Even at 1200mm I feel fortunate to get close enough
to capture these guys. Crows and Blue Jays are so skittish
= new reply since forum marked as read
when i'm in chicago, i sit in the back room at my parents' house and get blue jays out the window with 300mm prime on a full frame nikon:
now that i've mastered 3D tracking on the Z8, hopefully i'll get better shots on the next trip. i'd love to find some crows.
I have only captured a handful of blue jays, mine too through a window where I have my bath and feeder set up. This is my favorite. It reminds me of a what I imagine a Velociraptor would look like. I'm using a Z8 as well, with the 180-600 + TC2 for the 1200mm. Because I shoot a lot of airplanes at 40k ft, especially against the moon, I have had that combo on the camera since I bought it. I keep a 28-300 on my Z6ii for other shots.
...i guess i still have that old school state of mind that primes are sharper. but i know, in recent years, zoom lens image quality rivals that of prime lenses, especially if you get the f/2.8 pro zooms. i don't have any nikon zooms but i bought the 200-600mm sony zoom lens for my A7Cii and it's sharp...and it's not pro glass, nor does it have a fixed aperture throughout the zoom range.
the nikon 400 f/4.5 is next on my list and then the 600 f/6.3
i miss andy.....i showed this shot of mine to peg the other day and said that i think andy would have liked it.
....it's not an S line lens but still it's quite sharp even when i stop down past f/16. i bought it instead of the 105 Z because it's better to get closer to your subject when using a flash+diffuser, but i'm getting hung up in foliage when moving in close to these little guys in the field. i'm gonna have to get the 105 Z or start using my old 105 micro f-mount to see if that works out better. here's another frog metamorph shot i got this year....this one is a freshly emerged milk frog that would easily fit on a dime with room to spare:
