Foto at top: Holland sun Red Kite (Rode Wouw) size 63cm distance 65m equivalent 1050mm D500 Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR standard camouflage APERTURE mode Birds 1/6000 f/8 ISO 560 -1.5EV. Crop 2700 x 1800.
Dilemma’s in bird photography
Although “sufficient reach” is the key issue in lightweight bird photography you are alternately working either in some kind of “maximum reach mode” or in some “action or tracking fast movementmode”. In either case you use optimal equipment and settings thereof, either for sufficient reach or for reliable action focussing and or tracking fast moving birds. Ultimately, and as a third option, you may use an ultralight handheld combination for tracking exceptionally fast or unpredictably flying birds when you cannot any moore use a tripod because the action or the moving are too fast. It is not easy to build your collection of equipment addressing all possible situations of various wheather, size of bird, distance of bird, action, speed, etcetera in bird photography. It takes quite some experimenting with different equipment and settings thereof.
Over time we have tried to solve these dilemma’s by using two different camera’s, two different lenses and two different converters, combining these in three different combinations. This approach has proven to be quite effective and pragmatic. It really works!
Pictures shot with combination 1:
Combination 2: Lightweight D500 Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR [TC-14E III] equivalent 1050mm optimised for fast focussing action, not too far away:
Pictures shot with combination 2:
Combination 3: Ultralight lightweight D500 Nikkor 300mm f/4.0E PF VR [TC-14E] equivalent 450m or 900mm optimised for handheld tracking fast moving birds.
Pictures shot with combination 3:
Demo-project “Kingfisher”
The variety of potography is quite well demonstrated in “project Kingfisher”. It contains many pictures of Kingfisher (IJsvogel) resting, in action or (fast) moving, photographed using all kinds of equipment and settings including full frame D800 and digiscoping:
Nikon System Z offering new opportunities
By the way we may need to adapt this solution once more now because of the recent availabity of some Nikon Z system camera’s, lenses and converters like Z7 II, Z8, Z Nikkor 4000 PF VR and particularly Z Nikkor 180-600mm f/6.3 and possibly Z nikkor 600mm f/6.3. Particularly the zoom seems to be a great price-performance succes in bird photography.
