Industrious Wood Stork

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Rassie

Rassie

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During my recent visit to the Florida wetlands many birds were building and fortifying nests, and especially so the Wood Storks. They would leave the nest and fly to a special tree where they would break off branches and carry them back to weave into the nest.

I tracked some of the storks coming and going. One of them approached with a stick and flew right over my head to its nest on a little island behind me. I started firing burst shots as the bird approached, and of course it came so close that it couldn't fit in the frame as it went overhead. Second and third images are uncropped.

Z6II, Nikkor 200-500mm F/5.6, TC-14E III. 1/1600 sec, F/8. ISO 4500. It was early morning with low light, hence a high ISO.

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Rassie said:
During my recent visit to the Florida wetlands many birds were building and fortifying nests, and especially so the Wood Storks. They would leave the nest and fly to a special tree where they would break off branches and carry them back to weave into the nest.

I tracked some of the storks coming and going. One of them approached with a stick and flew right over my head to its nest on a little island behind me. I started firing burst shots as the bird approached, and of course it came so close that it couldn't fit in the frame as it went overhead. Second and third images are uncropped.

Z6II, Nikkor 200-500mm F/5.6, TC-14E III. 1/1600 sec, F/8. ISO 4500. It was early morning with low light, hence a high ISO.

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OMG, if looks could kill!!!! Nice pics. Great head on shots. Interesting story behind
 
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Great shots! After looking at them I went back up to your story to see if you were using the A1 or Z9. Very happy to see you were using the Z6II !

It really does seem that the Z cameras take the TC's a lot better than the DSLRs!
 
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Andrew Lamberson said:
It really does seem that the Z cameras take the TC's a lot better than the DSLRs!
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I never had a teleconverter in the past because this lens gave me sufficient reach on my crop sensor bodies. Of course that changed when I traded the D7500 on a Z6, and later to a Z6II. On full frame the reach is wanting for many birds. I agonized for a long time whether to purchase a teleconverter because of all the mixed reviews.

This vacation last week was the first time I went to the wetlands with the TC-14E III mounted, and I did not once remove it from the lens. All my shots were with the TC mounted. There is a small loss of IQ with the TC, but it's not enough to make a big difference to the IQ of the images. The TC does slow down the speed at which the lens focuses, so I tend to miss focus more often on birds in flight. I did get many well-focused shots of BIF as well, though. So overall I feel using the TC on this combo results in a net benefit for shooting wildlife. The 24MP sensor of the Z6II does not allow for as much cropping as with a 45+ MP sensor. One can argue that with the Z7 or D850 one can shoot without TC and crop to DX dimensions. That's not feasible with a lower resolution sensor, so in my case the TC makes more sense.

From what I hear others say, this lens with the TC does not do as well on a DSLR, probably mainly ecause of the resultant F/8 with the TC mounted, and then you're at the limits of where a DSLR can focus reliably. The mirrorless cameras are not tied to F/8 and can focus well at even smaller apertures.
 
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