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Canon EOS 3000v
TMAX-400 exposed at 400 ISO
ars Imago FD 1+39
Macro Bellows Pentax M42 II Version (monotrail)
Zenitar 50mm f/1,7 set to f/16
One LED globular light (white light)
CanoScan 8600F
VueScan
Processed to my taste, a 100% crop of this image: www.flickr.com/photos/jpivkova/31748909990/in/photostream/
As some of you know, I love shooting wildlife with my trusty, light, gorgeously-sharp Nikon 300mm f/4D IF-ED AF-S and Nikon 1.4TCII. Although I love this combo for all that it offers on a budget, I was itching for a little more reach and possibly VR.
Tamron and Sigma were offering a lot of reach for a great price, but as good as these lenses seemed to perform according to users, I just wasn't terribly tempted. I wasn't in love with the bokeh on the Sigmas, nor the weight, nor the questionable reliability I've experienced in the past with Sigma super-zooms. I know that times are changing and Sigma has been on fire as of late, but I still see people having AF issues with their "Art" series lenses here and there. What hope does a super-telephoto lens have if some copies of primes front/back-focus? Tamron's first generation 150-600mm super-zoom was impressive when it was announced and the price was right, but,... after giving it a try, I didn't think it would make me happier than the 300mm f/4D and TC did, so I held out.
A couple months ago Tamron announced the new and improved 150-600mm G2. Tamron made many improvements with this lens and that's when I thought that just maybe I was ready to buy. I think I may have added that lens to my B&H cart like five times in a span of two weeks. I even entered my card info and was about to hit "Subit Order", but stopped myself at the last second and hit "X". :P I still wasn't sure whether to go with the shorter Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR, or the Tamron G2.
The Tamron offered more reach; 50mm less at the wide end and 100mm more at the long end. They also added customizable features as far as AF tuning and VR go. The Nikon offered a constant aperture of f/5.6 all the way to 500mm, I liked the bokeh a little more, it had 4.5 stops of VR (Tamron rates the G2 at 4.5 stops as well) and it was Nikon-brand, which meant that future compatibility was a no-brainer. They both cost about the same, so price was not a consideration.
On paper the Tamron made far more sense. How can you go wrong with more reach, more options, similar optical quality and same price??? Yet I still couldn't buy it, not knowing how it felt in my hands compared to the Nikon. I decided to go down to Sammy's Camera and try them both out with my D750.
Of course it was raining, so going outside with them wasn't an option. I aimed both lenses at stationary cars outside, aimed them at stuff inside the store, well-lit corners, dim corners, etc. The Tamron was quite good, nothing to complain about considering I was shooting both at 1/125s hand-held, but when I pulled up the Nikon images on my play-back screen, I was kind of blown away. I wasn't expecting that from a super-zoom. The images were sharp, detailed and nailed focus. Although the Tamron was quicker to acquire focus, it did seem to miss a couple of times in bad light. I don't think it needed AF fine tuning, because in good light it seemed to nail focus despite some camera-shake from me.
To be fair, I was shooting the Tamron at 600mm wide open and the Nikon at 500mm wide open. The Tamron was at f/6.3 and Nikon was at f/5.6, so it was getting less reach and more light than the Tamron. I know some might say I should have shot both the Tamron and Nikon at 500mm, but in my mind if 600mm on the Tamron didn't perform to my expectations, what's the point in buying the extra reach if I'm not going to be happy with it? I simply used both lenses the way I planned to use them all the time, which was at their maximum focal length and wide open.
The Nikon VR was very effective. Tamron had three or four VR options, I made sure to try at least two of them, but wasn't as impressed by their effectiveness at 600mm and 1/125s. Maybe if the Nikon had gone to 600mm, it also wouldn't have done so well, but,... there was just something about the Nikon that made me go "wow". It wowed me so much in fact, that although I planned on buying it through B&H, I decided that I had to have this particular copy of it then and there. It just performed so well with zero AF fine tuning! It was spot-on at every focal length. Hearing about copy variation struck fear in me that if I had bought it online, maybe a different copy wouldn't perform the same way optically.
I'd like to say that the Tamron G2 is quite impressive for the price and what it offers. It seems like a really great lens, and I'm sure it would have performed better if I had been shooting it at 1/2000s in good light. Then again, so would the Nikon under the same circumstances! Whether you go with one or the other, I don't think you can make a bad decision. They're both awesome offerings. 2016 was a very good year for wildlife photogs on a budget. I never in a million years thought I'd love a super-zoom for under $1,400.00 this much!
You're probably wondering how it compares to the 300mm f/4D and 1.4TCII. Prepare to be shocked...... the Nikon 200-500mm matches (if not surpasses by a tiny margin) the 300mm f/4D and TC at 420mm, especially in center sharpness and detail. Well, what about the 300mm f/4D at 300mm without the TC vs. 200-500mm at 300mm? Guys,..... from my non-scientific (but fairly tedious) tests, both lenses are equally sharp in the center. It's insane. I did a comparison test on a tripod both indoors and outdoors using slow and fast shutter speeds, wide open, closed down, and no matter how I tried, the Nikon 200-500mm just kept hitting the target with prime-like sharpness and resolution. It also benefits from being heavier on the tripod. When you use the "Sports" VR on tripod with slow shutter speeds like 1/13s, it actually helps a lot. I couldn't get the 300mm f/4D to take a pin-sharp picture even on a tripod and using the timer at 1/13s, but the 200-500mm did just fine.
I recently went to the wetlands to shoot with the Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6E ED VR. I also brought my Nikon 1.4TCII, just in case. Mobile or still, anything I touched with this lens ended up in focus. Images came out sharp, detailed, clear and contrasty. Although the lens can be slow to acquire focus at first, once it does grab focus, it holds on very well. I shot some incoming ducks far away, very small in the frame, and they were in focus. If something ended up being out of focus, that's because I was still getting used to weilding this beast of a lens. It's larger and heavier than my 300mm f/4D and TC combo, so waving it around to follow fast-moving subjects is still new to me.
If you're looking to buy a telephoto lens for wildlife and you're wondering if you should go the 300mm f/4D or PF route with 1.4TC II or III,... again...in my opinion unless you have trouble hand-holding the 200-500mm due to it's size and weight (which is understandable!), go with the 200-500mm, or go test the Tamron 150-600mm G2 alongside the Nikon. It just makes no sense to spend $2,000.00 on the 300mm f/4PF (or $1,400.00 on the 300mm f/4D version) and $500 on a TC III for a combined cost of $2,500.00, when you could pay $1,400.00 for a sharp zoom that gives you about equal sharpness/detail, more reach, the ability to zoom out to 200mm when you need it and 4.5 stops of VR. It even works with a 1.4TC! You could easily buy the 1.4TC III and get 700mm at f/8 with very acceptable results for a little less than $2,000.00! I don't know how you could beat that for the price.
These are not photos I've taken. I borrowed them from the net and I'm not taking any credits or making any money from them. Recently I've gotten into this phenomenon and so I though I would start creating my own collection of and propagating this mesmerizing event that is a demonstration of something very special.
Looked in the future and what I saw
Was a world in harmony with natural law
There's trouble now but it will be alright if we can
Bring back summer
Get us back our summer
Summer in paradise
(Paradise)
Summer in paradise (paradise)
Summer in paradise (paradise)
Summer in paradise (paradise)
Summer in paradise
(Paradise)
Summer in paradise (paradise)
Summer in paradise
(Paradise)
Summer in paradise (paradise)
Summer in paradise
(Paradise)
Summer in paradise (paradise)
Summer in paradise
Beach Boys
Estate siciliana 2006
Fall crops and standing water from recent rains. Photos taken at intersection of NE 76thand NE 134th.
Crop from previous photo. Upsized and sharpened. Not too bad for a 35mm equivalent non-macro lens.
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This 2-pound coin is my favorite. I'm terrible at making decisions when it comes to colors or new acquisitions, or choosing one object over another that I also like. So, as silly as it sounds, I've adopted this coin to help with settling a choice between two options (toss a coin, sometimes the choice becomes clear before the coin even lands). I've read that it's a useful strategy for getting out of a "decision quicksand".
jonahberger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Decision_Quick...
here all evidence about Aliens i collected till now
Most are of the Mimetic Aliens Kin ,as usual they trying to disguise themselves as electric able, plugs or even as Plants and Garden
so here you will see the portraits of most of the Aliens currently hiding in my house
The Beginning, (Crop Circles )
at first i noticed only the crop circles, dozen of them of any possible sizes
as this