silveragemarvel Loc: Keller, Texas

Just received new lens today purchased from B&H Photo. Hope this will be my "go to" lens on my D800e for African Safari trip next month. I also have Sony a6500 with 18-105mm (my wife will use this). I went to backyard and took some quick shots just to get an idea of sharpness. I have a few weeks to play with this setup before trip so hope it meet my needs.

Mule deer grazing my lawn

(Download)

Western Scrub Jay

(Download)

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

Looked at them in download
#2 is pretty good
#1 the SS is way too slow and the image is very noisy, with some camera shake or something, was it hand held?

At telephoto ranges you don't really need f/16 for depth of field, I would suggest you bring the f-stop to about 8.1 or so and try. If the AF is right on then that should be enough for most subjects.
this will allow you to use a higher SS and lower ISO to reduce the noise and get rid of the camera movement. And with the focus on the subject and surroundings out of focus it draws more attention to the subject.

I do a lot of telephoto work, and I use a Canon 100-400, sometimes with a 1.4x or a Tamron 150-600 (on my 7DII APS-C, on my 6D FF I don't use the 1.4x, Your D800e will AF at f/8 so you can use a 1.4x if you have one that fits the lens). I have gradually learned I don't need those more extreme apertures for most subjects. And with hand holding the SS is much more important to avoid shake and blur. I don't rely on the stabilization much, esp once the SS gets faster. Also the stabilization only helps with camera movement, only high SS helps with moving subjects.

That lens should be good for almost everything you do on your trip. You might want to calibrate it to the body to make sure the AF is spot on.

CO

I downloaded photo#1. It was shot at f/16 and 1/10 second. That shutter speed is much too slow. Also, f/16 is going to be way past the range where the lens is its sharpest. I would probably stop down the aperture to around f/7.1 Doing that will increase your shutter speed a lot. It will also get you in the range where the lens is its sharpest. It's good that you had the camera in aperture priority mode. I see that you have the camera is spot metering mode. That worked for this image but when you're on the safari you may want to switch over to matrix metering or center weighted.

silveragemarvel Loc: Keller, Texas

Thanks for the suggestions. I was so excited to try the lens that I forgot to make any exposure adjustments (sometimes I shoot in automatic mode when I don't care about sharpness so much). I shot hand held.

Brucej67 Loc: Cary, NC

Good advise and well stated.

genocolo Loc: Vail and Gasparilla Island

How did extract this information from the photo?

CO

After I downloaded the photo, I right clicked on it. A pop-up box will appear. Click on "Properties" at the bottom of the list in that box. Another pop-up box will appear with three tabs - General, Security, Details. Click on the "Details" tab. The information was listed there.

sailorsmom Loc: Souderton, PA

Nice shots, silveragemarvel!