Moose, snowshoe hares, and magpies are about it this time of year. One of these years I'll get around to putting up a bear proof bird feeder...
Nikon 180-600 - Photo Share & Discussion Thread
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Richard_M
Well-known member
I ended up taking advantage of the recent sales and purchased a Z 8 and 180-600mm lens. While the Z 8, IMO, doesn't have the same focusing as the Z 9, it does okay. I do enjoy using a zoom for a change.
Here are a few snaps using the Z 8 and 180-600mm. Most of the images include using the 1.4TC. I find the lens is softer using the TC, more noticeable than when I was using the 100-400mm with the TC. Its still early days.
#1 Grey Fantail. This was taken approx. 1 hour after receiving the combo (I have a spare battery which was fully charged) using the body and lens only
#2 Sacred Kingfisher using 1.4TC
#3 Little Pied Cormorant using 1.4TC
#4 Common Bronzewing using 1.4TC
#5 Red-browed Finch using 1.4TC
#6 Superb Fairy-wren using 1.4TC
Here are a few snaps using the Z 8 and 180-600mm. Most of the images include using the 1.4TC. I find the lens is softer using the TC, more noticeable than when I was using the 100-400mm with the TC. Its still early days.
#1 Grey Fantail. This was taken approx. 1 hour after receiving the combo (I have a spare battery which was fully charged) using the body and lens only
#2 Sacred Kingfisher using 1.4TC
#3 Little Pied Cormorant using 1.4TC
#4 Common Bronzewing using 1.4TC
#5 Red-browed Finch using 1.4TC
#6 Superb Fairy-wren using 1.4TC
fcotterill
Well-known member
Good Ol' 200-500 f5.6E
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Wildlife Photographer of the Year People’s Choice shortlist announced
Images of lions and bears are among 25 wildlife images in the running for the annual award, which is open for public voting until January 31, 2024.
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excellent and great to see these birds I will probably never seeI ended up taking advantage of the recent sales and purchased a Z 8 and 180-600mm lens. While the Z 8, IMO, doesn't have the same focusing as the Z 9, it does okay. I do enjoy using a zoom for a change.
Here are a few snaps using the Z 8 and 180-600mm. Most of the images include using the 1.4TC. I find the lens is softer using the TC, more noticeable than when I was using the 100-400mm with the TC. Its still early days.
#1 Grey Fantail. This was taken approx. 1 hour after receiving the combo (I have a spare battery which was fully charged) using the body and lens only
#2 Sacred Kingfisher using 1.4TC
#3 Little Pied Cormorant using 1.4TC
#4 Common Bronzewing using 1.4TC
#5 Red-browed Finch using 1.4TC
#6 Superb Fairy-wren using 1.4TC
Richard_M
Well-known member
excellent and great to see these birds I will probably never see
Thank you Ken
A quick grab of an overhead gull while walking on the beach at Assateague.
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Some fountain visitors this morning. I'll see how they do that way. All cropped and uploaded directly here. Yellowish House Finch, Black Throated Sparrow and my Flicker. These will look a little less punchy than some others, as I use a Linear Camera Profile to start and I didn't process this for contrast and other adjustments.
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Cool images. It appears you took these in Arizona and this is a Gila Woodpecker not one of the Flickers. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Gila_Woodpecker/id#
When you say linear camera profile I assume you are not referring to the picture control you have set in the camera but a tone curve/point curve in Light Room or other editing software, is that correct?
@Ken Miracle
Well this is interesting. I thought all our visitors were Gila's at first, then someone corrected me and said they were Flickers, but now I think we have both and this is a Gila.
Here's a Flicker right (sorry my screen shot cut off his feet)? I am a beginning birder but now I can see the difference.
As to the profile, yes it's the Tony Kupyer Linear Z9 Profile. A year ago I processed all my Africa images using Camera Standard or Landscape, and then as I started to refresh my processing skills from a decade ago and apply new things, I came to realize the colors were not accurate; everything was too saturated. I have found that the Linear Profile on Auto as Tony suggests is a much closer starting point to true colors. I now use a Grey Mid Point Action to color correct most images. I didn't on the ones above yet I see them as far more accurate than the camera profiles. People have become accustomed to those (we like those Nikon jpgs), yet I find these more accurate to my actual experience. Also easier to work with. I often have a separate curves layer just for the subject.
Hope that helps.
Well this is interesting. I thought all our visitors were Gila's at first, then someone corrected me and said they were Flickers, but now I think we have both and this is a Gila.
Here's a Flicker right (sorry my screen shot cut off his feet)? I am a beginning birder but now I can see the difference.
As to the profile, yes it's the Tony Kupyer Linear Z9 Profile. A year ago I processed all my Africa images using Camera Standard or Landscape, and then as I started to refresh my processing skills from a decade ago and apply new things, I came to realize the colors were not accurate; everything was too saturated. I have found that the Linear Profile on Auto as Tony suggests is a much closer starting point to true colors. I now use a Grey Mid Point Action to color correct most images. I didn't on the ones above yet I see them as far more accurate than the camera profiles. People have become accustomed to those (we like those Nikon jpgs), yet I find these more accurate to my actual experience. Also easier to work with. I often have a separate curves layer just for the subject.
Hope that helps.
Yes that is a Northern Flicker.
Wow you are going through a lot more work than I do in processing.
If I get things right in camera I have almost nothing to do. I use Standard Picture Control in the Z9. If I open the raw image in NX Studio then I see what the settings I applied in the picture control and elsewhere did ... of course I can see most of that in the viewfinder but when I have a bunch of fast moving birds in all types of cover etc. and I am trying to get bird ID shots I can not make all the changes I might want to while in the heat of battle.
If you use the correct global settings in LRC then LRC will use your settings from the camera and at least get you very close to what you want.
I learned this from Nancy Elwood over on Nikonians a couple of years ago after she had discovered it.
Essentially Lightroom Classic>preferences>Presets>Global:Camera Settings (not the Adobe Settings Default).
For more detail this is the article that Nancy shared with us. https://kevinlisota.photography/202...ction-and-lens-profile-defaults-for-nikon-z9/
Here are a couple of bird ID images as imported into LRC and nothing else done at all. No crop etc. just exported using the BCG presets for this page.
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I have developed presets to make fast changes when I do not get it rightin camera. I used to use some color profiles I bought but once I discovered how to do this and as LRC moved forward I no longer use them.
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Those are great and yes 90% of mine are processed with my preset on import. I do spend time on some as part of my learning efforts around photography.
The best thing is using just what you put into the camera no import presets. With the process I use I am just telling LRC to use the camera settings and I do not apply any presets on import.
Is that a homemade bird bath?
I used to use Vivid picture control back in the days of D300s etc. and then found, as you noted, things were over saturated and just not right as cameras got better and I learned a bit more. I still have to be carful with Standard.
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No, well sort of, we live in North Scottsdale AZ. It's petrified wood installed on a basin with a pump which I have controlled with a KASA outdoor plug.
We run it about 6 hours a day in the morning for a few reasons. Birds learn to drink at early in the day. Minimizes water waste, and maybe more importantly we don't want the Javalina near it at night. I know a lot of people love the little piggies until you have had them destroy your yard which we have had numerous times. While I would love to give the bobcats and foxes some water, the piggies are too destructive to risk attracting them at night.
It has worked really well to attract the local birds in the mornings and give them a source of water.
acreager1124
Member
This actually looks better for a gilded flicker and not northern. In AZ where the ranges overlap, it can be tricky to tell the difference between the two, but a gilded flicker has a much more extensive tan crown, extending to and including the nape (as seen here) and the northern flicker will have tan markings up to, and sometimes including, the crown, but never extending as far as seen here. Additionally, the northern flicker variety most frequently seen in the west is the "red-shafted" variety where the undersides of the wings will be a deep orange/red. The gilded flicker has yellow, which can be seen peeking out from under the wing here. The later field mark is usually only easy to see in flight, but both field marks are usually the easiest to see to distinguish the type. Hope these ID tips help, flickers are some awesome birds, great shot!
Cool bird I have never seen one and yup it ticks all the all about bird ID field marks ! Here we see Northern Flickers ... Red-shafted most often a few Yellow-shafted and some crosses between the 2.
Lots of great photos here and I look forward to receiving my lens, hopefully in the next two weeks.
I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do. My 24-120/4 S, and 14-30/4 S don’t get much work lately.
ajrmd
Well-known member
Yes, my preliminary tests have been very favorable and I am excited to give it a work out in the next couple of weeks on the west coast.
NEVER BEFORE AT OUR HOUSE- and why we keep our cats indoors
Sharing an environmental shot so you can see the distance. Shot in DX.
Common to have one of this pair of Red Tails, but never both before, at sunset no less.
ISO 4500 so I used Adobe Denoise on them. Far left rock face.
Sharing an environmental shot so you can see the distance. Shot in DX.
Common to have one of this pair of Red Tails, but never both before, at sunset no less.
ISO 4500 so I used Adobe Denoise on them. Far left rock face.
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I solved my AC issues and here are a few. A mix of Gila Woodpeckers and Guilded Flickers. A couple of levitating acts too.
I did not do my normal processing on all of these (biggest example is taming the fountain highlights) but these are mostly posted to show the sharpness. All of these with Steve's preset as well and not linked to a website.
I did not do my normal processing on all of these (biggest example is taming the fountain highlights) but these are mostly posted to show the sharpness. All of these with Steve's preset as well and not linked to a website.
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Here are the last two with the surprise and fly off. BOO and BYE BYE are good names for these two.
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Cameron T
Well-known member
What was the fix for the AC problem?
I was using Auto Area AF with some blocked out distance spots along with animal detection. Bird detection is not supported in AC yet. Hope it will get added.
I had used this with my 100-400 successfully on 4.0 when there was no Bird detection, but was struggling with it on this fountain.
This morning I switched to C1 with a 19x7 rectangle along the top of the fountain. Took 2655 shots and most were in focus. Only Auto Area AF supports blocking out focus spots so I could not do that but it didn't matter.
Bird detection is good in a situations like this I hope it gets added to the FW.