fun in the backyard. rainbow lorikeet

[avkomp]

the lorikeets are starting to return to my yard finally. the guy in my granny flat didnt like the birds and used to hose them,
he wasnt fond of spiders either and used to go thru a can of surface spray a week at least also.
he sadly passed away a year and a half ago and life is returning to the yard.
here is a portrait. this is from the new 200-500 f5.6 vr nikon lens.
is an amazing lens for the money. has way nicer clarity than say the bigma.
focuses down to 2.2 metres also. amazing sharpness too.(rivals 600f4 for sharpness due to new design)
the 2.2 minumum focus means that you can almost use as a macro lens (hehehe) with the 600 say, it focuses at 4.7 metres
so you need a tele converter if you want full frame on a small bird (or use an extension tube.) 2.2 metres means you can get full frame on
a small bird with no tc or tube (assuming the bird lets you close enough.)
think they hit the market at around 1800 ish but cheaper now I think.
makes it an ideal walk around lens for the birder without sacrificing image quality and 1 f stop behind the big guns.
vr seems better than some of the older lenses also, seems new design
af isnt as fast or precise as the big guns in lower light but other than that, seems ideal way to get into birding (sorta) on the cheap.
this was taken in low ish light

d4 200-500 f5.6 @ 500mm 1/125 f5.6 (wide open) iso 1600 full frame image (not cropped)

[Alan]

Nice portrait - not my favourite bird because of their noise and general thuggery, but certainly colourful.

Does the 200-500 take a TC? I have a 300mm f/4 with a 1.4 and 1.7TC and not sure I could justify the change - but it would be less fiddly - hmm

Cheers

[avkomp]

thanks Alan,
to be honest I dont know if it does take a tc. I never tried it, but felt it ideal for walk around pop up nature photography, particularly at night.
less stuff to catch on low stuff etc and easlily handheld.
if you want I can whack up a review thread for this lens, I did a bunch of different things, including birds. almost a one lens solution for a wildlife dude. imho

[Sully]

Amazing capture of a beautiful bird (I don't believe we have them here, so I am immune to their noise and behaviour)

[Ironwood]

Beautiful image Stephen. We get a few of them coming to eat the new seeds on the palms when they come out, the numbers not big enough to annoy us.
The Nikon 200-500 looks to be a great lens, unfortunately I bought my Tamron 150-600 before Nikon announced it, otherwise I probably would have waited.

Alan, on another forum I am a member of, there are members using the Nikon 200-500 with tc's. This is a response to a question on comparing the Nikon vs Tamron.

[Quote- As for image quality, it's (pardon the pun) a photo finish. But there's three things the Nikkor did better:
1. Autofocus latches on far better with the Nikkor.
2. Nikon's VR outshines the Tamron VC,
3. The Nikkor functions quite well with the 1.4 vII TC I already owned; The Tamron would not AF with it.

In short, I'm not getting better shots, but I'm increasing my keeper rate. Quote]

[Alan]

Thanks Brad - sounds even better if it works with the TC

[Ironwood]

There are people over there using it with the Kenko 1.4 as well. I don't think your 1.7 would allow AF.
The guy that said that quote above was using a D7100, which will AF to f8, I think.

[avkomp]

sounds like I gotta get my butt in to gear and put my review up. had heard amazing reviews of it so this sparked my interest.
like I said sharpness is amazing. especially for the money. contrast was better than my partners bigma (she would have waited also)
af is snappier than the bigma. I tested this by shooting birds in flight under more or less repeatable circumstances

[avkomp]

ok, written out the review here:
http://www.ausph.com/forum/technical...-6-image-heavy

[LJG]

Very nice Stephen. They may make a lot of noise like Alan says but we have thousands around my way and I just love to watch their antics. To be honest even with their noise that can grate on you after a while if they ever moved out I would be very sad and quite lost.