Just another quick post, this one actually from this weekend where I was in Detroit for a Graduation. We were staying with my Wife's Grandparents who are quite avid bird watchers, and they have a large amount of bird feeders out on their back porch. Yes, this is probably cheating a little bit when it comes to taking photos of wildlife, but I'll take what I can get. I had my D4 and 200-400 with me as I was going to be doing some video at the Graduation Ceremony, but I figured since I had it why not take some photos as well?
Eating a seed. D4 400mm f/4 1/500 ISO 3200
Most of these photos were taken through the window, so as to not scare away the birds, so there was a little bit of sharpness lost, but not enough to really be able to tell.
Little bird convention. D4 400mm f/4 1/500 ISO 3200
I'll just put a little gallery up here with a few photos, instead of a large photo of each.
There was this dumb squirrel who was always getting into the feeders with some great feats of acrobatics, it was almost worth just letting him get his fill.
So far I have found that even with the VR (vibration reduction) on a long lens like this you really should get your shutter speed up much higher than you think you would need in order to get sharp photos. I was hovering around 1/800th most of the time, with my lowest being something like 1/250th for a couple photos. I was also using a monopod for all of these photos, which helps immensely with a big lens like that. Even for a 23 year old male like myself it gets heavy.
So far I have found that even with the VR (vibration reduction) on a long lens like this you really should get your shutter speed up much higher than you think you would need in order to get sharp photos. I was hovering around 1/800th most of the time, with my lowest being something like 1/250th for a couple photos. I was also using a monopod for all of these photos, which helps immensely with a big lens like that. Even for a 23 year old male like myself it gets heavy.
Squirrels are dumb and brilliant. D4 400mm f/5.6 1/250 ISO 3200
I'll just post a few photos of some Cardinals, both male (red) and female (brown and red). Not too much more to say about it.
D4 400mm f/4 1/800 ISO 3200
D4 400mm f/4 1/800 ISO 3200
D4 400mm f/4 1/1000 ISO 3200
Now for this next photo I bumped my ISO down one stop to 1600, and there was quite a dramatic change in the noise, even though there was not very much at ISO 3200.
D4 400mm f/4 1/400 ISO 1600
I'll include a 100% crop of this one just to show how sharp this is, its crazy for 1600.
Same photo as above, just cropped in 1-1
So that was a fun little photo time, as we don't get too many little birds hanging around here in North Dakota.
Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios
Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios
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