Film shot with Nikon 200-500 5.6 ED VR

[pontus_wallst_n]

<p>Hello Everyone,<br>

Some of you might have seen a few questions I posted about the Nikon 200-500 mm lens before leaving for Tanzania in November. I was contemplating wether to purchase one for wildlife photography, and ended up purchasing it.<br>

Instead of writing my comments in the old thread I thought it was easier if I stated a new one.<br>

Well overall, I have to say I was very pleased with the pereformance of the lens. Firstly, regarding my 4 day wildlife trip, on the whole it was excellent. Reach was very good and the cropping facilities in post with the high resolution of the Nikon D810 for bird photos was great. I will post a few pics later in the week here. I can also report that I was pleased to find out that in most light conditions, the AF does work ok, although slowly, when used with a TC 1.7. Weight wise, of course it is heavy, but I did a 4 hour trek/walking safari with it handheld without any major problems.<br>

Secondly, for the work I did for the NGO, I was also very pleased. It was great for imortalising everyday life scenes at the school at which I worked, from far away, without being too intrusive. I also found it extremely sharp and the VR was good.<br>

The only drawback is perhaps the focal length on the wide side- of course, 100-500 mm would have been better than 200-500 mm, but you cant get everything i suppose!<br>

Below is the link to the film I shot for the NGO, now on Vimeo. 80% of this film was shot with the 200-500mm, while a few shots and inserts were shot with the wide 14-24 2.8 Nikon, and the 70-200 f 2.8 Nikon. A few archive shots were also shot with the canon 5D MK3 and some older footage on video.<br>

So on the whole, I would highly recommend this lens, it will come with me for every wildlife trip from now on!<br>

<a href="https://vimeo.com/155116789">https://vimeo.com/155116789</a><br>

Pontus</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Reading the title, I thought it was about using the 200-500mm on some film SLR. The first question that popped into my mind was how you were controlling the aperture, as none of the Nikon film SLR can control the aperture of an E lens.</p>

<p>And then I realized that "film" meant video capture.</p>

<p>Thanks for sharing.</p>

[Mary Doo]

<p>Pontus, thank you for sharing this delightful video. It is moving and inspiring. The children are so very innocent, beautiful, sweet, brimming with hopes and dreams. It brings back fond memories. It reminds me very much of the school I had the opportunity to visit on my first safari trip to Tanzania in 2008. The building structure looks similar. I will never forget the group of delightfully mischievous children chasing after my 24-70mm on a D300, as I kept backing up and happily capturing their adorable curiosity as the D300 fired in bursts. They wanted to look into the lens - from the front! Then they laughed and giggled even more as I showed their faces on the LCD at the back of the camera.</p>

<p>Keep up the good work Pontus.</p>

[mag_miksch]

<p>nice video and it clearly shows the advantage of using a tripod for video shots^^</p>

[Gup]

<p>I also thought from the title of this thread I was about to see scanned photographs shot with a film SLR and this lens combination, wondering how it had been accomplished.<br>

Instead, I was treated to this wonderful video. Thank you for sharing, Pontus. I've only pushed that little red button once to see if it worked. This inspires me to try pushing it more often. </p>

[famico]

<p>Excellent video - thank you for sharing.</p>

[pontus_wallst_n]

<p>thanks everyone,</p>

<p>Yes we are trying to get as many people as possible to know about the work of the NGO, and get as many interested people as possible to see the film, so dont hesitste to share it with friends :) We thought that if everyone who sees it shares it with 10 other people that would be great!<br /> Below are some wildlife snaps taken with the 200-500. All were taken at 500 mm, most from a considerable distance, and then cropped further afterwards. Apart from the cropping, most are more or less straight as they were from the camera, with no tweaking. Of course, looking at them closely on my computer I can see that they might not be as sharp as a fixed focal length 500 or 600mm, but for a zoom lens i would say they are good.<br /> i will post more details about the pictures tomorrow.<br /> Pontus</p><div></div>

[pontus_wallst_n]

<p>another one</p><div></div>

[pontus_wallst_n]

<p>I forgot to mention that the camera body used was the Nikon D810..</p>

[DB_Gallery]

<p>You can use the 200-500 5.6 VR on a Nikon film body but it will only be usable wide open which is a welcome change from the G lenses being stuck at minimum aperture on non-AF cameras. Since this lens is so good wide open, I definitely plan on using it on my F100, FM3A and F3 when shooting black and white if I need the reach / isolation.</p>

[Member69643]

<p>I'm glad I bought the Tamron 150-600mm lens instead. I would have been pissed that it was crippled on my F6.</p>