- Nov 27 2:00 pm
#71530
I have just spent a month with the new lens, travelling in Asia. In general, it is not too heavy to use handheld, which I did all the time. It is very sharp at 500 mm. With a 1.4 teleconverter it is still acceptably sharp but autofocus capability drops off rapidly, especially in low light, which was v frustrating at times.
I have mounted a Jobu plate on the lens foot, and coupled it with a Kirk shoulder strap. The set up worked really well - though it requires faith to accept that as long as the clamp is tight, the lens will be secure.
I had it mounted on an 810 body which allowed me to crop considerably and still get usable record shots of very distant birds - and there were a lot of very distant birds. I had VR on and in sport mode most of the time. Most of the time I used single point focus, but for BIF I had 9 point focus on to track them more easily.
Overall, I am well pleased with the combination. It is a lot better than the 200-400 lens at long range, and has been a lot of fun to use. I have not yet compared it to the 400mm which I suspect will give better resolution, but realistically would have been totally impractical to lug around in the jungle.
The overall bird count will be 150+ once I get a few more identified. Part of the problem there was a language barrier - the guide in Cambodia was very knowledgeable but I had a hard time understanding him while trying to take notes.
The big event was seeing the Giant and white shouldered Ibis - both thought to have perhaps 200 pairs left worldwide.
If anyone would like info about the sites visited (Singapore, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and Macau) contact me off list.
Julian Dunster
I have mounted a Jobu plate on the lens foot, and coupled it with a Kirk shoulder strap. The set up worked really well - though it requires faith to accept that as long as the clamp is tight, the lens will be secure.
I had it mounted on an 810 body which allowed me to crop considerably and still get usable record shots of very distant birds - and there were a lot of very distant birds. I had VR on and in sport mode most of the time. Most of the time I used single point focus, but for BIF I had 9 point focus on to track them more easily.
Overall, I am well pleased with the combination. It is a lot better than the 200-400 lens at long range, and has been a lot of fun to use. I have not yet compared it to the 400mm which I suspect will give better resolution, but realistically would have been totally impractical to lug around in the jungle.
The overall bird count will be 150+ once I get a few more identified. Part of the problem there was a language barrier - the guide in Cambodia was very knowledgeable but I had a hard time understanding him while trying to take notes.
The big event was seeing the Giant and white shouldered Ibis - both thought to have perhaps 200 pairs left worldwide.
If anyone would like info about the sites visited (Singapore, Cambodia, Hong Kong, and Macau) contact me off list.
Julian Dunster
- By GMcD
- By stumblingpiper