No fear
This is the Nikon 300 mm f4 IF-ED without any teleconverter in place. It's a great lens by itself. Autofocus is said to be slow, but it grabs things pretty well on the D70 when it isn't dimmed by a teleconverter. With the converter on, it's manageable, but barely -- i.e. fine for birds on the ground in the open, but probably useless for warblers in close quarters. I'll give it a try on songbirds later this summer anyway, and see what happens.
The semipalmated sandpipers on the spit today were incredibly tame. I sat on a log, set up my tripod quite low to the ground, and within fifteen minutes they were beginning to forage within six feet of me -- closer than my closest focusing distance with that lens! No matter -- it was magical to watch them without having to rely on optical gear.
This was the same tiny beach that gave me the dunlin last weekend. I'll be visiting it more in the future.
No fear
This is the Nikon 300 mm f4 IF-ED without any teleconverter in place. It's a great lens by itself. Autofocus is said to be slow, but it grabs things pretty well on the D70 when it isn't dimmed by a teleconverter. With the converter on, it's manageable, but barely -- i.e. fine for birds on the ground in the open, but probably useless for warblers in close quarters. I'll give it a try on songbirds later this summer anyway, and see what happens.
The semipalmated sandpipers on the spit today were incredibly tame. I sat on a log, set up my tripod quite low to the ground, and within fifteen minutes they were beginning to forage within six feet of me -- closer than my closest focusing distance with that lens! No matter -- it was magical to watch them without having to rely on optical gear.
This was the same tiny beach that gave me the dunlin last weekend. I'll be visiting it more in the future.