Nikon 600mm f5.6 Manual with moving subjects

<p>Hello,<br /> For shooting people in an outdoors procession that I will not be able to get close to, I will be using this heavy lens that has only manual focus. <br /> I am not used to manual lenses, so have begun practicing using this lens and getting used to all the aspects.<br /> At the same time following are my thoughts on the settings that might help in achieving focus.<br /> Data: The body is a D3s, the procession will be in bright sunlight with people who will be walking or dancing. I will be just a common spectator at a distance (no special photographer stands or facilities) and getting closer may not be an option. Will use a monopod.<br /> Here's the plan:<br /> 1. To reduce motion blur of the subject the shutter speed would be set at 1/800<br /> 2. To ensure that the subject is in focus even if the subject moves a bit in that time, the setting would be f16 or f22, to provide a thicker focal plane.<br /> 3. So if flexibility is needed, ISO will be the variable to play with, given that the D3s doesn't result in noise until really high ISO.<br /> Am not too sure if this is the way to go about solving the problem of 'bright sunlight - moving subject - distance' and so would appreciate any feedback - particularly if I am totally wrong in the logic or if I am missing something altogether.<br /> thanks in advance<br /> (p.s. am no expert in photography - its all self learnt and my ignorance is far greater than my knowledge in this field)</p>

<p>i like your plan jaina. set two of the three variables to constants and then use the one which gives you the most leeway. i dont think f/22 would be necessary, and shooting at that narrow an aperture will result in diffraction which could rob your shots of sharpness. i personally probably wouldn't go lower than f/13; if anything i'd boost shutter speed if necessary. depth of field is less of a problem than lens vibration; at 1/800 motion blur shouldn't be an issue, but if the lens vibrates excessively you could conceivably need a faster shutter. if any nikon body can reap good results with that lens, it's the D3s. just remember to focus just a bit in front of your intended target so they walk into the shot. as far as ISO, i would say don't use auto-ISO and dont raise it higher than you have to.</p>

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<p>Unsure of the weight of your lens, but if you plan on shooting more than 10 minutes or so, you might consider using a tripod over your monopod. The *steadiness* of your long lens will be a factor in getting good images. The bright sunshine will either give your faces dark eyes or the squinty face outlook.</p>

<p>If you focus on a point, then wait for the person to get at that spot, the focus issue may be easier. You may need to test a few shots at f16 or f22 to make sure the lens is doing what you expect it to do. Usually, f11 or so will make for better images on a digital sensor....f22 may be a problem.</p>

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<p>Well, here's what I would do...</p>

<p>Rent a d7000 (more MP and Dx) and a 70-300mm or 80-400mm VR. This solution will have AF, VR and allow you to be more mobile...not to mention zooming:)</p>

<p>The FX d3s is great but not really advantageous for day light tele shooting...</p>

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<p>Jaina, you have it absolutely right. Stopping all the way down to f/22 (or f/32 if you are using the newest 600 f/5.6, or f/64 if you are using the rare 600mm lens head) is a good way to prevent sharpness loss due to mis-focusing. It's hard to manually focus those long lenses.</p>

<p>You will absolutely NOT have to worry about diffraction robbing sharpness. The amount of diffraction is dependent only on the absolute size of the aperture. The f/number is the relative aperture, and is relevant for luminance, but not for diffraction. A 600mm lens at f/22 would have about as much diffractive effects as a 50mm lens at f/1.8 (i.e. none). You have to worry about diffraction most with wide-angle lenses. With super-telephotos it's never an issue. And with the D3s you will not have to worry about the ISO. If the scene is mostly bright anyway, even ISO 6400 will look fine. </p>

<p>If you are focusing in bring sunlight, you might want to bring a dark cloth (at least I find I need one if I try to use my 800mm ED lens head in bright sun). You may be able to use the focus indicator of your D3s, at least with the center focus point. If you use a tripod (a very steady tripod) you could use Live View to obtain better focusing. On a monopod or a flimsy tripod the image will dance around when zoomed with Live View.</p>

<p>Good luck! Let us know how it goes.</p>

<p>Do *not* listen to recommendations of stopping this lens all the way down. You *will* record suboptimal images due to the much enhanced diffraction plus the slower shutter speed(s) caused by the small aperture(s). Even at f/32 will the depth of field be surprisingly narrow.</p>

<p>I'd say set the lens to f/5.6 or at most f/8, and practice manual focusing. This will be easier by putting the lens on a decent tripod. Being a novice long-lens shooter and using a monopod is a challenge to put it mildly.</p>

<p>Your assumptions appear to be good. With a bit of practice, it shouldn't be all that difficult to successfully track a slow moving subject with a lens of this focal length and get spectacular results with your D3S - The large viewfinder makes MF pretty easy with a 600mm lens. As DOF increases quite a bit (is actually surprisingly deep) when stopped down to the range you intend to shoot at, you will get great results even if your focus is off.</p>

<p>I use the 600mm f4 version (AIS). Based on the results I get with it, I believe that your lens can easily handle f16 and f22 and still deliver exceptional IQ. At least mine does. Am I correct?</p>

<p>I happen to take these test shots earlier this month to learn more about the DOF and IQ of my 600mm f4 AIS lens. I focused manually on the bench. It was about 600 feet away. The seawall on the far side of the Intracoastal waterway is probably 200' or more behind the bench. I am guessing that the palm tree on the right is about 100' in front of the bench.</p>

<p>The shot on the right was shot at 1/1000, f22, ISO 4000. The middle shot was taken at f11, 1/1000, ISO 1000. The left shot was at 1/1000, f4, ISO 200. RAW files were opened in CS5 with no processing at all.</p><div></div>

<p>Detail is surprisingly good even when stopped down to f22 and even at high ISO.</p><div></div>

<p>I apologize, I made a major error in my previous statement. I could blame it on the late hour, but I just wasn't thinking it through clearly. Although it's true that diffraction is dependent on the absolute size of the aperture (and f/22 in a 600mm lens has a diameter of more than 27mm, almost exactly the same size as the aperture of a 50mm lens at f/1.8), as focal length increases, the distance to the focal plane also increases, which means that the Airy disk will spread out as well. To first order, the compensation would be exact, and we can think of diffraction depending only on the f/number. The real invariant quantity, however, is the numerical aperture, not the f/number, and while they are generally thought of as inversely proportional, this first order approximation may be off quite a bit for a long telephoto lens. From both optics theory and from my own experience with my long lenses, I'm not surprised by Elliot's test, but what I wrote before was just wrong. Sorry! The details of the design of each lens becomes important here, and so you shouldn't use small apertures (and expect sharp results) before doing a test like Elliot's with your own lens. </p>

<p>I have to ask first, how close can you get to the event and why can't you get to the midst of it? It may be better to negotiate access rather that shoot from very far away. Of course, the long lens adds variety to the coverage but still most likely the best shots will be from close.</p>

<p>I tend to think that with long lenses, visually the image looks best at the widest aperture and one stop down (in this case this would be f/5.6-f/8). If you stop down a lot the people at different depths will be stacked on top of each other and there is no clear visual separation between them; many will be "almost sharp but not quite". So I think it's best to select the aperture so that one person or one person is just within the depth of field (whole person) and then the next row will be clearly out of focus. I would base the decision of aperture mainly on visual attractiveness of the final result. As to focusing ... well ... take lots of pictures and I'm sure some will be in focus. ;-) I would use a solid tripod and an even better head. It will relieve you from the duty of holding onto the lens just to keep it pointed towards the subject and concentrate on focus, composition, and timing.</p>

<p>As to the D3s, well that's what the long-lens wielding pro photojournalists use these days, so it should be pretty good. What I like about my D3 is the consistency of good results.</p>

<p>Hello and thanks everyone for the inputs.<br>

<strong>To summarise the suggestions:</strong><br>

1. Set the f/ number to between 5.6 and 11.<br>

2. Use a tripod<br>

3. Practice the manual focus<br>

<strong>Some questions that arise from the answers :</strong><br>

1. What would an aberration caused by diffraction look like? Any examples - so that I know what to watch out for?<br>

2. Eric / Jerry: about focusing on an anticipatory spot and waiting for the subject to arrive there, I tried it with a girl on a swing and missed the focus on every single shot. Maybe its because ti was my first day with the lens, or that she was too fast. What in theory seemed intuitive to do, couldn't be executed well, because the anticipatory focusing was at a point that was only 'air' ... totally devoid of an object...so I couldn't "see" if the focus was okay or not. Any way around this? In the next round, I tried to move the focus ring just a little more in the correct direction and 'hoped' for the best. But hoping and guessing is only getting me shots like the girl on the swing that I have attached!<br>

3. Jerry : The direct sunshine is probably a given - can't change that. So I will have to do the best I can. I am reading up on ways to deal with this high contrast setting.<br>

4. Samuel : What should I do with the black cloth ....I haven't the faintest idea ...<br>

<strong>And some answers to some questions that arose:</strong><br>

a. I will be attending cultural festival which will have a street procession as well as street performances. Going by my past experience in Nagaland, while the tribal dancers were actually performing, it was not possible to get close to them without being disruptive and disrespectful and coming in the way of dancers and other guests. I did not take any long lens on that trip and lost out on good performance shots.<br>

This time, I plan to set aside separate time slots for the various kinds of shot-taking - and definitely some of it will have to be shots of the whole group taken from a distance, for which the 600 should be handy.<br>

Ikka, I will also be carrying other lenses which will be used for close-ups and mid range shots.<br>

b. The lens weighs about 3kg over 15 inches ....I am all of 5 feet 2inches ....so the difficulty is obvious but it is worth taking the trouble to overcome the heartache I suffered last year at Nagaland. The reason for the monopod is that it will be easier to move around with it than a tripod ... but I think in the next few days i will work on my 'carrying' skills as well :)<br>

Bjorn, thank you for stressing the need for the tripod - i was trying to be foolishly brave.<br>

Elliot, thanks for the tests, the High ISO is not so bad. But there certainly is noise in my images that are attached.<br>

Ikka, considering my first day results, your advice of taking lots of pictures to increase the probability of at least some being in focus seems to be very very practical!<br>

Leslie, I will be in India and renting is not an option.<br>

Finally, the images that looked okay on my little camera screen, do not look half as sharp as those usually resulting from AF lenses like the 85 1.4. Maybe its too early to tell whether it is just my terrible MF skills ...<br>

Thank you everyone....</p>

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<p>more images</p><div></div>

<p>more</p><div></div>

<p>My suggestion is actually to shoot at f16 or f22. That lens is capable of excellent IQ even stopped down beyond f/8 and f11. Since you are shooting outdoors, you should be able to maintain reasonable ISO. As far as shutter speed, would suggest 1/400 or 1/500 maximum for the type of shots you are taking <strong>provided </strong>you are using a tripod. At 600mm without VR, a tripod is basically mandatory at most typical shutter speeds.</p>

<p>As far as noise goes, if you shoot RAW and have good post processing software and technique, you should be able to get fantastic results at ISO 6400 and well beyond with the D3S, especially outdoors. Although the ISO will likely never get that high in bright light even with the lens stopped down.</p>

<p>With regards to your concerns about sharpness, you need to test your lens to insure it is giving sharp images under controlled conditions (using a tripod, a stationary subject and fast shutter speeds (1/1000 or higher)). The issue could be with your technique. Or with the lens. Or both. Use magnified Live View when doing the test to insure manual focus accuracy.</p>

<p>In spite of its age and lack of modern coating (Nano coating, for example) my approximately 30 year old lens is as sharp as any I have. I recently bought a 400mm f3.5 AIS and had to return it because the image quality was terrible wide open. There was definitely a problem with that particular lens as the results were not normal. Keep in mind that if you are shooting hand held, it will be difficult to get high quality images at any moderate shutter speed.</p>

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<p>Elliot, armed with these tips, I will try the lens out in a more rigorous way with a tripod, tomorrow with stationary subjects. At the end of that exercise we will at least have isolated the two factors - lens performance and my skill (or lack of it) with MF.<br>

Thanks</p>

<p>Not being familiar with this particular lens I can't comment on the appropriate f-stop to use, but here are a few suggestions based on my general experience using manual focus teles in the 400-600mm range on DSLRs:</p>

<p>With 3 kilos of lens to support on a DSLR that lacks sensor stabilization I would definitely opt for a tripod rather than a monopod - unless I was reasonably confident there are walls, benches or other solid objects in the surroundings that I could let the lens sit on stably for at least part of the time. The reasons are twofold:</p>

<p>Firstly, with a tripod you can accurately prefocus to a certain distance or landmark along the path of the procession, and then sit and wait until interesting people or floats approach the prefocus point. At that moment don't change the focus but instead let them traverse the prefocus point while you take a series of shots. This will ensure that at least a few shots will be exactly in focus on the costumes or displays of greatest interest. If you have a wired or wireless release and will not be too packed in the crowd of spectators, then this technique will work especially well to avoid vibrations (you don't even have to look through the viewfinder or at the live view rear LCD while you're shooting).</p>

<p>By the way: to set up prefocus do not trust your own eye and the optical viewfinder, especially on DSLRs which typically have much smaller and darker viewfinders than 35mm SLRs. Instead, use live view or take a few test shots well beforehand & verify from those shots that focus is exactly at the point where you want it to be - or if it isn't then adjust focus and verify again from live view / more test shots.</p>

<p>Secondly, if something comes by along a trajectory that you didn't have time to set up prefocus for, what I would do is swing the lens at the unexpected point of interest and focus manually by eye (no time for test shots) then take a succession of 5 to 10 shots in continuous shooting mode while tweaking the focus back and forth repeatedly over the main subject between distances where the focus is clearly just ahead of that subject and where it is clearly just past it. Half or two-thirds of the shots will be off and discardable, but the rest will be spot-on and sharp, provided there are no issues with vibration as you're tweaking focus and keeping the shutter clicking.</p>

<p>With either technique I would NOT set f-stop to the highest value the lens can tolerate without noticeable diffraction issues. Instead I would maximize shutter speed and iso to a combination that ensures vibration issues and motion blur of the subject(s) are kept to an absolute minimum - unless of course you're aiming intentionally for a motion blur effect.</p>

<p>In terms of mobility with a tripod + big lens combination: make sure you have practiced how to move around with it. If carrying is too difficult with the lens mounted on the tripod head, then practice rapid un- & remounting as well as carrying lens in one hand & tripod in the other. Also make sure that you have an appropriately sturdy tripod head and quick release system.</p>

<p>Jaina, use that manual-focus lens for a while and then graduate to AF. Your D3S comes with excellent AF capability; please don't waste it.</p>

<p>Jaina:</p>

<p>The lens you describe, is not as you describe it. For a 600mm lens, it is the lightest lens of its kind ever made by any lens manufacturer. Nikon made a version that was much heavier, f/4 I believe.</p>

<p>Take that "light" lens out and have fun with it.</p>

<p>I believe any one giving advice about a lens, should own that lens. I have owned that lens, and it is among the worlds finest super telephoto lenses. Nothing better for backpackers, hikers, that requires big glass in a light as possible package.</p>

<p>This lens can be used with a mono pod, but your percentage of keepers will be greater the better platform you shoot with. To be honest, a 600mm lens should be placed in the center of a pile of sandbags to get you constantly clear clean shots. At 600mm, wind, at 4 miles an hour moves your lens.</p>

<p>"Your D3S comes with excellent AF capability: please don't waste it"</p>

<p>This is the most ridiculous statement I have ever seen here on photo.net. I am so caught off guard, I don't even know how to respond. I'll cool down, and perhaps respond more effectively later.</p>

<p>jaina, i have a D3s, so i'm familiar with its capabilities. i've never shot a MF long lens with it though. and i havent had occasion to shoot at 6400 ISO in bright conditions (yet). in general, i would try to keep the ISO as low as possible. even with the D3s, i don't like to go above 3200-4000 if i can help it. no disrespect to Elliot, but i would defer to Bjorn on not stopping down. basically diffraction limits sharpness so even if you nail focus, freeze motion, and minimize camera shake, your images may not be crisp.</p>

<p>i wish i knew a little more about the event you will be attending. the main concern i would have is line of sight. will you be shooting from above? moving through a crowd? in a stationary position? a tripod will give you max stability but is also difficult in crowded scenes. you could always double-stabilize the lens with a monopod and a string tied to the end, which you hold with your foot. cheap trick, but it sometimes works.</p>

<p>after reading gary's post, it occurs to me that 1/500 may not be fast enough to prevent camera shake. to be safe, you may want to keep to 2x/focal length which would be 1/1200. at that shutter f/22 would require a very high ISO, while f/8 would be much more manageable.</p>

<p>the best solution, however, may be if you can simulate the shooting conditions and practice. a lot. you have set a very challenging scenario for yourself, so the more familiar you are with handling that bazooka, the better off you will be.</p>

<p>Thank you again everyone,<br /> <br /> Paul I will work with the live view and check the results. And use the 'continuous' mode.<br /> <br /> Gary, my pre-purchase research did reflect your opinion and I saw only praises for the lens - so I acquired it. The weight is indeed the lightest for its reach - I was only whining because I personally find it heavy - being the 'weaker' sex!<br /> <br /> Eric, this is the Ladakh festival i am talking about. On the days I plan to use this lens, I will probably be stationary and at a little height from the procession and the crowd.<br /> <br /> Shun, Thanks. I do have other AF lenses. My question was aimed at learning to use this particular MF lens effectively.<br>

John :)</p>

<p>thanks everyone. I have jotted down these tips and plan to go out this bright sunny afternoon to shoot some white tigers. Although they are not going to be in a procession or dancing, they will provide similar levels of movement...<br /> jaina</p>

<p>Hello,<br>

The issues that are bothering me after some shooting:<br>

The lens does take sharp images - but also results in fringe colors in a few images. Am not sure what the correct vocabulary is to describe the pinks and the greens shown in the images below ... is this due to diffraction?<br>

The file info does not throw up the f-stop value and the Max Aperture Value is fixed at f/1.0 across all the images I took today. I did take various combinations of settings to check out the results all with a tripod. The only use I have for this info is to do some desktop analysis across the images to draw conclusions.<br>

Taking well focussed images was not that hard in situations where I could anticipate the moves reasonably accurately. But if the movement was sudden, the focus was terrible. e.g. the tiger leaping for his lunch - great potential for a good shot, ruined entirely by my lack of speed in turning the focus dial. I am hoping that practice will improve this contributing factor.<br>

Approximately 10% of the shots were in focus, even though some weren't framed too well and others were off on lighting. Hope that field practice will take this number higher!<br>

Thanks all.<br>

Jaina</p>

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<p>the detail. is this fringing or diffraction?</p>

<p>Another image - out of focus ..shown here for the fringing</p><div></div>