jon_reisegg

<p>Hi all. <br> I have quite recently upgraded from 300/4 AFS to the 300/4 PF VR. Most shots handheld using TC 14II on a DX body. I see that there has been written a lot about VR not having an effect with faster shutter speeds that 1/500, and I'm wondering about the effect of this.<br> With the 300/4 AFS I normally used 1/1600 to 1/2500 to have a decent success rate for handheld shots, and the 300/4 PF seems to require the same regardless of VR on or off. But if I reduce the shutter speed to 1/250-1/500 with VR on, my surprise came. It seems to be an increase in success rate and generally sharper pictures, with sufficiently low shutter speeds.<br> It actually makes sense, if the VR improves stability with 4.5 steps and has less effect above 1/500, that 1/360 VR-on gives better stability than using 1/2000 regardless of VR. If this is correct I have to change my practice dramatically when selecting shutter speeds. <br> Any experience or guidance on above? I’m mostly shooting birds, insects and flowers, and trying to find the most optimal shutter speed. Above of course without any motion blur effects impacting the results. I have no systematic testing to justify the above, it is only a subjective and undocumented experience.</p>

<p>Hmm, interesting. My body is a D7000, and the difference in sound is quite significant. I cannot imagine it should be anything else than the aperture lever. But it seems like the DOF preview button does not use this. It is smooth and silent and seems only to come from the aperture blades.</p>

<p>When I use the 300mm f4/PF VR with TC-14EII, the exposure is much more noisy than without the TC-14. This is obviously due to the mechanical transfer of aperture setting through the TC-14, which does not meet any resistance in the PF lens. This is the only lens I have where I can use the TC-14 so I wonder if I easily can remove the physical aperture transfer mechanism and how I can do it (from which side and which screws), or is this risky business?</p>

<p>Just for info. Not a US model though, but my D7000 bought in Europe has serial starting with 6.</p>

<p>....that is what is so wonderful with this forum. They talk us away from the upgrade sickness and bring us down to the earth again after our dreams, which will follow almost every new announcement coming.</p>

<p>One final question, which I cannot find a clear answer to in all the good responses above. What will give me the best result if some sort of cropping is required, run the FX camera in crop mode, or do the corresponding cropping in post processing?</p>

<p>This is a marvelous forum, always lots a good advices from highly skilled colleges. Thanks a lot, seems like I can save my money for something better than FX.</p>

<p>I'm considering an upgrade from D7000 to D750 for primarily two reasons; autofocus in low light and noiseless high ISO performance. I'm mostly working with wildlife, birds, insects and flowers. The body upgrade is a significant cost for me, but also the lenses give me a concern. My Micro Nikkor 85mm 3.5G will for sure need an upgrade, but my Nikon 300mm 4D w/TC14II and Nikon 70-300 4.5-5.6G can be kept. However, keeping the two telephotos, will I loose the extra reach I gained by the 1.5 crop D7000? Of course I will, but as the D750 has more pixels, can I crop D750 pictures during post processing to the "D7000 reach" and get equal or better resolution/sharpness?<br> In other words, will I gain anything in the telephoto area from the higher pixel number in FX without investing in bigger lenses?</p>