Nikon 180-600 - Photo Share & Discussion Thread

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Spotted this little guy/gal on our deck rail and caught this shot before it scampered off. Straight out of Lightroom, no corrections or sharpening. Pretty happy with the 180-600.

-Greg

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The acid test of this lens for me is how well does it track a diving Osprey compared to my 400mm 2.8TC. Well, after yesterday's brief outing I could tell that it passed the test in flying colors. In two instances I had the lens track a diving Osprey from sky to water - all frames were in focus and sharp. Here's a cropped image of the last sequence of one of the dives just when the Osprey was about to enter the water - you be the judge. By the way I took this lens with me to India during my two-month trip last winter and it provided me with excellent photos of unique birds there. Now with this Osprey action shots it is close to be a very good all-around lens for birding and bird action photography.
 

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Terrific photo!!!
Thank you. I've been trying to find owls for quite a while, and didn't have luck. My friend told me about this park, and I was happy to get a few shots of them holding hands (or whatever) as well as everything else. They're siblings. It was a very heartwarming image. Not technically perfect (branches in the way, etc), but I still love it.
 
Anyone's local camera store (United States authorized Nikon Dealer) have this lens in stock? I'm looking to buy it and B&H, Adorama, and Nikon can't give me a date when it will be back in stock on their sites. It's in stock at Best Buy but would like to avoid them due to their 15% restocking fee if I need to return it for whatever reason.

EDIT: Disregard, I found it in stock at District Camera and ordered it. I have never ordered from them before but they got good reviews and seem like a decent operation.
 
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Bumping this thread. Here are a few recent images from a local wetlands:

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The acid test of this lens for me is how well does it track a diving Osprey compared to my 400mm 2.8TC. Well, after yesterday's brief outing I could tell that it passed the test in flying colors. In two instances I had the lens track a diving Osprey from sky to water - all frames were in focus and sharp. Here's a cropped image of the last sequence of one of the dives just when the Osprey was about to enter the water - you be the judge. By the way I took this lens with me to India during my two-month trip last winter and it provided me with excellent photos of unique birds there. Now with this Osprey action shots it is close to be a very good all-around lens for birding and bird action photography.
Was this shot with the Z8 or Z9, and what was the approximate distance. I am excited to be traveling back to FL to shoot some more Osprey and am hoping for better results with the Z8. Last time, it consistently lost AF a frame or two before the strike (no matter what AF mode, settings) and then would recover 6-8 frames afterwards. This occurred with every lens so it was clearly an issue with the bodies.
 
While I owned and used the 180-600mm lens I found that more often than not I would grab the 100-400mm with the 1.4xa TC attached instead. The shorter focal lengths were useful and the lighter weight was also a factor. F/8 with the zoom and teleconverter was not significantly slower than the f/6.3 with the larger zoom.

As with the 200-500mm the 180-600mm provides a lot of value at a low cost of only $1,900. The 100-400mm plus 1.4x TC cost $3,000 so a lot more costly as an alternative. The gain for me is in having a 100-400mm or a 140-560mm zoom lens while carrying the small and lightweight 1.4x TC.
 
Was this shot with the Z8 or Z9, and what was the approximate distance. I am excited to be traveling back to FL to shoot some more Osprey and am hoping for better results with the Z8. Last time, it consistently lost AF a frame or two before the strike (no matter what AF mode, settings) and then would recover 6-8 frames afterwards. This occurred with every lens so it was clearly an issue with the bodies.
This was taken with a Z9. The pond is a typical storm water pond, it is about 200 meters at the longest end and 128 meters at its widest. The bird dove somewhere in the middle, so I would say it was 100 meters away from where I was standing. Here's the full frame image - the relative size of the bird compared to size of the frame will give you a rough indication of the distance. I started tracking the bird as it came below the tree line, then all 17 frames till it hit water were tracked. In the second set I successfully tracked 23. From the image you can see I couldn't keep the bird in the middle; however, the camera did a good job in keeping the focus point on the bird as it was about to enter water.

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Don't judge to harshly, haha. Practicing slower shutter-speeds, hand-held, in fast fading light. Very minimal editing, simply a bit of contrast/saturation, EC, and basic NR. A lovely lens, actually, very nice combination with the Z8. Good micro-contrast, even if it's not as sharp as the 400 4.5, for example. But I quite enjoy the images out of this one.

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This 32 shot sequence of a Peregrine Falcon with its prey was shot last year. I may have posted it elsewhere but for some reason I didn't post it on this dedicated thread.

A few from that sequence. The legs hanging out the back are from its prey, which looks to be some sort of wading bird:

Z9 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/4000s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso1250

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Z9 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/4000s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso1400

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Z9 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/4000s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso1250

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Z9 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/4000s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso1250

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Z9 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/4000s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso1250

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Z9 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/4000s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso1250

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Z9 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/4000s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso1250

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Z9 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/4000s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso1400

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A few other shots:

Eastern Yellow Robin,

Z8 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/400s f/6.3 at 600.0mm iso560

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Swift Parrot

Z8 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/160s f/6.3 at 540.0mm iso500

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Rainbow Lorikeet in my front flowering gum tree

Z8 + 180-600 f5.6-6.3, 1/200s f/6.0 at 470.0mm iso900

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I must say, I have been battling to get a few good shots of the Rainbow Lorikeets around Doreen/VIC - they’re just nowhere to be found, might be a bit hot for them atm. Yours looking very good, love it!

Thank you very much, Beano. Much appreciated!

We have them by the bucket load at my house. :)
 
Thank you very much, Beano. Much appreciated!

We have them by the bucket load at my house. :)
We had plenty here just prior to the hot-spell before Christmas, but they have all disappeared since. I might get up early tomorrow, there are a few trees close to the local shopping-center they favour, might be able to catch them.

Would be awesome to catch them in the golden hour, imagine the soft colors :) Fingers crossed!
 
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