See what you think

[Grandpaw]

I was out shooting today and spotted this dragonfly and thought I would give it a try. This was taken HANDHELD with my Nikon D7000, Nikon 70-200VR F2.8 with a Nikon TC 20E III 2X Teleconverter. Jeff

This was shot at the film equivalent of 600mm

[AgingEyes]

Honestly?

Too busy.

[Grandpaw]

Honestly?

Too busy.

The point of the picture was to show how well the lens and teleconverter worked together, I wasn't taking the photo with intentions of it being a great photo but only to show what the lens and TC combination was capable of and it was shot handheld also. Jeff

[AgingEyes]

The point of the picture was to show how well the lens and teleconverter worked together, I wasn't taking the photo with intentions of it being a great photo but only to show what the lens and TC combination was capable of and it was shot handheld also. Jeff

I knew. You said it in your first post.

But the title of your thread is: "See what you think" and so I told you what I thought. It's an open question

I thought you asked a question and so I gave you my answer.

Perhaps the title could have been: "A sample shot of a 70-200 with a 2xTC" ?

[Grandpaw]

I knew. You said it in your first post.

But the title of your thread is: "See what you think" and so I told you what I thought. It's an open question

I thought you asked a question and so I gave you my answer.

Perhaps the title could have been: "A sample shot of a 70-200 with a 2xTC" ?

AgingEyes, Your probably right! I just figured that by listing what was used everyone would get what I was talking about. I'll try and do a better job next time and thanks for responding. Jeff

[Liz]

It looks sharp to me, Jeff. Handheld! Wow! Looks like a great lens. I hope you post more pics from this lens.

I would love to do some close ups/macro. I think there is a new macro lens coming out for the M4/3 system soon which I may invest in if not too expensive..

However, I have a slight camera shake problem, so I wouldn't attempt anything close with a longer lens and expect to get a sharp image like yours.

Enjoy!

Liz

[wfooshee]

Dragonflies are one of my favorite subjects. They're plentiful, colorful, and sort of predictable. They're also big enough to follow by eye and keep track of as they flit around.

That's a nice shot. To make "a picture" out of it I'd crop it down to not much more than the dragonfly, but I'm assuming you posted the as-shot frame for us.

One thing with depth of field, close subject, and long lens that messes me up is I keep tring to get head-on or quarter-view shots, and I won't get the whole thing in focus. You did well getting perpendicular to him so he's sharp from eyes to tail.

(Goofy factoid: dragonflies have the most complex compound eyes out there, with up to 29,000 lenses per side!)

[Grandpaw]

Liz, just to let you know, I was 2.66m or about 8ft away from this dragonfly when I took this picture and it is not cropped. Thanks everyone for taking a look and leaving your comments. I didn't plan on keeping the picture, it was just to check out the combination of lens and teleconverter. Jeff

[Footski]

You must have been a surgeon in another life to have hand held it with all that heavy gear. I am most impressed. Do you really like your Tc Jeff?

[Grandpaw]

You must have been a surgeon in another life to have hand held it with all that heavy gear. I am most impressed. Do you really like your Tc Jeff?

I am very happy with it so far. It is not cheap but considering what it would cost me to get that reach by getting a lens that would get me out to 600mm it is fairly inexpensive. In the past most people purchased the Nikon 1.7 TC because it was sharper but a friend of mine that had the 1.7 borrowed my 2X TC and sold his 1.7 to get one of these. If you decide to look around for one make sure it is this exact one and not the earlier version of the 2X because there is a big difference. By the way the auto focus and metering work with this one and it also gives you the correct FXIF data for this combination in the data file on each photo. Jeff

[Kokopeli]

Looks like a good pairing to me. I shoot that lens on my D7000 as well, although I just bought a Sigma 150-500 for the reach. The TC option would give me about half a stop at full zoom.

Thanks for sharing the combo Jeff!

~Brian

[Grandpaw]

Looks like a good pairing to me. I shoot that lens on my D7000 as well, although I just bought a Sigma 150-500 for the reach. The TC option would give me about half a stop at full zoom.

Thanks for sharing the combo Jeff!

~Brian

I was considering that lens but this was about half the price and gave me the option of leaving off the extra length with the TC not on it. The Sigma would have given me a little extra reach. Jeff

[Loupey]

Looks good on my smart phone.
I've used the Canon combination version for years. FWIW, I have no hesitation using that combination for sports and events (air shows, races), but not for wildlife.

[AgingEyes]

Looks good on my smart phone.
I've used the Canon combination version for years. FWIW, I have no hesitation using that combination for sports and events (air shows, races), but not for wildlife.

Ha...yours is Canon and his is Nikon. Consensus is Canon has better TCs.

The dragonfly in this image on my monitor looks funny, kind of like over-processed. But, I rather judge the optical quality based on raw viewed 100% and not on re-sized and processed jpeg.

[freygr]

Ha...yours is Canon and his is Nikon. Consensus is Canon has better TCs.

The dragonfly in this image on my monitor looks funny, kind of like over-processed. But, I rather judge the optical quality based on raw viewed 100% and not on re-sized and processed jpeg.

The image is sharp on my monitor. Trying to get a good photo of a dragonfly is very hard, you just may end up hitting your head on a wall out of frustration.

[AgingEyes]

The image is sharp on my monitor. Trying to get a good photo of a dragonfly is very hard, you just may end up hitting your head on a wall out of frustration.

Well, I was not saying it's not sharp. I was just saying it looks over-processed to me.

As for photographing dragonfly, photographing it in flight is difficult. I'm still trying to get some decent one. Otherwise, it should not be that difficult. Here's two of mine:




Here's the dragonfly is trying to drown a damselfly, holding it down in the water:




If I can do it, anyone can do it.

[Grandpaw]

Well, I was not saying it's not sharp. I was just saying it looks over-processed to me.

As for photographing dragonfly, photographing it in flight is difficult. I'm still trying to get some decent one. Otherwise, it should not be that difficult. Here's two of mine:




Here's the dragonfly is trying to drown a damselfly, holding it down in the water:




If I can do it, anyone can do it.

AgingEyes, you took some very nice photos and they look great. The whole point of my post was NOT that I took a great photo of a dragonfly but the point was that it was taken with a 70-200 lens with a 2x teleconverter HANHELD at the equivalent of 600mm at a distance of 8 1/2 ft and still came out this good. It wasn't meant to be something that I had intentions of keeping or framing but as a test to see how well this lens & teleconverter could do being shot handheld. The EXIF data is on my picture but I don't see any on your picture to compare it to. Was it taken at 600mm and handheld? Just curious if we are comparing apples to apples or something completely different? Jeff

[AgingEyes]

Jeff, you have told me the point of this thread and so I thank you for reminding me again.

I was simply responding to GRF (see his post he quoted me specifically) who for some reason brought up the photographing of dragonfly. I simply was trying to show GRF that it was not that difficult to photograph dragonfly.And your shot is certainly one example how it can be done without much difficulty.

I'm not responding to this thread again.

Peace