I have a monopod and a tripod.
Thanks! I hadn't thought about rentals.
Thanks! I will look into it.
My longest lens is a Nikon 55-300 VR fully auto on a Nikon D7100 (the equivalent of 450 mm for us oldtimers that think in 35 mm). I want something longer for my upcoming trip to Costa Rica where I will be shooting monkeys, birds, and crocodiles in bright light conditions. I really want the Nikon 200-500 VR fully auto but can't justify the $1,396. I looked at the Vivitar 500 that comes bundled with a 2X teleconverter but iit is manual exposure and focus and gets bad reviews, although it is only $119. Right now I am thinking about a Nikon 2X which is around $500, but I am having trouble figuring out if it is compatible. HELP!
Check out Nikon's 10-20 mm. Hardcore pros will say nay to it, but if you are not shooting the cover for National Geographic it is a bargain lens.
I got my first Nikon back in 1970 so I am beyond "old school." Back then before computers figured out all the glass for lenses, teleconverters were looked down on because they cost you some sharpness but also because -- using the common 2X as an example -- they cut your widest open f-stop in half. So if the widest your lens could open was f5.6 all of a sudden it could only open to f11 or so. This was critical if you were trying to hand-hold, working in low light, etc. The degradation of image quality issue has improved thanks to computer-aided design, but you still have the f-stop problems. The bottom line, of course, still comes down to price. You can move your max 300 mm to max 600 mm with a teleconverter a whole lot cheaper with a teleconverter than with a longer lens that zooms to 600 mm. So if you are rich or making a six figure plus income from photography the answer would be different than if you are just interested in getting the best images you can to post to your friends online.
Are we getting the feeling that the people on this thread are old? LOL!
First camera was a Leica? We are all jealous.
The old F: if you didn't have a hammer handy and needed to drive a nail you could use the F. Those were the good old days.
I bought a Hanimex Practica Super TL in 1970. As I recall, it was an East German copy of the Pentax with the Pentax screw mount and a top shutter speed of 1/500. I traded it for a Nikon Nikkormat w/ 2.0 50 mm in 1971 and have used Nikons ever since. F, F2, F3, lenses from 21 mm to 500 mm reflex and now D7100 with five lens setup.
And if you are too young for Victor Borge, you might remember Dr. Evil's comments about Preparations A through G.
As a BMW driver, I suspect without having proof that BMW registered the names Z-1 throught Z-4 for its two-seat sports cars.