alan w

Hello Wendy,

The 400mm f2.8 lens's appear to be gaining in popularity in the UK for our birds and wildlife, although they still massively lag behind the 500mm versions for this type of subject.

As a fellow owner of a D70, who owns a MF 400mm f2.8, i think this heavy lens is a great 'all-rounder' for avian photography in the UK {where hide/blind shooting is still a fairly popular method of avian photography}.

A big plus with the 400mm is the close focusing ability, and therefore less need for extention tubes when shooting from personal hides. The 400mm lenses also seem to give fine results with 1.4 AND x2 tc's, which effectively give you three very usable focal lengths {400/560/800} for avian use {all at fast apertures for their respective FL's}.

Because the 400mm lenses have a large mass/weight, they are very stable on monopods, for situations/habitats where tripods are a hinderence.

As i only own a MF version of the 400mm, i can only guess that an AF version would be less versatile than the 300mm AF tele's with regards to 'birds in flight' shooting, due to the weight of these beasts.

Having said all that, given the choice and money today, i personally would opt for the AF 300mm F2.8 and 1.4 and x2 {given the crop factor of the D70} and my common use of hides.

If you feel that 'birds in flight' is likely to be a major part of your bird photography, i personally feel that the 400mm F2.8 would not be the best 'all-round' option. Fellow owners of AF 400mm f2.8's that i know of, tend to also have a 300mm AF {often with 1.4 attatched} for flight photography, out of necessity {due to the lack of hand-hold ability of the 400's}.

On balance, i tend to concur with the 500mm suggestions {especially if you tend not to shoot from hides/blinds}.

I would definately put a LOT of thought into this, before parting with many ?????

Alan

Thanks very much Erik & Bjorn,

I guess it was always a long shot, so thanks for your views.

Originally, i wondered whether the nikon tc-16A might have solved this idea, but it appears that is not a solution either.

Not sure if i can get my 400mm chipped in the UK, but i think that only covers the metering side of things.

Looks like i shall have to just use my AF 300mm for this purpose, but i felt it was worth asking those who have more knowledge on this subject than me, just in case.

Thanks very much

Alan

Hello all,

I realise that certain ais lens's can be chipped for metering purposes,

although as ive always used incident metering i am not particulary interested

in that area.

However, i am wondering if there is any way of tinkering with the cpu chip of a

kenko pro300 tc {mounted on a MF ais tele}, so that it can fool my D70 into

believing that an AF lens is attatched.

On the face of it, this would seem to be a pointless exercise {assuming it

could be done}, but having recently discovered that the D70 can be set up for

trap focus usage, this would be a useful accessory for me.

The trap focus set-up works very effectively on my 300mm AF lens for 'certain'

wildlife situations, and i would like to extend this function to my 400mm f2.8

ais lens if possible {using an adapted kenko tc if it could be adapted to fool

the camera}.

'if' it is possible to fool the camera into believing an AF lens is attatched i

assume the cameras in-built motor/shaft drive would be active {but not driving

any lens elements} in this senario. However, this would not be any problem in

trap focus mode with the D70, as the prefocused distance could be set manually,

and the shutter tripped when the green light confirms the subject has

wandered/flown into focus.

Idealy, i would prefer to tinker with an old tc', rather than the lens, as i

would not want to be limited to trap focus use exclusively, but it would be a

useful gadget for occasional use {if it is a possible modification}.

Would appreciate anyones views as to whether this could be done {not bothered

about metering}. If not, i shall have to remain with my 300mm for this type of

shooting situation.

thanks

Alan