Mag3duces Loc: Cookeville, Tennessee

Really nice set, MT...

Mag3duces Loc: Cookeville, Tennessee

Bret really nice, love No. I...

Anglorod Loc: Cornwall, England

Canon EF 400mm 5.6 L prime, great for hand held, & not tooo expensive. I sometimes use a 1.4 extension with it (tape 3 pins)

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

I always have IS turned off for action such as BIF. I feel it actually interferes with focusing on fast moving subjects.

I mostly only use IS for slow shutter speed stuff.

Capsurfer Loc: Sydney Australia

Thanks Swamp Gator, appreciate the quick reply. Had a look at you website and it is obvious that you don't need to have huge lenses to take great shots, well done, better than that, superb!

Indrajeet Singh Loc: Goa, India

I have used the 300 f4 fitted to a TC 1.4 converter on my D600 for a while now. It is a great lens and produces excellent results. I only ever shoot "Hand Held" with the camera set to spot metering on manual.

There are a couple of points that I need to mention:

1. It is heavy and takes getting used to.
2. That it lacks VR makes the task of hand holding more critical.
3. With the TC fitted it becomes an f5.6. This lens prefers to shoot one stop down on wide open. I recommend minimum an aperture of f6.3 at all times if 7.1 is not possible. You will get sharper images doing this.
4. For quick BiF shots I always have my D7000 with the 70~300 fitted handy, it seems to be faster focussing in situations where urgency is of essence. It also follow focuses very well. Both my D7000 as well as the D600 are set up exactly the same and I use a lot of U1 and U2 in my use of both bodies. I also use the D600 set up for BiF shots when I have time to be prepared, after spotting the bird.
5. It is not uncommon for me to shoot at ISO 6400 because of the very dense forest canopy cover in India. The D600 handles this remarkably well and if your exposure is set correctly the grain is minimal.
6. You might visit some of my postings to get an idea of the quality of images I get in the above scenario of my usage. My postings start with "India -".

Hope this is helpful, be happy to answer any specific question if you have any.

Have fun, I love it!!

wcobon Loc: Chester County Pennsylvania

Great shots Bret.

Fergus Loc: Westfield,IN

DaveHam,
Of course I will but its going to have to warm-up before I'll be out and about. It is 8:30 am and the temperature here is -12F. I think that is about a -26C for you. In anyone's language it's cold! Correct me if I've got theF/C conversion wrong. It's been a while since I've made that conversion and I forget the quicky approximate conversion formula.

Sue

Bernie O' Loc: Bristol, CT

Fergus,

Here's one that I took yesterday. I used a 135mm f2L Canon lens.

This was shot wide open at f2.

Bernie O'

Seagull

Fergus Loc: Westfield,IN

Was the gull cropped quite a bit?

Indrajeet Singh Loc: Goa, India

I have added a few images if you don't mind, these are with the D600 + TC1.4 and 300 f4.

These are early morning shots.

Bernie O' Loc: Bristol, CT

This was not cropped at all.

Bernie O'

ASR666 Loc: Singapore

I have one too! A great prime lens that not too many people use ... simple design, relatively light and cheap.

:thumbup:

Swamp Gator Loc: Coastal South Carolina

I appreciate you looking and your kind comments, thanks!

mikemilton

As already said... yes. For BIF you mostly need reach and focussing speed so, generally, the longer the better. This is not necessarily true of stationary birds which you might be able to get close to.

Some thoughts:
-turn off IS if you are going to be waving the lens about.
-high shutter speed is important (primes are typically faster)
-setup of af tracking matters and is different with / without background detail