michaelleggero

<p>lil, i did a bunch of reading on the sigmonster and the focus was a tiny bit soft at 800mm what do you think? sharpness is the most important thing to me on any lens</p>

<p>don't scare me like that, i have the 600 on order ha ha wow, i'm gonna be like the black guy in the locker room!!! ha ha ha haha<br>

and that's not racist, i'm jealous of them in there!! ha ha</p>

 

<p>ok, not a question, just gotta say WOW holy crap!!! i just got this lens in today and holy donkey hell it's HUGE!! i know it's a guy thing, but i definitly know now that size matters and i feel more manly holding it!! HA HA HA HA<br>

they should give some sort of description on these online sites of just how big this thing actually is<br>

previously i had an 80-400mm vr i was expecting a little bigger, but nothing like this monster!!<br>

and by the way, it's super sharp, huge difference from the 80-400 wow, like night and day! amazing</p>

<p>i have bought alot of lenses from KEH, and i usually go for the BGN grade. there is usually nothing wrong it it at all.. the worse i ever got was on a 105mm macro.. there was a scratch on the barrel outside!! perfect optics on everything i get from them. they grade by appearence, not performance and pretty much all my stuff gets scrached within a month of it comming out of a new box anyhow so appearence dosn't bother me at all.<br>

if there is somethign wrong with a lens they will tell you in the description, damaged filter ring, or scratch are always in the listing online.<br>

save your money, buy the BGN grade... and worst case senario you just send it back, they never argue with me about returns ever!<br>

for the same reason i'd never want to sell my stuff to them, if it has the slighest blemish on it then they grade it low and pay accordingly.<br>

great company, sometimes shipping is a bit slower than i'd like, sometimes i've waited 3 days before they shipped it out, that's not good for me, but next day air stuff always worked out good.<br>

one thing you do have to watch out for: make sure you know exactly what you are buying, there are several versions of 80-200mm or 70-200mm lenses out there and what seems like a killer price might just be one of the older models</p>

<p>ok, yes, this is for professional work, i do alot of bird photography. i'm using a gitzo carbon fiber tripod, one of the heavy duty ones, and a gitzo ball head.. i remember the tripod was around 800ish and the head was 400ish... it's out in my truck so i'm not sure the exact model. <br>

i've never had a problem with the lens collar that comes with it, i know there are alot of complaints out there on the internet, but with my heavy tripod and large ball head it's quite stable.</p>

 

<p>right you are shun, but he did ask about both cameras, what do you think?</p>

<p>alright, so this is a follow up question to another post.<br>

i am doing alot of wildlife photography lately, currently i am using a nikon 80-400mm vr lens. i know this is not really the best sharpest one out there.<br>

i'm sure there will be alot of support for the 200-400mm but that one is a bit out of my price range comfortably........ if i have to i'll bite the bullet and get that one,<br>

but i'm curious if anyone has better recomendations for something even longer? i'd consider other brands possibly sigma? but sharpness is my biggest concern.<br>

i'm not a big fan of prime lenses but i'm open to opinions<br>

i'm using a d700 so i know i can use the dx setting and get closer that way, but i'm looking for a solution in a lens so i can stay with my fx format</p>

<p>sorry i'm asking so many questions here guys, i've been out of the business for 17 years and now i'm back older and wiser and all the equipment has changed, i gotta catch up ha ha</p>

<p>ok, well definitly i got the point, ha ha.. i'll start another thread about what lens to get for far away wildlife so this one dosn't get swamped<br>

thanks guys!</p>

<p>the lens has a collar, so it's stable, and i'm shooting at about 1/500th-2000 speeed at iso 800. <br>

and why is 2x too much? everyone says 1.4, i hear that all the time, but why dosn't anyone want to use a 2x besides the loss of f stop?</p>

<p>and peter says the nikon tc's won't fit that lens??? why wouldn't they fit??</p>

<p>i use the e3 card on my d700 and i have no issues even when i am using the mb-d10 battery pack...i shoot only raw and i can get about 15 exposures at the continous high setting before it has a problem storing in the buffer.<br>

would an e4 card give more exposures before the buffer is filled?</p>

<p>so right now i have a tameron 2x teleconverter that i use on my d700 with 80-400mm nikon lens. i use manual focus when i use the teleconverter<br>

now, the picture is not as sharp as i like when i use the teleconverter. is it the fact that it's a tameron? will the nikon 2x teleconverter be sharper or is that just a common problem with all teleconverters?<br>

i know i'll lose autofocus capability, but the camera will still work in apature priority mode, correct?<br>

it's all about quality of sharpness, not price, so any suggestions are welcome, thanks</p>

<p>shoot, you're right, lol.. i just looked at my 70-200 yup, shun was right, can't remove it... i just thought they would be designed the same.. guess not.. go figure, nikon ya know ha ha</p>

<p>the ring does come off, i know this because i bought one seperate after i got a used lens that didn't have one with it...<br>

however, i dont remember how to take it off, i just looked at it and i think i just pushed it on from the back of the lens so probably some good force would take it off. <br>

if you call nikon customer service i'm sure they can tell you the trick to it though they have been awesome whenever i call.. their number is 800 645 6689</p>

<p>yeah, if you go to ebay... don't know why people are afraid to say "ebay" lol you can get good deals on stuff shipping out of hong kong, and it's pretty much identical to the name brand stuff if you look closely.<br>

i got a replica of a nikon mb-d10 battery pack from hong kong and it works perfectly at about half the cost of the nikon version.. and i put em side by side and they look identical. it looks like there is a gitzo tripod knock off on there too, that's my next thing i'm gonna get from there.<br>

save your money, sometimes it's all the same stuff and made at the same factory just without the expensive label..... sometimes... just look closely first</p>

<p> </p>

<p>i live next to an army base and i was wondering if there are any laws about taking pictures of soldiers as they are training. i would use the images for editorial use so most likely wouldn't be needing a model release.</p>

<p>but, does the army have special regulations about using those pictures? i know journalists get tons of pictures in war zones without problems, but would the same apply to pictures on a base of them training? <br>

and of course we're talking about non classified training</p>

<p>that's what assistants are for.. they carry the heavy stuff.. can we say porters and sherpas? </p>

<p>sounds crazy, but get a pair of army jungle boots, make sure you actually get jungle boots, they are green. the ankle support is incredible, and they are made so there are vent holes in the sides. water will get in them, your feet will get wet, but the water will just come right back out so there is always air on your feet. they are super lightweight, very durable, and surprisingly comfortable.</p>

<p>now, the army in their infinite wisdom has their own shoe size measurments, so make sure you go to an army navy store and try them on, don't rely on your regular size and do mail order. <br>

you can expect to pay about 25-35 bucks for a pair of these boots</p>

<p>if you like sandles chacos are good because they don't use velcro, so they always stay tight on your feet, but they are a harder sole than tevas so your feet will be sore at the end of a long hike they do have a bit of good arch support, i wear mine every day but keep saying i will go back to tevas for the comfort factor.. just havn't dragged my ass to the store to buy a new pair ha ha</p>

<p>ok so i've got a friend that works at TSA so i get some info that most people don't know... here's the unofficial standard policy... if you have a ton of photo gear they don't have time to go through it all and check every single pocket and pouch. <br>

they need to keep the line moving or people will miss their flights<br>

they rely on their chemical test pads to find the problems. he says if you look a bit casual they will let you go easier.. guys in expensive suits that carry tons of stuff are the ones they are suspicious of. usually expensive suit guys only carry clothes and simple necessaties. <br>

he also said they don't care about batteries because they let people bring extra ones for laptops, dvd players and all sorts of electronics<br>

they are more worried about droping your d3x than they are about finding a bunch of extra batteries. ha ha</p>

<p>ya know, i've looked at the images again this morning and i have to say to me they look about the same quality (if you look at areas that are in focus) it looks like the d700 focused on a different spot. It does have a different focus area and different focus method than the d90. </p>

<p>so i looked at both the raw images in photoshop and i zoomed in. i'm sure there is a technical difference, but to just look at it i would have to say they are about equal. <br>

now, in terms of the cameras themselves, everyone knows that the d700 is the better camera of the 2, but i don't have any worries about quality using a d90 at this point if i needed to.<br>

but all this does answer my quesiton and my final conclusion is this</p>

<p>a 5.1 mp image on a d700 at dx format is the same quality as a 12.1 mp image from the d90</p>

<p>it does appear that the focus area is different on each picture however, but still an intresting comparison</p>

<p>i agree completely that the af on the d700 is definitly faster.. but in my quick test here on a tripod with a 70-200 2.8 exposure was 2.8 at 1.3 seconds iso 200 i did no post processing at all for exposure or anything</p>

<p>it appears that the d90 is definitly sharper than the d700 set to dx mode i was particularly looking at the red light bulb near the center<br>

opinions are welcome though </p><div></div>

<p>i'll do a quick test tomorrow.. see, all i have are full frame lenses, no dx stuff at all<br>

so i'm thinking that i should use the d90 for wildlife work since it will get me in "closer" to the subject and still give me the 12mp where if i used the d700 on dx mode i would only get 5.1mp<br>

and i agree with robert budding, there are tons of killer deals on manual focus lenses and many of them have better optics than the modern af version....but as we get older our eyes get older too and autofocus is better than i can see ha ha ha ha</p>

 

<p>ok, i have both a d90 and a d700 so i was reading that when i use dx format on the d700 it only saves in 5.1 mp <br>

so logically i should be using my d90 exclusively for the dx format since it has a bigger mp count even though the sensor is smaller<br>

i know the d700 has a better pixle size even in dx mode.. so has anyone out there tested this theory before i go and test it myself??</p>

<p>Mike Leggero</p>