What Nikon lens to get for wildlife photography? somewhat in depth here...

[Aloicious]

that is a great clean shot of the squirl, the optics look like they perform very well, even with the TC on it, is that shot the full frame, or a crop or anything? did you do any post work to it (sharpening, etc)?. very interesting. how is it to move around with in the field (I say field meaning perhaps an actual field, or just wherever heh)? do you find its size/weight to be much of a problem? with its focal length you probably can setup at a decent distance and not scare the wildlife too much while you focus and get everything how you want.

 

[matthewo]

i will have to go back and check my data on the shot. that was pretty much the first day with it. i was kinda just messing around i cannot say i put to much time into the shot, it was just a test in my backyard. i will say the lens has some CA issues in high contrast areas, i would say thats one of the biggest downsides to the lens. i did a little tweaking on it along with some sharpining, but you might see the purple in the white of the squirls eye. i heard with NX view, or NX capture, you can do much more with CA and this lens. personally i dont edit with those, i use photoshop and lightroom. but for the price i can live with a little CA, i think it really is only going to be a problem rare occasions.

i am almost possitive the camera (d800) was in dx crop mode or around 15mp. for that photo and may have cropped a little more. more about the lens. wide open with a teleconverter its a little lacking in the contrast department. stop down a bit like the squirl photo its much better. also just add a little contrast in editing if its ever a problem. i will say the lens is good wide open at F4 with no converter. even with the converter i was suprised that vignetting is almost non existant.

i think the lens is pretty easy to use. its really not too bad in size. remember its a prime 500mm. i ordered a new lens foot plate, as you can see my tripod foot setup really sucks. i found a 2 screw arca style foot that will work with my arca swiss knockoff ball head. personally i see no need for a special wimberley head, my ball head is rated for 40lbs, and the legs at least 15 or 20lbs. im very happy using my ballhead with the lens.

i even use it sometimes with no tripod. its hard to manual focus and hold the lens, but for a few shots, maybe a couple minutes without rest. i find it also not much worse then a tripod if you have a place to lean it on to steady and rest some of the weight. i was on a wildlife reserve the other day. and was driving my car and shooting with it out the window LOL. i was the only person in a huge reserve so i could basically stop in the middle of the road. cool cause i would one hand put the lens and camera in the passenger seat and grab it.

i think one of the hardest parts of the lens is, going to be the same with any super telephoto prime. finding the thing you want to take a picture of, at 500-700+mm its sometimes hard to spot your subject, deffently when its out of focus. a small bird is gone before you can spot it and get it in focus. i think i need to invest in one of those scope things that you put on your hot shoe, i think they are called hot shoe finders, mostly made for mirrorless cameras without viewfinders.

i will deffently keep adding more info, may start a thread on just a review, with more info for people thinking to try this old lens. i need more time to use the lens, and get the TC16A autofocus converter which is on order...