Bird photography with the Nikon 300/f4 AFS lens (1 Viewer)

I'm a bit constrained for magnification as I only have the Nikon 300 mm glass but I'm finding that as the 300/f4 is light enough to carry around all day I'm getting photos I wouldn't get otherwise. This is a grab shot from a walk around today . I came across the night heron sitting out in the open (very unusual ) and I was able to get about 50 frames off in horizontal and vertical mode as well as from iso 640 down to iso 200. These were all hand held. I suspect that if I had had a tripod over my shoulder he would have been off like a flash while I was setting it up.
The first image is as out of the camera, just re-sized. The second is a crop with no adjustments. The third has some minor CS2 work.
Neil.
ps the distance was about 20 metres in dull light.

Nikon D3 plus Nikon 300/f4 AFS (in Full Frame mode and iso 200 )

Lamma Island,
Hong Kong,
China
February 2008

That came out very nicely. I don't think you need much in the way of lens fine tuning on that setup.

Interesting to see what you have achieved with your set up. The 300 plus 1.4TC has it at about the same reach as my fully extended zoom on the 80-400.
I took this on my D200. It was in fairly heavy shade so I was messing about with various settings. This one ended up at ISO400 f32 and 1/6th sec. The bird was rigid so I could play. My camera of course isn't full frame and I have further cropped and sharpened the image.
Not as good as your though ! Your lens was cheaper than mine too......... but the camera certainly isn't !!!

I thought my bird was about 20 metres away too but looking at your full frame picture, yours was closer.

I agree, the 300mm f4 Nikkor is an excellent "walking about" lens. I've had one for almost 4 years now and have taken thousands of bird pictures with it, the vast majority (99%) hand-held at ISO 400. I often wish for more reach-- who doesn't?--but I find that opportunities abound in most reasonably birdy areas to get in close enough for a decent shot or two, and not having to carry round and set up a tripod is a real boon.

Here are some examples of bird photos I've taken with this lens over the years. Except for a series of tripod-mounted Ruby-crowned Kinglet shots, and a few wide-angle views with a short zoom, everything was taken with the 300mm hand-hand. The camera in all cases was the Nikon D-70.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7117259@N05/

Some superb photo's there. The detail on the Grebes shows how sharp the lens is.