jemini_joseph

August 16, 2008

Thanks for the heads up Bruce.

Bob, aren't you talking about Ding Darling? I have been there three times and it's a great place. Just I'm not sure how good it's there now.. Hmmm I never saw the topless bathers there :) So you are talking about some beach there?

Alice I checked the distance to the everglades entrance and it's around 160 miles from where I'm going to stay. So I guess I will plan it for later. So I might plan Sanibel or Shark Valley. I'll also check out Clyde Butcher's annual "Muck About". Thanks for all the information.

August 14, 2008

I'm planning to visit Ft. Myers in the first week of sept (long weekend). I know this is not the best season to visit FL

for wildlife photography. But is there any hope for birds, aligators etc?

I've been to Ding Darling and corkscrew swamp few times. I also photographed the burrowing owl near the public

library in Cape Coral. I've visited the famous eagle nest when there were chicks in it.

Never been to Everglades. I will have a day for photography. Is there any activity anywhere? Does the eagle nest have

chicks in it now? How's shark valley now(loop road)? Any other places?

Thank you

September 12, 2007

Bjorn, Elliot

Any comment on D300? Why we are not hearing much about D300? Why there are only ISO 200 samples? Can you guys give us some heads up?

Thanks a lot for your comments and reviews.

Jemini

February 27, 2007

I've packed it in a cardboard box surrounded by sponge and then packed the the box in a baseball bat bag. Just came back from florida. The tripod was safe.

January 31, 2007

Thanks Marvin. Have a good one.

January 30, 2007

Marvin

I've visited both of these places couple of years back (2005) in feb and it was awesome. The Ding Darling was almost like a zoo. Tons of birds and they were very friendly. Then I went there last year in summer (Aug) and there was no birds at all. I'm going to Ding darling this weekend. Hopefully I will find the birds again. Corkscrew swamp also was great. I guess this is the best time to visit both places..

Good luck

Jemini

<a href="http://www.wildbirdimages.com/" target="w-3">http://www.wildbirdimages.com/</a>

December 28, 2006

Did you think about 200-400 vr or 300/2.8 vr+1.7TC? I agree that Nikon is not value for money and you will lose some money when you sell it. Canon is great there. It's not 4 or 5 guys jumped the ship for long teles. Tons :)

300/2.8 VR+TC-17E will give you 500/4.8 VR lens. This will be as sharp as sigma and almost same speed. But AF might be little slow. Not sure. Nikon is not going to update this lens any time soon. So that will be a safer investment.

December 28, 2006

Rakesh I had Sigma 500 and it's as sharp as any manufacturer lens at f/8 and excellent at 5.6. But it's soft below that. Here are couple of 100% crops using this lens and D70.

<a href="http://www.wildbirdimages.com/images/sigma500/DSC_395_DoveVerticalcrop.jpg" target="w-2">http://www.wildbirdimages.com/images/sigma500/DSC_395_DoveVerticalcrop.jpg</a>

<a href="http://www.wildbirdimages.com/images/sigma500/cardinalfemale.jpg" target="w-2">http://www.wildbirdimages.com/images/sigma500/cardinalfemale.jpg</a>

Nikon is sharpest at f/4!!!. That's amazing. So you will be using this lens wide open most of the time and sigma you would use at f/5.6. That's one stop difference!!

Look at the MTF and review of Nikon lens here

<a href="http://www.photodo.com/topic_31.html" target="w-2">http://www.photodo.com/topic_31.html</a>

Anyway if you can get a used Sigma for around 2000, it's well worth. Good luck <a href="http://www.wildbirdimages.com/" target="w-2">http://www.wildbirdimages.com/</a>

October 30, 2006

Thanks guys for the valuable answer.

Kent, sorry I didn't tell you what I shoot. The answer is Birds :)

Joseph, Thanks for the comment. I already have the Kirk collar. Sorry I forgot to mention this. I had 1548 and when I got 300mm I had 1228 at first. I was not really happy with the stability of it too. May be I'm a stability freak :). I guess 3 series will be good. If I ever decide to upgrade the lens, then that will be useful too.

Edward, thanks for the hint.

Chris, what do you think about sidekick for 70-200? My lens is similar size and weight. What's the slowest speed you can shoot with sidekick? What ball head you are using?

Thanks Shun. This is what I'm thinking too. Since I have never used a Gimbal I had no idea how would that help

Mark, Stabilized lens, that too which works on tripod (new canon IS lenses), is less demanding that non-IS lenses. I'm hoping that Nikon will come out with VR version of this lens. I can mount the camera+lens at the center of gravity. It will mounted towards the rear end of the tripod collar (Kirk collar)

Thanks all again. It seems a better tripod would make more sense for me now.

October 29, 2006

I've D2X and 300mm f/4 Lens with 1.4TC. The total weight of the lens and

camera is around 6LB. I have Kirk BH-3 ball head and slik pro 700DX tripod.

Before this setup when I had 500mm lens I had BH-1 and Gitzo G1548 tripod

which was rock solid setup. But I'm not very happy with the tripod.

I have around 500 to spend. Either I can get Gitzo G1325 or get a sidekick or

King Cobra. Which one will be better choice? Lens at this size does the Gimbal

help a lot? My old setup once head is locked I could take pictures even

shutter speed 1/20sec. Does Gimbal can handle 1/20 shutter speed at 400mm? Or

is it better to get a better tripod first?

Thanks in advance

Jemini Joseph

<a href="http://www.color-pictures.com">www.color-pictures.com</a>

August 18, 2006

Hi Dan

The AF-S and ED-IF are two different versions. The first one has a better AF and that's newer. AF-S means it has silent wave motor in it. Optically both are pretty same. AF-S is slightly bigger and heavier. Not much though. Sharpness wise both are same. But if you need great AF then go for the AF-S version

Good luck

jemini Joseph

www.color-pictures.com

August 14, 2006

My trip is at least couple of years away. Still I collect information. This helps a lot. Thank you for taking time for this.

July 8, 2005

Sigma 300/2.8.. That's very nice. I'm not sure if this has HSM for Minolta versions..

May 7, 2005

Sounds like they are out of business. I sent an email few days ago and there was no response. Finally I bought a RRS used one from eBay. The QR+plate for D2X for 96 dollars. I hope I got a good deal..

May 3, 2005

Thaks a lot guys. I've looked at all these. This is exactly what I wanted. The perfected stuff and newtechmachineco are the cheapest it seems. Byt newtechmachineco's smallest one is out of stock. That looks exactly like kirk and AS. Thanks again

May 2, 2005

I own Kirk BH-1 for my 500mm. Now I would like to have the same QR

system for my smaller tripod so that I don't have to switch the QR

plate each time I want to use different tripod. I do have a small

tripod and head without QR and using Manfrotto 3299 QR Assembly. The

cheapest Arca-type QR I found so far is Acratech. It's still $79

Is there any cheaper brands? I don't care about strength or finish.

It should take arca style plates. That's all.

Thanks in advance

Jemini

March 21, 2005

Dan

I know optically the non-af-s version is excellent,not sure how it's compared to AF-S. I've used it. AF-s for sure will focus much faster. Good luck

March 14, 2005

This is a valid test too. Thanks Bill. If I have a 500mm lens and D70, I can live with a 400mm lens + D2X. In fact You don't even need 400mm 375MM will be good enogh to produce 6MP image with same angle of view as 500mm on D70. So D2X is not 5 times expensive compared to D70. It may be around 3 or 4 times depending what lens you have :)

March 14, 2005

Bill, Thanks for the comparison. But I see only one image and it's not clear where the comparison is. Can you please clarify?

Thanks in advance

Jemini

March 12, 2005

I use LL400 for last couple of years. It's very strong and safe for camera+lens. I can fit 500/4.5 HSM + F5 in it with the hood. But Sigma's hood is very small. I guess this is the cheapest option.

March 8, 2005

Oh, one difference I like to mention here about sigma to Nikon is that it's maximum aperture is f/4.5. Nikon's Minimum apertur for reliable AF is f/5.6. Sigma with TC, the effective apertur is f/6.3. That's reason it hunts little bit with TC. I don't think the combo is reliable for flying birds. Greg's message made me think about it. Thanks Greg.. :)

Like Mark mentioned you won't see any difference in optical quality unless you go for one of Canon's big lenses. That's why I didn't move yet. I cannot afford one of those lenses now. You will be able to make more difference with a better tripod and better technique.. But IS is no match. Move to canon if You can afford one..

March 8, 2005

Dave, I'm a Nikon user and have no VR or IS lens. But I always wanted to buy the 500/4 IS lens, but cannot afford it. So staying with Nikon and Sigma 500mm lens. I was looking around to find out how much difference IS will make on a 500mm lens and put this thread a while back. Lots of Canonians responded

<a href="http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009TC5" target="w-2"> http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=009TC5</a>

I had a feeling that all new IS lenses has a tripod mode on it. Even if it's not there new lenses will work on tripod. Not sure if this lens has two different versions. If there's only one version I'm sure it will work on the tripod too. If it has two version and you bought a used old lens, then it may not. I'll watch for your findings...

March 8, 2005

Thanks for the comment guys..

I've gone through the dilema couple of years back. My budget was 2000 dollars. I bought Nikkor 600/5.6 ED lens first. It's real great lens. But once I happened to see Sigma 500/4.5 HSM from a friend of mine. I was amazed with the lens and loved the fast AF. So I sold the MF lens got this one from photo.net for $1800. It was a great deal. I'm really happy with it even after two years. I don't think there's a better deal for around $2000 even now.

March 8, 2005

Santosh

You have lots of choices.

You said you cannot afford anything above 4000 range. Here're my suggestions

1) If you can afford between $3000 to $4000, go for Bikon 500mm f/4 AF-I which is

the previous version to AF-S. It will retain AF and send right exposure to

camera with TC-14E. Not with any other TC's. This weighs around 8.5LB

2) If you want to be around 3000 range, try to get 300/2.8 AF-S II.

You will get AF and exposure info to camera with TC-14E, TC-17E and TC-20E.

Not sure how good is the quality with TC-20E. I know it's acceptable.

But I believe My next choice is better than this above 500mm. This weighs around 6LB

3) If you cannot spend in that range and can spend between 2000 to 3000 then

try a used Sigma 500/4.5 HSM lens and TC-14E. This will also retain decent AF

(not 100% on D70 because effective aperture is f/6.3)

and send exposure to camera. Here the camera won't get the corrected aperture.

If you have f/5.6 on the lens, that's what camera will get while the actual

effective aperture is f/8. But the exposure will be perfect. You don't have

to worry about putting any exposure compensation. This is what I use. One more thing

you have to know is that you have to make a simple modification to TC-14E to make

work with this sigma lens which can affect resellability of TC. The

lens alone weighs 6.8LB

4) Another choice for this range is the 300/2.8 AF-S (First version) with

TC-14E, TC-17E and TC-20E. I would say Sigma lens alone will be sharper than Nikon

300/2.8 AF-S + TC-17E at 500mm. But Nikon with TC-14E will be sharper than

Sigma but you will get only 420mm. This is my assumption. TC-20E is also 100% compatible. This

weighs around 6.5 LB

5) If you want to go for below 2000 then the best choice will be 300/2.8

AF-I. This is amazingly sharp lens for the price. You can use TC-14E and

TC-17E and TC-20E with this lens too without losing AF and exposure info to camera.

I've seen this is being sold for 1300 to 2000. This weighs around 6.5LB

6) If you want to go below 1500, then 300/4 AF-S+ TC-14 and TC-17E will be the best

choice. Never tried this lens. Not sure how good the AF with TC-17E will be on a lower end

body. I think it will really good with D2H level camera.

Hope this helps bit. Here is a sample from my Sigma 500/4.5 HSM lens alone on D70.

This 100% crop.

<a href="http://www.color-pictures.com" target="w-2">http://www.color-pictures.com</a>

February 2, 2005

Thanks a lot guys. I've packed tripod and head in seperate boxes and kept in the check-in luggage. I packed the ball head in bubble warap and then kept in middle of the bag so that there're cloths on both sides. Tripod is in it's own box packed with plastic air filled bags.

Big lens and camera are in a carry in bag. I guess I can go with confidence now...Cheers..

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