Greylag goose in flight

goooner · Mar 27, 2017

Took my Tammy out in the nice weather we're having. These shots are sharp enough I guess. Still haven't fine tuned it mind. As always C&C more than welcome.

#1

#2

Edit: Title should read Greylag goose, could one of the mods please change it.

ZombiesniperJr · Mar 27, 2017

Nice set you are able to change the title you don't need mods to do it

kap55 · Mar 27, 2017

Real nice shots.

zombiesniper · Mar 27, 2017

Very nice.

Derrel · Mar 27, 2017

goooner said:
Took my Tammy out in the nice weather we're having. These shots are sharp enough I guess. Still haven't fine tuned it mind. As always C&C more than welcome.

That sounds kind of ambivalent, the part I put in bold, the sharp enough I guess, and then the comment about fine tuning the lens. I see there's a bit of wingtip blur on the first shot, but the second shot has crisp flight feathers. The blurring on the wingtip of shot #1 shows that at that distance from the camera (with a 280mm lens length used), even the 1/1000 second does not totally stop the fastest movement from rendering with a small bit of blur. I looked at the EXIF on Flickr, but not sure if there was image stabilization turned on or not. But neither shot looks absolutely, totally, critically tack-sharp to me.

Diagnosing optical issues is tricky, and the shots are not full-size, so it's not possible to say for sure if the focus is 100% on, but I think it is on, or very close, but it could be that the flight speed of the bird and the lens-tracking speed are not quite perfect, and you are at CLOSE range, where the movement speed of the bird across the frame is a big, big deal. If you were panning too rapidly, or too slowly, or if the camera was stopped for a few milliseconds as you shot, the effect looks a lot like misssed focus, yet sublty different. Same with any kind of VR/IS type feedback loop; leaving the VR/IS/OS on at 1/1000 second can cause a very weird softening of images that were definitely, definitely IN-focus when shot. I know that I ruined many,many shots one summer by leaving VR ON on my Nikon 70-200 and 80-400 VR, and I was utterly perplexed at all of the just-missed-the-focus shots I kept getting. Turns out it wasn't a focus issue, but a weird VR being left on at fast shutter speeds issue.

Not trying to diminish these, but if you're thinking it's a fine-tune issue, do consider that it might be one of these other two issues. The closer to the camera a moving object is, the more critical ALL forms of movement are: camera tracking speed, target's travelling speed, and perfect subject/target synchronicity. IF for example you're tracking too slowly, or if you stop the panning movement, that flying duck is going to be moving VERY fast and fairly far, and represented on a sensor that's only 24 millimeters across. If the VR system causes a feedback loop at 1/500 and faster speeds, then 1/1000 could cause blurring that's a pixel, or two, or three wide, and with the D7200's high resolution, you'll see that reflected in the photos.

MSnowy · Mar 27, 2017

Nice set!

waday · Mar 27, 2017

I read that as "in fight", so I'm disappointed. I wanted to see some feathers flying!

Ok, I'm not disappointed, these are nice!

goooner · Mar 27, 2017

Derrel said:
goooner said:

Took my Tammy out in the nice weather we're having. These shots are sharp enough I guess. Still haven't fine tuned it mind. As always C&C more than welcome.

Click to expand...

That sounds kind of ambivalent, the part I put in bold, the sharp enough I guess, and then the comment about fine tuning the lens. I see there's a bit of wingtip blur on the first shot, but the second shot has crisp flight feathers. The blurring on the wingtip of shot #1 shows that at that distance from the camera (with a 280mm lens length used), even the 1/1000 second does not totally stop the fastest movement from rendering with a small bit of blur. I looked at the EXIF on Flickr, but not sure if there was image stabilization turned on or not. But neither shot looks absolutely, totally, critically tack-sharp to me.

Diagnosing optical issues is tricky, and the shots are not full-size, so it's not possible to say for sure if the focus is 100% on, but I think it is on, or very close, but it could be that the flight speed of the bird and the lens-tracking speed are not quite perfect, and you are at CLOSE range, where the movement speed of the bird across the frame is a big, big deal. If you were panning too rapidly, or too slowly, or if the camera was stopped for a few milliseconds as you shot, the effect looks a lot like misssed focus, yet sublty different. Same with any kind of VR/IS type feedback loop; leaving the VR/IS/OS on at 1/1000 second can cause a very weird softening of images that were definitely, definitely IN-focus when shot. I know that I ruined many,many shots one summer by leaving VR ON on my Nikon 70-200 and 80-400 VR, and I was utterly perplexed at all of the just-missed-the-focus shots I kept getting. Turns out it wasn't a focus issue, but a weird VR being left on at fast shutter speeds issue.

Not trying to diminish these, but if you're thinking it's a fine-tune issue, do consider that it might be one of these other two issues. The closer to the camera a moving object is, the more critical ALL forms of movement are: camera tracking speed, target's travelling speed, and perfect subject/target synchronicity. IF for example you're tracking too slowly, or if you stop the panning movement, that flying duck is going to be moving VERY fast and fairly far, and represented on a sensor that's only 24 millimeters across. If the VR system causes a feedback loop at 1/500 and faster speeds, then 1/1000 could cause blurring that's a pixel, or two, or three wide, and with the D7200's high resolution, you'll see that reflected in the photos.

Thank you for the info Derrel. VR was off, I'm still learning with this lens but have had some issues with sharpness, I need practise in panning, upping the SS will probably be another option to increase my margin of error. I bought the tap-in console and Reikan Focal software to tune the lens. If I manage to do it properly it would be like owning 4 'prime' lenses. Problem is that I prefer going outside and shooting when the light is good rather than spending a few hours and many grey hairs fine tuning a lens. Will see if I can get it done this weekend.