Combinations

Foto at top: Holland Avocet (Kluut) 60m cloudy Z50 Nikkor f/5.6E PF VR TC-20E III equivalent 1500m (!) standard camouflage.

About equipment for lightweight bird photograhy

In case of small birds far away you need large 35mm equivalent, a high resolution image sensor and probably a tripod and improvised sight at your lens in order to precisely aim your lens at distant bird(s) easily. The bird should occupy a significant part of the picture frame containn sufficient detail. So you need for example Nikon Mirrorless Z50 Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR TC-20E III, equivalent 1500mm. Occasions are often affordable because some of these lenses are more of less oldtimers. “Golden ring” pro-level lightweight Phase Fresnel lenses consistently produce surprisingly detailed pictures with or without converters. We ourselves use PF lenses all the time,

For photographing fast and really unpredictable action you need one special relatively light preferably handholdable camera-lens converter combination with APERTURE value like f/2.8 of f/4.0 transmitting a sufficient amount of light onto the camera’s (integrated) AF sensor. The camera should have fast focussing potential, high frame rate, large buffer and an improvised sight to track fast moving birds. You may also need something like a rice bag to support your camera when working from shelter, car or from behind a wall, tree or the like.

In case of (a) large (pair or group of) birds close by you need extraordinary small equivalent so the picture itself will fit whithin the picture frame. You need for example Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II (1450 gram) or Nikkor 70-200mm f/4 VR S (850 gram) and possibly add converter TC-14E or TC-20E III to get a larger equivalent or a Nikkor Z camera with Z Nikkor 100-400mm f/4.5 – 6.3 (featherlight 1435 gram superb top quality S-class lens!) or Z Nikkor 180-600mm f/5,6-6.3 VR (no S class nevertheless great quality!).

When you prefer using but one combination you almost unevitably need a zoom lens. An excellent solution in that case is the Nikkor Z 100-400mm f/4.5-6.3 S external zoom, S class high optical quality lens, 1435 gram, maximal length 22 centimeter price anno 2023 2400 euro. This lens also performs quite well even with Z TC-1.4x or the Nikkor 180-600mm mentioned above.

By the way also Z Nikkor 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 is a high quality zoom lens and often offered by Nikon as part of an attractive package deal. We used it when we need an absolutely light camera-lens combination at long walks! In other words if you ever buy a Z camera then buy this lens too! Look at two examples:

house sparrow — *Holland cloudy House Sparrow (Huismus) size 15cm distance 8m equivalent 375mm **Z50 Nikkor DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3** substantial camouflage **APERTURE Mode Birds** 1/1000 second ISO 220 f/6.3 -1.5 EV.*

sparrow hawk — Holland Sparrow Hawk (Sperwer) size 33cm distance 10m dark cloudy winter Distance 9m equivalent 375mm **Z50 Z Nikkor 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3** total camouflage. **APERTURE Mode Birds** 1/1600 second **6400 ISO** f/6.3 **ISO 3800** -0.5EV.

Nikons so called f/8 support

Nikon DSLR’s do not support advanced AF functionality beyond f/5.6 or TC-20E III beyond f/5.6. This “Not supported “Advanced AF functionality” consists of:

AF-C 3D at f/8, f/11, etcetera.
AF-C auto at f/8, f/11, etcetera.
Use of TC-20E III at Nikon DSLR and Nikkors with APERTURE value f/8, etcetera.

This set of functions is often referred to as “f/8 support” (“all functionality beyond f/5.6 at Nikon DSLR’s”). For example the combination D500 Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF VR TC-14E equivalent 630mm as such is supported, however Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR TC-20E III equivalent 1500mm is not supported, whereas Z50 Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR equivalent 1500mm is supported because Nikon mirrorless System 1 Series and Z camera’s do not have this “f/8-restriction”.

Our choices of equipment

After many years and considering the difficulties and complications mentioned at this page, our choice of equipment for the time being is as follows below. We use D500 Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR lens and TC-20E III converter for maximal reach and the featherlight handholdable easily movable D500 Nikkor 300mm TC-14E II for action photography of unpredictable Terns, Lapwings, etcetera. Both F-mount combinations are optimally set up for action photography of small or large (groups or pairs of) birds at any distance.

@dik reddit

1 Nikon D500 Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 (!) VR II [TC-20E III] mainly as fast focussing action-camera for large birds close by, like seabirds, Spoonbills, Herons, Egrets, Buzzards, Kites, Cormorants and the like.
2 Nikon DSLR D500 as our preferred “action-camera” (or reach-camera) using Nikkor 300mm f/4E PF VR [TC-14E II] or Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR [TC-14E III].
3 Nikon Z50 as our preferred “reach-camera” using Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR [TC-20E III]. Nevertheless we systematically use it as a more or less universal reach & action-camera in bird photograph.
4 Telescope Nikon ED82 (older type but sturdy and optically quite good and easy handling) or Swarovski STM80HD (top quality) with optically perfect digicompacts Panasonic G3 Lumix 20mm f/1.7 or Nikon Series 1 V1 1 18.5mm f/1.8, both perfect lenses behind scope photograping birds at extraordinary large distance.
6. Nikon Z50 Nikkor DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3 exceptionally lightweight high quality combination.
7 Possibly in near future also (one of three mentioned here): Z Nikkor 180-600mm f/4.5 – 6.3 VR.
8 Possibly in near future (one of three mentioned here): Z Nikkor 100-400mm f/4.5 – 6.3
9 Possibly in near future (one of three mentioned here): Z Nikkor 400mm f/4.5 S VR.

Z50 Z Nikkor DX 50-250mm f/4.5-6.3

is an exceptionally compact lightweight zooming combination with stoll acceptabel maximal equivalent 375mm (without Z converter) which comes in handy if one absolutely wants to “travel light”. Nikon is often offering this well-known high quality lens in attractive package deals with Z camera’s.

Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II

is a sturdy pro quality lightning fast focussing lens and ideal for photographing (action of) large birds (at sea) close by – with TC-20E III also further away – like Seabirds, Spoonbills, Herons and Egrets. Alas we don’t have Penguins (Pinguins) in Holland (yet).

Z50 with Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR TC-20E III

offers a luxurous 1500mm equivalent.

Z lenses

These sets of equipment are independently usable and always ready to go wherever we are. We use D500 Nikkor 300mm f/4E always handheld. The combination is quite light and well balanced. You can move it easily and track extraordinary fast action like fishing/diving Terns (Sterns), Gannets (Jan van Genten) and the like. Look at the picture of the fishing Sandwich Tern (Grote Stern) below. Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR is a fabulous (almost “lifetime”) superlight universal top quality tele. We are not the only one judging this way. This lens has impessed many bird photographers from the beginning! We use it almost every day and we are happy with it.

We may add one of those interesting three Z tele-lenses (items, 7, 8 or 9) to our collection after we have tested them. Sometimes we use Z7 or Z7 II (courtesy Nikon) replacing D500. They give us less reliable autofocus and tracking (yet), however a lighter combination, more image quality and a larger viewer field of view, which can be key in action photography because thes fast flying large birds do “stay somewhat longer within the picture”. These full frame Z7 and Z II have somewhat lower tracking speed. Hopefully this is being a relatively small dilemma with a relatively large price tag, for the time being.