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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

AF-S Nikkor 200-500mm f5.6E ED VR (1 Viewer)

Took the 200-500/5.6 out today with the Nikon D3s and D7200. The D3s was as fast as I remember and AF seemed to lock on a bit better than the D7200 and hold it. Overall though the D3s image quality now seems a bit dated compared the great sensor in the D7200 - plus a few more megs to play with.
Neil.
Hong Kong,
China.
November 1, 2015
 

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My mate's bush pond started to come to life today and it was sunny as well. The D7200 pairs nicely with the 200-500/5.6 and it's now the lens I use most of the time.
Neil.
 

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Great captures Neil. Especially the bulbul.

Paul

I see lot's of talk about the speed and IQ of this lens but I've been happy with it in good light. This photo of the Reef Egret was taken at 500 mm with the D7200 at f5.6 at about 30 metres.
Neil.
 

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Had the lens for just over a week and the TCE14III converter even less and of course we've had pretty rubbish weather since then. I've also been keen to find out how the lens gets on with the converter and see if it would be reasonable to leave the converter on most of the time during an upcoming holiday, so it has been on the lens all the time.

Finally had a bit of light today but not a huge variety of birds to try and get shots of. The combo has some limitations but fortunately image quality isn't one of them, the Redshank, Mallard and Long-tailed Tit were all shot wide open, the Redshank and Long-tailed Tit at 700mm the Mallard at 600mm. The main drawback is the less than snappy autofocus and intermittent focus-lock, even on a contrasty subject. However, if you can live with this and basically work around it I think this combo is fantastic as a lightweight and portable way to get to 700mm.

Not really had the conditions to try and get any bif shots although the gull isn't too bad and that's at 700mm. The drawbacks above obviously make it a little bit hit and miss but I think in good light and a good contrasty subject it would be okay - time will tell.

Pete
 

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Had the lens for just over a week and the TCE14III converter even less and of course we've had pretty rubbish weather since then. I've also been keen to find out how the lens gets on with the converter and see if it would be reasonable to leave the converter on most of the time during an upcoming holiday, so it has been on the lens all the time.

Finally had a bit of light today but not a huge variety of birds to try and get shots of. The combo has some limitations but fortunately image quality isn't one of them, the Redshank, Mallard and Long-tailed Tit were all shot wide open, the Redshank and Long-tailed Tit at 700mm the Mallard at 600mm. The main drawback is the less than snappy autofocus and intermittent focus-lock, even on a contrasty subject. However, if you can live with this and basically work around it I think this combo is fantastic as a lightweight and portable way to get to 700mm.

Not really had the conditions to try and get any bif shots although the gull isn't too bad and that's at 700mm. The drawbacks above obviously make it a little bit hit and miss but I think in good light and a good contrasty subject it would be okay - time will tell.

Pete

Not bad Pete. Which camera?
Neil.
 
Like Pete I thought I would give the TC14E111 teleconverter a go on the 200-500/5.6 yesterday. Of course I forgot that I had the D7200 and not the D810 so AF suffered. I missed too many shots due to the slow AF but I did get one frame of the Rufous-tailed Robin which I was happy with.
I'll try the combo with the D810 tomorrow.
Neil.
 

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Nice shot of a cracking bird.

I have the D810, there were quite a few deleted photos from the couple of days where I've had light good enough to bother trying to get photos (but not sure any more than I normally find myself deleting), overall from the limited effort so far the keeper rate is high enough to make me think I'll be using the converter on my hols quite a bit.

Pete
 
I got my repaired D810 back yesterday to took it out on the 200-500/5.6 today. It seemed to AF a tad faster than the D7200 in good light but not much in it. I love having the zoom as birds can come quite close sometimes.
Neil.

Lamma Island,
Hong Kong,
25th November 2015
 

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I got my repaired D810 back yesterday to took it out on the 200-500/5.6 today. It seemed to AF a tad faster than the D7200 in good light but not much in it. I love having the zoom as birds can come quite close sometimes.
Neil.

Lamma Island,
Hong Kong,
25th November 2015

nice photos and nice bokeh,
FF have its pros,
AF speed will be even better with D4s,
 
I'm shooting with the 200-500/5.6 6 days a week. Mainly at the bush pond. Today for 10 hours.
Neil.

Nikon D810 plus 200-500/5.6 lens

Lamma Island,
Hong Kong,China.
30th November 2015
 

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I've been more than impressed with the detail that this lens captures. This Common Tailorbird was at the equivalent of 500 mm on the D7200 at a distance of about 4 metres.
Neil.
 

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super details Neil.

this is full frame, not very happy as the focus was more on the wing, still need to learn how to control the heavy lens more.
 
super details Neil.

this is full frame, not very happy as the focus was more on the wing, still need to learn how to control the heavy lens more.

Nice bird and pose. Bird's heads are always moving so freezing them needs a higher shutter speed than for the body. I was shooting warblers at 1/60th second early this morning and didn't get any sharp shots, even with VR on. I needed around 1/400th to get a few keepers.
Neil.
 
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