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Nikon 500mm lenses (1 Viewer)

This thread talks about the weight of the big lenses. Yes it is a significant issue, my first impressions of the 300VR are its bulk and weight. You don't pick it up in one hand to attach it to the camera body, its more a case of attaching the body to the lens. This baby weighs 2800g or so and the 500 weighs an extra 1000g.

My style of birding involves lots of walking over rough ground and the occasional long weekend trip to Scotland or England with friends. I think the 300VR + TC will be plenty to carry along with my bins and scope.
 
The lens gets smaller as you get used to it...honest.
I'm curious about your rucksack it came with, I got a well made but impractical shoulder bag with mine, in fact I have just bought a Think Tank Antidote which is perfect for the lens and some additional kit.
I took a couple of Woodpecker shots yesterday, without a TC. You can see them , and a few others on my gallery if you want to see what I have managed to achieve with this lens so far !
 
I had the 600 AF-SII and have now been through most of Sigma's zooms. I'm having a similar issue to the original poster, in that there is simply no substitute for a top of the line prime. On the other hand I used the 600 a lot less because I didn't always feel like dragging it around with me, and I'm pretty sure it's why my back hurts.

Consequently I'm leaning towards the Sigma 500 f4.5 and while I wouldn't give anyone any advice as such, you should probably look at it.
 
Hi Rioja,

I'll take a photo of the rucsac. It pretty much only holds the lens but I'll experiment with it tonight and see if it will fit a camera body too. I'd like to keep the body on for humping it around in search of birds. If not I'll probably get a padded photo rucsac to protect it in the field. My D200 and Sigma 170-500 fits in a daysac along with my Leica 62 quite nicely. The new lens would be a bit more difficult. I think it would carry better lens downwards.

Richard
 
Sounds like you got the same bag as I did Richard. The straps at the side are adjustable and you can fit a camera body attached to the lens in it. I don't think it's much use really and you are better off getting a proper camera bag. Shame because it's a well made bag and a waste of money !
 
And if I'd read all the way to the bottom, I'd know just to say 'congratulations' rather than tell you to look at a Sigma :) Hope you get on with it!
 
First results with 300VR

Had the new lens out this afternoon. Very poor light so was operating on 800 ISO. Well pleased with the lens. Very fast at autofocus even with a 1.4tc on.

Enclose a picture of some Whoopers at Inch Lake Co Donegal. Taken in the rain and failing light. Would never have managed this on the Sigma.

Richard
 

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rdspalm said:
I' rather be found dead in posession of a Nikon 500mm than the keys of a Ka! Have you ever driven one? Gets you from A to B is about all you could say good about a Ka!!!!

Richard
Click to expand...

I own one. Very good handling, cheap to buy, cheap to run, a very nice small car, but there are now better if somewhat pricier small cars around.
 
Nikon 300VR 2.8

Here are a couple of early field shots with the new lens. Light not good, shot at ISO800 on a D200.

Richard
 

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Rucsac for that big lens

I did a bit of research to find a suitable rucsac to carry the 300VR and attached camera. Came on the Kata range which impressed me. Finally settled on the Kata HB-205 because its dimensions would pass as airline cabin luggage at a pinch. (one of the dimensions is out a bit).

Its a very well designed and manufactured bag and has really good shoulder and hip straps. Best designed accessory I've seen in quite a long time. Bought from www.fotosense.co.uk

Richard
 

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I really like the Think Tank Airport Anectdote for Travel. It is guaranteed to be under the dimensions allowed on European regional flights, which is important as I like to travel. It's a bit expensive by is truly made like a tank. It's probably the best made bag I've ever owned, and it holds a ton of stuff.

On a recent trip to Moab Utah, I carried two bodies with grips, a 200-500 Tamron, 70-300vr Nikkor, Sigma 150 Macro, 35 f2 Nikkor, 10-20 Sigma, 10.5 Nikkor, SB-800, and a mess of filters and releases. This is a fairly small bag, believe it of not. Oh and it also can hold my Dell 13" laptop in protective case on the back and a tripod on the outside. Very comfortable too.

Thom Hogan uses it and suggested it. http://www.bythom.com/recommendations.htm

http://www.thinktankphoto.com/
 
rdspalm said:
Here are a couple of early field shots with the new lens. Light not good, shot at ISO800 on a D200.

Richard
Click to expand...

Richard,
I had a close look at the robin photo in CS2. Not bad. I had a play with it to look at the detail. I hope you don't mind.
Neil.
 

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300 2.8vr

Here is another Robin taken on the new 300 VR. I have a 1.7TC hooked up too, so I suppose its now a 500mm lens. I was using a monopod for speed as the birds tend to fly off by the time I footer with the tripod.

Richard
 

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I'm now off for the Christmas hols so given a decent break in the weather, I hope to get out and give the Nikkor 300 2.8VR a good bit of exercise!

Getting decent photo weather in Northern Ireland can be a rare event this time of year.

This lens seems to be very good for flight shots.
 
Here is a photo taken today of Waxwings.
D200 + 300mm 2.8VR + 1.7TC

Given good light this is an excellent rig for capturing detail.

Richard
 

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500 + TCs

One of the big advantages of a long telephoto lens is that it becomes very long with TCs.
In the following pictures I used my 500/4 AFSII + TC-17, resulting in a focal length of 850mm. AF slowed down a bit, but not too much.
Even though I used the D700, missing the crop factor of my D300, the lens + TC combo got me very close to the scene.
 

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Excellent quality Yossi. Wish we had such good light in Ireland. Its only the odd day you get good winter light this far north!

Richard
 
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