ac12
Been spending a lot of time on here!
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2017
- Messages
- 2,637
- Reaction score
- 911
- Location
- SF Bay Area, California, USA
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
If you need to reach out,
- My first option would be for a longer lens
- But at a certain point, you will not be able to afford the $$,$$$ for a LONG lens. So there is a practical/affordable limit to how long a lens you can get.
- Manual Focus (MF) alternative: Because the $1,400 cost of a 500mm AF lens (Nikon 200-500mm) was way beyond my limit, I went with a used MF Nikon 500mm mirror lens. The used MF 500mm lens was 10% of the cost of the Nikon 200-500m zoom lens. I was not going to pay $1,400 for a lens that I would use only very occasionally, like less than 1/2% of the time. I would rather put that $ into a 70-200 f/4, which I would use much more. Your priorities may be different than mine.
- Con: I cannot follow focus on FAST moving subjects. My hit rate shooting tennis was less than 20%. So MF is fine for stationary or slow moving subjects, but not for fast moving subjects.
- BTW, I have a MF 800mm mirror lens, for when the 500mm lens is not long enough.
- If you want a LONG lens, there are options to put a dslr onto small astronomical reflector telescopes.
- You can get some seriously LONG glass here.
- Con are: Manual focus. The telescope and mounts are BULKY and not simple to transport or setup. The mounts are NOT made to track FAST moving subjects, like flying birds or surfers or similar. Some of these astronomical teles are somewhat fragile, compared to a SLR lens. Like a mirror lens, the aperture is fixed, so you expose by ISO level and shutter speed.
- You can get some seriously LONG glass here.
- My second option would be a crop factor body, in place of the FF body.
- Or a FF body with a crop function.
- In my case, since I currently use a DX crop body, #2 is NA, as I am already here.
- Use a tele-converter.
- The problem is you need a GOOD tele-converter $$$ to maintain image quality. Not a cheap $30 one, which will degrade the image quality.
- There are some lens/tele-converter matched pairs, and if so that pair is what you should get. Don't substitute.
- Tele-converters will cost you f-stops. Once you go beyond f/5.6 or 8, some AF do not work, it is too dark to function and it may be too dark to manually focus.