Finally had some fun with a Juvi Red Tail

[snowbear]

Great, as usual. I'm loving #1 . . . and #5 . . . no, wait, #4 . . . yeah, #4 and 2 and 3 and 5. Oh, and the dog, too.

 

[matthewo]

I don't know if I've ever used matrix metering on the 800. have you tried spot or center weight? I'm on spot most of the time.

Yeah i use spot sometimes, i should probably use center weighted more as i dont like spot much for wildlife cause i will usually grab a bright spot or dark spot on the bird and throw my exposure off.

I guess thats why i like matrix cause if i have the light in a decent spot it usually is pretty accurate with exposure and if anything is a little off i can fix it with the very dynamic and forgiving d800 raw files.

But manual mode still works great for me with auto iso and using exposure comp when needed. I usually underexpose at least .3 but usually .7 and sometimes 1 or more. Nikon can recover shadows great, much better then highlights and colors are better under-exposed as well as birds blow out easy when they get in the light.

 

[coastalconn]

by the way I like what the wings look like in #4. it has the feeling of motion. unfortunately the hawk's head isn't that sharp but it's still nice.

LOL, can't win them all.. I agree about #4. I was just too close. I do wonder if the D300 would have kept focus on the head though...

for wildlife I'm usually in spot probably like 80% of the time, but occasionally center weighted (I'm more in center weighted when shooting my automotive stuff though), it kindof depends on the situation. IIRC I've got centerweighted at 12mm. I tried matrix on my past bodies and never was really happy with it, but everyone has preferences, if it works for someone, than who's to argue with results. and I shoot a little differently than I did back then, so maybe it's worth another try.

that is a good 6400ISO image too. I can use 6400 on the 800 if I don't crop, the downsizing of the image to web size (or even moderate to small print size) helps combat the noise. but if it's cropped much than I'm just not happy with it at that level, its borderline the same at 3200 too. my normal max limit I put on is 2500ISO.

I was really surprised. I saw the dog and the first pass I missed I was at ISO 2000 and wide open my ss was like 1/320. I was like, hey this camera goes higher than the D300 I should give it a shot. I was pretty shocked when I opened the image in LR. I set white balance (the D7100 sucks at white balance), I cropped it down to 4600x3700 (roughly) from 6x4. I lowered contrast to -7, set the blacks and put NR up to 15.

Great, as usual. I'm loving #1 . . . and #5 . . . no, wait, #4 . . . yeah, #4 and 2 and 3 and 5. Oh, and the dog, too.

LOL, thanks

When I went back to look at the dog exif, I noticed this shot which I missed from today... This is with the 2x TC at F8. This is the sharpest I have gotten with the TC @600...

Hawk Pose 2x TC by krisinct, on Flickr