500

So I was the first person to receive a Nikon 200-500 f/5.6E lens here in North Dakota, which is pretty awesome considering how photogenic our wildlife is here! 

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @500mm, f/6.3, 1/4000, ISO 800

This was also my first outing with my new D4s as well! It has been super impressive so far, better even than my D4, as unbelievable as that sounds. 

It was really interesting using such a long lens, even longer than my 200-400 f/4 (which I will have a couple comparisons here).

Nikon D4s, 200-500 w/1.4x teleconverter @ 700mm, f/8, 1/4000, ISO 2000

I was very impressed with the performance of the lens, even wide open at f/5.6, and I was just as impressed with the wide open performance at f/8 when it is paired with a 1.4x teleconverter! Here are a couple quick sample photos comparing between the 200-500 and 200-400,  both on my D4. Ubiquitous Prairie Dog shots! 

Nikon D4, 200-500@500, f/5.6, 1/2500, ISO 800

near-100% crop of wide-open 200-500

Nikon D4, 200-400 f/4@5.6, 1/2000, ISO 800

near-100% crop from 200-400

Very impressive. If I only did wildlife I would seriously consider getting rid of my 200-400, but we will see how the 200-500 does during hockey season before I make that decision. 

I am very impressed by its performance wide-open, as shown above, as well as the color rendition and contrast. Even though it is only f/5.6 you can see that the bokeh is still very nice, more than good enough to help remove any distracting elements in the background. 

Next up are some bison shots taken with the 200-500 with my Nikon 1.4x teleconverter. Personally I have the latest version, the version 3, but I'm sure that the version 2 will perform very well as well, as long as you have a camera capable of focusing at f/8, which my D4s did beautifully. 

Nikon D4s, 200-500w/1.4x@700mm, f/9, 1/2000, ISO 1600

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @ 500mm, f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 800

And of course the horse photos! Because wild horses are awesome, and more unique than bison, for me at least. Some of my favorite photos from the whole group. 

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @ 290mm, f/6.3, 1/4000, ISO 800

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @500, f/5.6, 1/8000, ISO 1600

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @ f/6.3, 1/2500, ISO 800

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @ 500, f/5.6, 1/2500, ISO 800

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @ 500, f/5.6, 1/3200, ISO 800

I also had a lot of fun doing landscapes with the 200-500, as well. Really interesting seeing the compression in the field of view. 

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @ 500, f/5.6, 1/8000, ISO 1600

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @ 200, f/8, 1/2500, ISO 800

Nikon D4s, 200-500 @ 500, f/5.6, 1/1000, ISO 500

Last photo. This is more of an impression of the D4s than the 200-500, but I am super impressed with how well the camera performs at higher ISO. If you hadn't noticed most of the shots in this post were above ISO 800, because it is a relatively slow lens at f/5.6. I felt comfortable with that because the camera does amazingly there. Great colors, exceptional sharpness and clarity, even at higher ISOs. This next shot was after sunset by about 20 minutes, in the shade, at 500mm, with an f/5.6 lens, and it looks awesome. I have an 8x12 print of it and you can barely tell it is more than iso 800. Madness. 

 Here is a link to the image on flickr, since they don't have any compression like my website does here. 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/crimson_wolf/21414554460/in/dateposted-public/

I love it. Definitely one of my favorite photos of a deer that I have taken.

Anyways, thanks for reading! I'll have another post with other photos from the park, as well as a few posts with images from my week in Colorado, already a month ago. I have been working on my timelapse project for the past month, so the blog and images got put on the back burner. I'll try to get a couple posts out this weekend and next week .

​And a bonus picture of me using the 200-500, taken by my lovely wife. And a picture of her too, taken with the 200-500!

Thanks!

Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios