Nikon Wednesday 2015: #48

<p>Some shots from my recent trip to Asia. These are from Guilin, China. I'd guess that there is v. little chance that I'd stumble on these circumstances if I was part of a tour.</p>

<p>This guy played with such an emotion, that it was an absolute pleasure to listen to....and I hang around there for nearly 1.5hrs. The color of the fishkies just bring my monitor alive.....and Rte 66 sticker was highly unusual....and so was the Caddy.</p>

<p>Les</p><div></div>

<p>n/t</p><div></div>

<p>Looks like the third one will have to wait till next week....the system is not allowing me to upload.</p><div></div>

<p><a href="/photodb/user?user_id=3888823">Rodger Baker</a>, I love the color gradation of the drink inside the glass. Is it alcoholic?</p>

<p>Yes, Rodger great shot of the tropical drink - looks like a great travel moment :) Also, I love Dark and Stormies!</p>

<p>This is a dredge working off of the beach at Robert Moses State Park.</p><div></div>

<p>Shun and Chip,<br>

Yes, the twin colors are the ginger beer below, and the dark rum above. Was a little rainy this time of year, but I thought this shot could at least capture the ideal relaxation of an island visit. </p>

<p>Ginger beer and dark rum, no wonder the colors are so nice. I can almost taste it by staring at your image. :-)</p>

<p>A bit of lucky timing gave me a decent shot of the moon and a couple of trees</p><div></div>

<p>Love is hard</p><div></div>

<p><img src="/photo/18132306" alt="" />Free wifi in the park" - took it in February 2015 in Tampa Florida just before talking a cruise. This gentleman is from Ottawa Canada. The cruise boat first stop was Guatemala.</p><div></div>

<p><img src="/photo/18130320" alt="" />Sunrise in Tampa seaport (Florida) at the end of a cruise.</p><div></div>

<p>Dieter, have you tried using the 200-500mm with a gimbal mount? I tried to set it up with the Wimberley Sidekick (on a ball head) and mounted the lens on the left side (the D810 body grip was too close to the Kirk foot if I mounted the lens to the gimbal on the right side). For this I used the Kirk NC-200-500 with LS-2. Zooming changes the length of the lens and the balance point shifts so that it is easiest to just leave the zoom at a fixed focal length, balance it for that, and then use it like it were a prime. It seemed to work well. I am planning on shooting some airplanes with it when I get a day with some daylight. ;-) I would imagine this configuration (or better yet, a proper Wimberley Head) would work well also for bird in flight shots. I think the lens is just too long and heavy to use hand held, but that's just my personal opinion. I agree the use of AF controls that require two hands to operate is not possible when hand holding this lens (but if you mount a strap onto the lens foot, you might be able to hang the lens + body from that strap and operate the two-handed controls. Or you have to put down the lens and adjust the controls which is awkward. However, in my opinion this lens is mostly for monopod and tripod use.</p>

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<p>Capturing birds in flight with the D7100/200-500 combo has so far been an exercise in frustration - not only is it quite hard to find a bird in the viewfinder when zoomed to 500mm - and then to keep it in there; on top of that is the waiting for the AF to acquire focus</p>

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<p>Dieter is experiencing some of the same thing I did about a month and half ago.</p>

<p>500mm is long and in conjunction with a DX body, when you hand hold with so much magnification, it becomes difficult to locate a flying bird and keeping it inside the frame. While it is very much hand holdable for 30 minutes to an hour, I too feel that it is best to use the 200-500 from a tripod. I have the full Wimbeley that I bought in 2006 or so in conjunction with the 200-400mm/f4. The 200-500mm/f5.6 works great on the Wimbeley.</p>

<p>The 80-400mm AF-S VR remains to be the better lens for birds in flight. The ability to zoom to 80mm is a big plus when a large birds approaches closer.</p>

<p>I captured the image below with the 200-500mm @ 500mm, f5.6, 1/1600 sec and ISO 180 on the D750. That combo gave me quite a few out-of-focus results in that occasion, but this one is sharp.</p><div></div>

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<p>Dieter, have you tried using the 200-500mm with a gimbal mount?</p>

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<p>I do have one but have not used it yet - the lens is still within the return period and I am trying to avoid marring the tripod foot by attaching things to it. I very much prefer hand holding for BIF over the use of a gimbal mount - but the lens will definitely spend some good amount of time on a tripod.</p>

 

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<p>500mm is long and in conjunction with a DX body, when you hand hold with so much magnification, it becomes difficult to locate a flying bird and keeping it inside the frame.</p>

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<p>I have done it before with an AF-S 300/4 with TC-17EII mounted - effective length is 510mm, and it's f/6.7. I had hoped that the 200-500/5.6 would be an improvement over the rather slow and sometimes unreliable AF I got with the 300 combo (on a D200 and then D300) when tracking birds in flight - but that doesn't seem to be the case. Optically, the 200-500 is several steps above the 300/TC-17EII combo and AF performance on static subjects has been fine on both the D7100 and D810.</p>