VASA was developed by Microsoft, but it hasn't been released. Heaven help us if and when they do release. Imagine this. You take a picture of a face and add any audio text to it. the face moves and speaks the text file perfectly. They tried it with a drawing of a Japanese face speaking Japanese. Although MS did not train it to speak Japanese, it performed perfectly. As an added feature, you can specify serious, happy, concerned, or angry. If this becomes available, we will never be able to believe what we see and hear.

Take a look. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/project/vasa-1/

I decided to post these images because of recent discussions about whether or not people should use 2x extenders. I know these are birds, but putting them in the bird subsection will prevent the converter discussion.
The photos are taken with a Nikon 400f2.8s lens. The built in 1.4 converter is being used and coupled with a 2x converter. The wren also has a 5mm extension tube for closer focus.
So, the question is are these photos sharp enough, or should people not use the converters and attempt to gain the extra reach by cropping. I believe that any loss of image quality from using the converter is more than offset by the additional reach and the ability to come closer to filling the frame, but I thought it would be interesting to see where any discussion would go. Those of you who believe that no one should use teleconverters, go ahead and have your say. The photos will be posted in the first reply.

I am a Nikon shooter and was excited to put the Tamron z 150-500mm lens on my z50. I was ready to do more wildlife and birds in flight photography until I spent some time with this beautiful beast….it is too darn heavy for me to hold still and I am not inclined to lug a tripod around when I get the urge to shoot some wildlife when I am close to nature. At 75 I admit I am not as strong as I’d like and holding that lens isn’t getting easier.

So I am returning it to Adorama today and exchanging it for the Sony cyber shot RX10 IV. I guess a bridge camera isn’t so bad….(right?)…..and it sure will make my sometimes forays into nature a little easier. I just hope I don’t have pangs of regret and envy when I encounter folks with those big, beautiful telephoto lens in the field.🥹