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ndwgolf

ndwgolf

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Neil Williams
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Do you guys think AF speed is priority over pixels for shooting birds and Wildlife?
The reason I ask is that I have been working on some pictures that I took while visiting Tanzania in January this year and they were shot with the D810 and are a dream to work with due to the fact that they can be cropped and cropped some more.
I am back in Tanzania in Feb and plan to take D5 over the D810 and will have a D500 as a backup............
What would you guys take??
 
ndwgolf said:
Do you guys think AF speed is priority over pixels for shooting birds and Wildlife?
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Not necessarily no.
AF speed is priority for fast moving action, a chase or BIF but not for a bird sitting in a tree or an elephant lumbering along, better resolution (D810) can produce a much more pleasing image. However, if you crop and crop on a subject in the distance you can end up with a pixel-mush which looks awful.
Bearing in mind you can only shoot one camera at a time it would be either D5 + D810 or D500 + D810 for me - YMMV :)
 
D500 and d810! Best of both worlds then! What glass you got?
 
Mark twiglet said:
D500 and d810! Best of both worlds then! What glass you got?
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Mark I'm taking 600mm f4 to use with the Nikon
I'm also taking a Leica S007 with a 120mm and 250mm lens.............for anything thats to close for the 600mm (my last experience in Jan was not to much, as I shot 90% of the pictures with the 600mm, and many time even that wasn't enough.
 
Well with the d500 you will have 900mm effective reach
 
gramps said:
Not necessarily no.
AF speed is priority for fast moving action, a chase or BIF but not for a bird sitting in a tree or an elephant lumbering along, better resolution (D810) can produce a much more pleasing image. However, if you crop and crop on a subject in the distance you can end up with a pixel-mush which looks awful.
Bearing in mind you can only shoot one camera at a time it would be either D5 + D810 or D500 + D810 for me - YMMV :)
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Gramps,
I just got the D500 for my wife to use on her 80/400 and she will take the D810 as a backup with probably a 70/200mm
 
You wouldn't need to if you got the d500! Personally think that would be a waste ! F4 is f4 on fx or dx! F4 with 1.7 won't be will it ...... On either
 
Neil, IMHO

DX is an illusion - it is only a cropped FX sensor ....... the question to consider is how many pixels do you want on your final image, what pixel density? and (noise) high ISO performance

D5 has best AF with reports that D500 is near to it - but that is another consideration, AF speed ...... the D810 is not bad - most of the subjects will be stationary or not moving particularly fast, so the D810 or D750 will be fine

I feel that it is important to use two bodies that have the same UI - I use a D750 and D810 - slightly different UI's which is sometimes annoying when switching quickly - I feel that I should have two bodies the same ... 2 x D750's would suit me

The important thing is to test your settings before you start shooting, especially the light values and histogram - sometimes you need extreme + or minus EV adjustments because of the strong light and shadow - but you seemed to have coped well with this certainly looking at the shots you have posted on here.

the TC 1,4 works well with the 600mm ... bringing it to f5.6 ......... the light is usually good in Africa so you can shoot at f8

any extra DOF is good with wildlife as f4 is very narrow especially when you are close ...... so if you have the light push the fvalue up

The new 300mm f4 PF accepts the f1.7 (and TC 1,4), really well - and 300mm is useful with wildlife . the lens is small, light and good for BIF's hand held with the TC1,7
 
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Yes Bill I agree about the user interface, but adamant to take the S.
I just bought the D5 a few weeks ago and have been experimenting with it with BIF and at the beginning I was struggling with it until I let the camera find the focus for me then I had a bunch of keepers.

So D5 is defiantly going.
It would be tough for me to tell my wife now that I want to use the D5 as well so having the D810 as a backup for both of us hopefully will be fine.

My reason for wanting to take the Leica S with me is that I just love shooting with that camera. The files are amazing (its a pity Leica or a 3rd party don't have a 600mm to screw onto the body)

So for me;
D5 plus 600mm (I will get a 1.4 TC as well)
Leica S plus 2 lenses

My wife;
D500 80/400mm
D810 as a backup for both of us but with a 70/200mm for closeups for my wife.
 
I would prioritize AF *accuracy* over just about anything else. AF *speed* is a bit more situationally dependent.

The rest of the discussion is kind of a merry-go-round. Smaller pixels and smaller sensors require more light...
Basically smaller sensors don't need the TC's as much, which is good because they don't tolerate them as well.
And larger sensors tolerate the TC's better, but then you loose/use the benefits of the larger sensor (better light performance).
It's pretty much a wash...
 
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Tc's play with af ..... You get hunting and stuff! I'd rather crop a sharp image more than trying to photoshop a soft /crappy image
 
Mark twiglet said:
Tc's play with af ..... You get hunting and stuff! I'd rather crop a sharp image more than trying to photoshop a soft /crappy image
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I'd rather crop something sharp, for sure.
AF w/ TC's is very body dependent and dependent on the max aperture of the lens/TC combination. The D4/5/500/810 all retain use of all AF points w/ a max aperture of f/5.6, that's why I use the 400/2.8. The 600/4 with the 1.4 should be fine.
 
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