Long Contenders
For the sake of nerdy techno-obsessiveness, I wondered which of some selected long lenses would be best suited for getting in as tight as possible to a distant object. I thought of setting up to shoot a full moon and see which lens bags the sharpest image after a tight crop but changing lenses with bug repellent on in the dark is a chore and I am prone to sloth. So, I picked a sunny day and set up my tripod in my open garage and shot at a subject 370 feet (113 meters) away using the described lenses and teleconverters and jotting notes in my spiral book.
THIS IS NOT A PROFESSIONAL REVIEW, this an attempt to satisfy my own curiosity and am simply sharing it with anyone interested. Trolls can move along but thoughtful discussion is appreciated.
So, the players are: Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Ai ED (with the 95mm UV filter screwed on, it bottoms out my 5 pound postal scale), a Tamron 200-400mm f/5.6 AF, the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 G ED VRII AF-S N, my 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED IF AF-S VR DX, and an older set of teleconverters, the TC14a and TC-201. I also shot a couple with my beloved Nikkor 105mm micro VR but did not include them in the composites because it just did not have the reach to be competitive. I hope to roll out another test at about 25 feet away with subjects at incremental distances to look into how the TCs affect depth of field and how these lenses match up at close range.
Long Contenders
For the sake of nerdy techno-obsessiveness, I wondered which of some selected long lenses would be best suited for getting in as tight as possible to a distant object. I thought of setting up to shoot a full moon and see which lens bags the sharpest image after a tight crop but changing lenses with bug repellent on in the dark is a chore and I am prone to sloth. So, I picked a sunny day and set up my tripod in my open garage and shot at a subject 370 feet (113 meters) away using the described lenses and teleconverters and jotting notes in my spiral book.
THIS IS NOT A PROFESSIONAL REVIEW, this an attempt to satisfy my own curiosity and am simply sharing it with anyone interested. Trolls can move along but thoughtful discussion is appreciated.
So, the players are: Nikon D7000, Nikkor 50-300mm f/4.5-5.6 Ai ED (with the 95mm UV filter screwed on, it bottoms out my 5 pound postal scale), a Tamron 200-400mm f/5.6 AF, the Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 G ED VRII AF-S N, my 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED IF AF-S VR DX, and an older set of teleconverters, the TC14a and TC-201. I also shot a couple with my beloved Nikkor 105mm micro VR but did not include them in the composites because it just did not have the reach to be competitive. I hope to roll out another test at about 25 feet away with subjects at incremental distances to look into how the TCs affect depth of field and how these lenses match up at close range.