_D3X4159 8X10

HI Rick,

A good bird in flight image , but could be improved.

Had you shot this bird at 600mm F/5.6, a rating of 7 would have been given for technical merit.

The Nikkor 300mm F/2.8 + a matching 2X converter provides an excellent 600mm F/5.6 imaging system, second to only the Nikkor 600mm F/4 which is much heavier and not well suited for this work without a tripod.

The facts,

Using the lens stopped down did only two things here:

1] Reduced the lens performance due to the F/11 setting from its base F/5.6

2] Increased exposure at ISO 320 allowed wing blur, if that was your intention. However, this could have been done at ISO 100 , using the lens with the optimal f-stop. Keep in mind, that the combination of f/11 and the slow shutter speed at 600mm effective focal length resulted in further loss in definition as seen upon enlargement.

3] The DOF is no issue here.

Final observation, the blue background exhibits "noise", most likely due to the way this image was processed.

Best Regards,  Mike

Thanks so much for your comments. I will try and keep these suggestions in mind. The D3x is very new to me and I'm having trouble balancing what I'm seeing in the viewing screen and what the camera is really shooting. Everything seems to be over exposed when I view the shot. But when I get home on the computer things look better. Also as you know shots like these can only be prepared for if you have a lot of time with your subject. As I waited for this eagle to fly for 3 hours I would shoot other things around me to pass the time and when the eagle all of a suddenly flies towards you you hope you had your camera set to something that would be close to get a good shot. In my area shots like these aren't available often to even practice. Thanks again for taking the time to help me.

Rick