconverter primarily on the D7100 but wanted to see how the D800 did with slightly less reach.

Cheers, Don

 

[matthewo]

interesting, does AF work? I thought the 1.4 could work with that lens, but didn't know how well the 1.7 would. looks like it has some feather detail.

like for my 500mm f4, I use the 1.7 for small birds in my backyard where I can control my distance from them and fill the frame, and use flash. variables controlled it seems to do pretty well. I have yet to have very good consistent results using it for active birds with the d7100 and d800 bodies. I have a friend that uses it with a Nikon d4 and gets pretty good results so he says, but then again the d4 sensor is less demanding, and has better AF, that maybe why it works so well.

the thing you have to ask yourself is it better to just crop

 

[D-B-J]

IQ looks pretty compromised, if you ask me. Not that shooting at 650mm is easy, but the image doesn't seem tack sharp like I'd expect from a D800.

Best,
Jake

 

[Don Kondra]

interesting, does AF work? I thought the 1.4 could work with that lens, but didn't know how well the 1.7 would. looks like it has some feather detail.

Seems to work just fine, even when I tested it in a dimly lit room.

the thing you have to ask yourself is it better to just crop

You may not know that I've recently sold off my Olympus kit and moved to Nikon. So it's early days for me with a D7100 and a D800.

My original plan (and it still is) was to use the D7100 for wildlife and the D800 in the studio. But of course, I had to see how well the D800 would perform if it had the same "reach" as the 80-400 on the D7100.

So far the jury is out on whether or not to crop or use the 1.7 on the D800. Field trials will have to wait for warmer weather but it may simply come down to the D7100 being a better choice except for high iso noise performance.

IQ looks pretty compromised, if you ask me. Not that shooting at 650mm is easy, but the image doesn't seem tack sharp like I'd expect from a D800.

Best,
Jake

In the first image I played around with bringing out as much detail on the eye as possible, possibly to the detriment of the rest of the image....

You can see the light is coming from the right and there is a shadow of the little stump on the birds head. So basically the eye is turned away from the light and is also in shadow.

Anywho, this is closer to my normal editing....

Cheers, Don

 

[randyphotoforum]

IQ looks fine to me and is quite a surprise considering you used a TC

 

[Don Kondra]

IQ looks fine to me and is quite a surprise considering you used a TC

Thank you Randy !

I'm quite pleased considering it was shot hand held through a window and under less than ideal lighting conditions....

From my reading of various reviews, etc. it has been suggested that the TC 1.7 costs between 15 - 20% in sharpness.

Cheers, Don

 

[Bryan Pereira90 13]

I like it especially given the circumstances, good work! I find there is something soft about it though maybe its just the lighting, could be the TC and this particular lens being pushed to hard

 

[Don Kondra]

Shallow DOF perhaps ?

Shot wide open....

Cheers, Don