I am very glad that I stumbled over this forum. I have no one to ask for advice. But now I do.
I bought an old 1970s nikkor 400mm f5.6 ED manual telephoto lens. I thought I won't be shooting birds fast moving creatures in the wild, So I thought I would buy the good old lens without worrying about it being slow. But recently I developed a keen interest in shooting flying birds. So I attended Birds of Pray event and took the lens for a ride. It was an overcast. I could not get any sharpness in the images. Here are the conditions
1. Shooting handheld, following best practices for keep hand shakes to a minimum
2. ISO set on Auto, around 6400 at f5.6, shutter speed around 1/500 afternoon - 1/1000 morning.
3. Panning, continuous shutter release while re-focusing when needed.
4. Shots taken with Nikon D5100, I now own D500- not used it yet.
I consider myself good at focusing, I have been shooting for 1 year with Nikkor macro 105mm, f2.8 ED, VR and 20mm f1.8 ED VR using both manual and autofocus for macro. I also used reverse lens for macro shots of insects.
I developed an obsession about getting sharp picture with 400mm lens. Again in an overcast day, I was practicing photographing pigeons using the above settings, and for the life of me cannot get that sharpness that I see with other telephoto or zoom lenses. I took shots yesterday for pigeons standing on a chimney and had to push sharpness to full throttle in photoshop to get a below par image.
I looked at photos taken by others on instagram fo the same lens, all images were taken in a bright shinny day and looked ok. I could just about match their quality if I used the lens on a tripod. It made me realise that it is possible that even with other f5.6 telephoto/zoom (e.g. nikkor 200-500 mm f5.6) I won't get that sharpness when the light condition are overcast skies. I have no experience in shooting with zoom/telephoto, I wonder if you guys can shed some light on whether I should burn a deep hole in my pocket and aim for the nikkor f5.6 200-500mm ED VR or worse still the 300mm f4 nikkor prime lens costing around £1500. Just cannot put my mind to rest on which?
I bought an old 1970s nikkor 400mm f5.6 ED manual telephoto lens. I thought I won't be shooting birds fast moving creatures in the wild, So I thought I would buy the good old lens without worrying about it being slow. But recently I developed a keen interest in shooting flying birds. So I attended Birds of Pray event and took the lens for a ride. It was an overcast. I could not get any sharpness in the images. Here are the conditions
1. Shooting handheld, following best practices for keep hand shakes to a minimum
2. ISO set on Auto, around 6400 at f5.6, shutter speed around 1/500 afternoon - 1/1000 morning.
3. Panning, continuous shutter release while re-focusing when needed.
4. Shots taken with Nikon D5100, I now own D500- not used it yet.
I consider myself good at focusing, I have been shooting for 1 year with Nikkor macro 105mm, f2.8 ED, VR and 20mm f1.8 ED VR using both manual and autofocus for macro. I also used reverse lens for macro shots of insects.
I developed an obsession about getting sharp picture with 400mm lens. Again in an overcast day, I was practicing photographing pigeons using the above settings, and for the life of me cannot get that sharpness that I see with other telephoto or zoom lenses. I took shots yesterday for pigeons standing on a chimney and had to push sharpness to full throttle in photoshop to get a below par image.
I looked at photos taken by others on instagram fo the same lens, all images were taken in a bright shinny day and looked ok. I could just about match their quality if I used the lens on a tripod. It made me realise that it is possible that even with other f5.6 telephoto/zoom (e.g. nikkor 200-500 mm f5.6) I won't get that sharpness when the light condition are overcast skies. I have no experience in shooting with zoom/telephoto, I wonder if you guys can shed some light on whether I should burn a deep hole in my pocket and aim for the nikkor f5.6 200-500mm ED VR or worse still the 300mm f4 nikkor prime lens costing around £1500. Just cannot put my mind to rest on which?