nmoore6

Will do, and looking at gimbal heads as we speak!

whitehall Loc: Canada

MT Shooter suggest that the lens Aleays benefits from a proper tuning to the camera. I have the Tamron 150-600 G2 and the tap, but how do you adjust for infinity ie. BIF

Thanks

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

On my D810 and D500 I have GROUP AUTO FOCUS. In group auto focus Nikon shows 4 points grouped in the center of the view finder. As long as one of these points is on the bird, the bird will be in focus. I use continuous auto focus and center weighted metering. I shoot at a minimum of 1/2000 sec. You might be a little slow for hand holding. All of my shots are done hand held with the Nikon 200-500 f5.6 lens on my D500. The D500, D850, and D5 all have a separate processor just for focusing. I have noticed how well it does on moving birds.
Below is an example of the 200-500 on a very early morning shot of a green heron.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

I used the 150-500 Sigma in Africa in 2008 and found that backing off the 500mm setting just a tiny bit improved IQ noticeably. I was shooting with a Nikon D5000 at that time. Always high ISO with shutter speeds never less than 1/800th, mostly higher. The images printed out nicely up to 11 by 14. I have saved my $$$ for the past decade and bought the Nikon 200-500mm lens and immediately noticed better IQ at the full 500mm. I don't do BIF very much so my comments are more from stable subjects but with good camera techniques, I feel. Always shot in Africa hand-held.

nmoore6

Woah, incredible shot! I will look into trying group focusing as well when the D610 arrives. If you can recall, do you know how close you were physically to this bird? I feel like that may have something to do with it for me (too far away from the subject, overestimating the lens capability). Just trying to check off all the boxes.

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

Plenty of good tips on technique already posted. Let me go in the direction of testing the camera and lens together so you know the combination can produce sharp images. Print an 81/2" x 11" resolution target (lots available for free on the internet). Hang the resolution target in bright light, like on your backyard fence mid day. Put the camera on a tripod a move it so the target fills around 1/3 maybe 1/2 the frame at full zoom. Set camera to AF-S, aperture priority with aperture wide open, lowest normal ISO (ISO 100), and use a remote trigger. May need to reduce shutter speed by about a stop if your focus target or background are mostly white. Just want the whites close to white and blacks close to black on your monitor. Go to live view (Lv), move the focus off a bit manually, use remote trigger to allow the lens to focus, then take the shot. Now take about 5 shots in AF mode by moving focus off a bit before each shot. Look at your results. The live view shot should be sharp. If most of the AF shots are sharp you are good to go. If not, you may need to do some tuning.

SharpShooter Loc: NorCal

LoL, hey, at least I got it right about 10 Words later!!! LoL
SS

whitehall Loc: Canada

thank you. i assume if my lens camera combination is correct in the back yard, then it should be also correct for BIF, though the distances are different.

TSGallantPhotography Loc: SW Florida

I have an incredibly steady hand with hand-holding but with the bigger lenses, I notice they aren't as sharp as when I use a tripod. Also, do you have the ability to microadjust the focus? I found that it helped with every one of my lenses. Good luck.

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

Finally an answer I can agree with. If you cannot get a decent shot on a tripod with a test pattern that covers a good portion of the frame then you have problems that need to be addressed that are independent of shutter speed, hand holding, and other technique issues.

I spend time evaluating my lenses by performing tuning adjustments at various focal lengths and getting that dialed in my camera. Too much variation between min and max on a zoom and you have a problem. I will test at several middle spots as well (marked on the lens, such as 100, 200 300 if so marked) to ensure the value selected will be appropriate for whatever zoom setting I use. My latest Sony allows for a wide and tele value for some lenses, linearly interpolating for middle values. Once that is done I then check out performance of the aperture setting, cranking down by a 1/3 stop increment to determine the maximum f stop for the best sharpness. I do this this for the min and max focal length. Next, I then back off from the extreme focal lengths and see if the shots improve. This lets me determine if I can use the extremes for good shots.

Once I understand the limitations of the lens/camera combo then I can go out shooting and work on technique.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I was about 50 to 75 feet away from the Green Heron. She was flying fast from left to right, I shot as I panned her.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

This is a very recurring theme here on UHH ! I have made many, many suggestions in the past - you might search for some of the threads ....

1. That lens @ 500mm is known to be soft ! If you are serious about sharpness, Maximize your shooting techniques and shoot @400mm and CROP - and if need be, use well applied pixel enlargement - or get a state of the art Nikon 200-500.

2.As ISO noise goes up, image sharpness goes DOWN !

3.Yes, focus calibration is imperative with all longer focal length lenses !

4.https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-236741-1.html , https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-384073-1.html

5. Using a clear "protective" filter exacerbates focus issues with longer focal length lenses.

6. I would never consider hand holding @500mm at ANY shutter speed - unless I was DESPARATE !

7.The best case scenario for birds is a crop frame body - so why are you going full frame ??

..

Strodav Loc: Houston, Tx

I like the new Tamron and Sigma zoom lenses because of their quality, sometimes beating Nikon glass, but you can tune them by focal length and distance, usually 18 different combinations. Don’t have to compromise anywhere.

skywolf

Make sure your lens and camera are calibrated, either doing yourself or taking it to a camera store. I use a Nikon D7100 with a Tamron 150-600 and there isn't much difference between that and a Sigma. I set the camera to take multiple shots. That way if you're a little shaky or the bird moves wrong or something, you might have another chance. I use my camera strap to steady up a bit more.

Karl's Bird Photography Loc: Oregon

7.The best case scenario for birds is a crop frame body - so why are you going full frame ??

That's what I thought when I used a Canon 7D2. But reading and following Art Morris, I became a believer in FF. I bought a 5D4 and my pictures are a lot better... a lot less noise (huge difference... I often shoot birds in dimmer light at ISO of 2000 or more... here's one at ISO 12,800: https://www.flickr.com/photos/136435824@N03/43014447711/in/datetaken/). I also get sharper images when cropping to make the image the same "magnification" as the 7D2... and it helps that the 5D4 has more megapixels.