Nikon 80x400

[stephen_justice]

I have been shooting at the drag strip since 02/2006. Last year I used a Canon

Rebel digital camera with a 70/300 lens. I have starting line privileges so I

can get real close to the race cars. This was a good prosumer camera, but

wanting something better, I purchased a Nikon D200 with a 80x400 lens. I shot

(genrally) manual mode at 400 ISO/f8/1/1000. This formula worked really good

for me. My new purchase has a totally different personality, and I'm not sure

how to get the most out of this combination. I put a Nikon 70x300 on the D200

and got good results at the track, but returned the lens for the 80X400. Did I

do the right thing? How do I get the most out of the bigger lens? How to I set

up the camera ISO/f/speed?? I put a few 2006 pictures up

at:www.photo.net/photos/stephen.justice

[victor_ho2]

Stephen: Great composition. The pics look a little overexposed but that may be my computer. ISO 200 or comparable compensation would probably work. Shutter 1/1000 works to stop action. Try panning with different shutter speeds to get some creative blur.

[hudspeth]

Hi Stephen,

I use the 80-400 with a D2hs. The way I shoot birds is F9-F11 as this is the sharpest on my lens and also gives good depth of field. The shutter I set at 1200 since I am mostly at 350 to 400mm and that's 525 to 600mm when you factor in the 1.5 crop factor. So at 600mm the shutter should be the reciprocal of the focal length or 1/1200. Now with birds the background can change as they fly so I set the ISO to auto and lock the exposure and aperture in manual mode. That way the camera will give the correct exposure and you control the scene for stop action and depth of field.

I would recommend using raw files so that you have the greatest amount of information since I assume you are selling these prints and want to make the image as good as possible.

If you are doing your own prints I would look into Capture NX for making corrections for deep shadows and high or low contrast since NX lends itself to easy corrections.