Nikon 600PF - Share Photos & Discuss!!!

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You never know with March weather. 50's last week, 50's next week... snow today.

For some reason, my uploaded shots are looking pretty mushy. How's this one look to everyone?

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600PF will be my default lens going into Spring Migration, which is just starting to heat up. While we wait for the migrants to arrive, I keep practicing on the resident winter birds, a Song Sparrow and Dark Eyed Junco (again). The top photo is uncropped, and it demonstrates that I don't need my 800PF if the planets align and a bird is at the ideal distance :ROFLMAO:

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MatthewK said:
600PF will be my default lens going into Spring Migration, which is just starting to heat up. While we wait for the migrants to arrive, I keep practicing on the resident winter birds, a Song Sparrow and Dark Eyed Junco (again). The top photo is uncropped, and it demonstrates that I don't need my 800PF if the planets align and a bird is at the ideal distance :ROFLMAO:

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Great compositions; great colors as well. Thank you for sharing these.
 
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Here's a lucky shot of a Red-shouldered Hawk that I got from my driveway yesterday while chatting with my neighbor. He thought he saw a hawk swooping through the trees, but couldn't find it in the clutter. I happened to have my Z8 in the trunk of my car, so grabbed it and was scanning the area and found it about 100' away. Rather than spook the bird trying to get closer, I took a few shots before it moved on. As these hawks are primarily woodland hunters, I was glad to have a photo in their natural habitat.

This is a 4860 x 3240 crop out of the full frame, so not really one I'd print, but certainly fine for social media sharing. The shot was through a lot of intervening clutter, but with a manual nudge to get the bird visible...the Z8 found the eye and stuck like glue in 3D mode with bird detect on. I was kind of surprised at that, given the distance and relatively low light...it was almost 7pm. Seems to me Nikon snuck in some AF tweaking in that last upgrade. Processed in DxO PL7 w/XD noise reduction

Link to Flickr full-res version:
https://flic.kr/p/2pGcSv8


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These are a couple shots that I took a couple days ago as I was loading some tools back in my truck at a friend's house and heard a bird loudly chattering away, Turned out it was some distance away, perched at the top of a Leyland Cypress tree in their yard. From my vantage point from below on the ground and at the distance I was, I couldn't tell what sort of bird it was.

As luck, or preparation would have it, my Z9 and 600pf were sitting in the front seat, so I grabbed it to get a closer look and see what sort of bird it might be...more in the line of using the camera as a spotting scope than taking a photo, due to the distance. Just wasn't a shot that I'd normally take given the bird occupying only 10-15% of the frame height.

I took 3 shots handheld in Single Point AF mode at 1/200th and f8...great light due to the bird facing directly into the morning sun, clear skies and very low humidity. Subject detection was off, as is the case with Single Point AF. And yes, it's a house finch...no wonder it was chattering!

After checking the shots in the VF, I wasn't impressed, but planned to have a look on my edit system when I got home. I was actually kind of shocked to see that there was much more detail than I expected from what I saw on the VF. These were processed in DxO PL7 and tried to optimize the detail without going overboard.

The images inserted here are a crop to UHD (3840x2160) resolution for optimum display on a 4K monitor. JPG quality is around 85% to fit this site limitations, but the Flickr link has jpgs that are 100% quality setting and without the resizing that occurs on BCG. My purpose in sharing these is that I feel they're a good example of what this lens is capable of when its capabilities near the limits are not obscured by atmospherics, improper settings and such. Given what I've learned, I'll be more inclined to take shots like these under the RIGHT conditions.

Cheers!


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MotoPixel said:
These are a couple shots that I took a couple days ago as I was loading some tools back in my truck at a friend's house and heard a bird loudly chattering away, Turned out it was some distance away, perched at the top of a Leyland Cypress tree in their yard. From my vantage point from below on the ground and at the distance I was, I couldn't tell what sort of bird it was.

As luck, or preparation would have it, my Z9 and 600pf were sitting in the front seat, so I grabbed it to get a closer look and see what sort of bird it might be...more in the line of using the camera as a spotting scope than taking a photo, due to the distance. Just wasn't a shot that I'd normally take given the bird occupying only 10-15% of the frame height.

I took 3 shots handheld in Single Point AF mode at 1/200th and f8...great light due to the bird facing directly into the morning sun, clear skies and very low humidity. Subject detection was off, as is the case with Single Point AF. And yes, it's a house wren...no wonder it was chattering!

After checking the shots in the VF, I wasn't impressed, but planned to have a look on my edit system when I got home. I was actually kind of shocked to see that there was much more detail than I expected from what I saw on the VF. These were processed in DxO PL7 and tried to optimize the detail without going overboard.

The images inserted here are a crop to UHD (3840x2160) resolution for optimum display on a 4K monitor. JPG quality is around 85% to fit this site limitations, but the Flickr link has jpgs that are 100% quality setting and without the resizing that occurs on BCG. My purpose in sharing these is that I feel they're a good example of what this lens is capable of when its capabilities near the limits are not obscured by atmospherics, improper settings and such. Given what I've learned, I'll be more inclined to take shots like these under the RIGHT conditions.

Cheers!


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Gorgeous shot. Love it!
Got video of it talking?
 
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Jmaes said:
Not exactly the most exciting bird (Dunnock), but I like the perch and clean background.
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Great photograph...everything came together, soft lighting, frame-filling composition (I suspect very little cropping), distance ratio of photographer, subject and background allowing the total background blur without needing a 600 f4! A textbook case of doing it right! Well done!

Cheers!
 
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MatthewK said:
I LOVE the perch, and your subject is perfectly posed as well. Couldn’t ask for anything more, very nicely done!
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Thanks Matthew, appreciate it.
MotoPixel said:
Great photograph...everything came together, soft lighting, frame-filling composition (I suspect very little cropping), distance ratio of photographer, subject and background allowing the total background blur without needing a 600 f4! A textbook case of doing it right! Well done!

Cheers!
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Cheers Tom, quite the compliment :)

I absolutely love these PF lenses (600 I'm shooting now and the 500/300 in years past). I've owned/shot big F4 glass before, but I don't think I could ever go back (gotten too used to the PF's light weight and how it allows me to manoeuver in certain angles etc). But too each their own obviously.
 
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MotoPixel said:
These are a couple shots that I took a couple days ago as I was loading some tools back in my truck at a friend's house and heard a bird loudly chattering away, Turned out it was some distance away, perched at the top of a Leyland Cypress tree in their yard. From my vantage point from below on the ground and at the distance I was, I couldn't tell what sort of bird it was.

As luck, or preparation would have it, my Z9 and 600pf were sitting in the front seat, so I grabbed it to get a closer look and see what sort of bird it might be...more in the line of using the camera as a spotting scope than taking a photo, due to the distance. Just wasn't a shot that I'd normally take given the bird occupying only 10-15% of the frame height.

I took 3 shots handheld in Single Point AF mode at 1/200th and f8...great light due to the bird facing directly into the morning sun, clear skies and very low humidity. Subject detection was off, as is the case with Single Point AF. And yes, it's a house wren...no wonder it was chattering!

After checking the shots in the VF, I wasn't impressed, but planned to have a look on my edit system when I got home. I was actually kind of shocked to see that there was much more detail than I expected from what I saw on the VF. These were processed in DxO PL7 and tried to optimize the detail without going overboard.

The images inserted here are a crop to UHD (3840x2160) resolution for optimum display on a 4K monitor. JPG quality is around 85% to fit this site limitations, but the Flickr link has jpgs that are 100% quality setting and without the resizing that occurs on BCG. My purpose in sharing these is that I feel they're a good example of what this lens is capable of when its capabilities near the limits are not obscured by atmospherics, improper settings and such. Given what I've learned, I'll be more inclined to take shots like these under the RIGHT conditions.

Cheers!


View attachment 87477

View attachment 87478
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House finch?
 
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Hello,
I am really glad that I found this forum with so much discussion about this lens. Searching for information on the internet seemed like that the 600PF was not very popular among people.

Currently I am using the A6700 with the Tamron 150-500 f5-6.7, doing 99% bird photopraphy ( I have no other lens) mostly walking around and handhold.

When I read about this lens I was really surprised that the FF combo Z8+600PF+1.4TC would have a similar weight as my current setup, so that intrigued my interest because I decided against FF in the first place due to weight and compactness.

Most of the time I am effectively at 750mm and need more reach but for birds in flight I need the zoom to find the birds in the field of view. (Maybe I need more practice)

So now I am asking myself if the 600PF would be right combo for me and what can I expect with such lens. The Tamron is limiting due to poor stabilization, low light performance and reach. Is the Z8+600PF+1.4TC a huge improvement or is the difference not so big and I would be disappointed?
 
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jugoednaranja said:
Hello,
I am really glad that I found this forum with so much discussion about this lens. Searching for information on the internet seemed like that the 600PF was not very popular among people.

Currently I am using the A6700 with the Tamron 150-500 f5-6.7, doing 99% bird photopraphy ( I have no other lens) mostly walking around and handhold.

When I read about this lens I was really surprised that the FF combo Z8+600PF+1.4TC would have a similar weight as my current setup, so that intrigued my interest because I decided against FF in the first place due to weight and compactness.

Most of the time I am effectively at 750mm and need more reach but for birds in flight I need the zoom to find the birds in the field of view. (Maybe I need more practice)

So now I am asking myself if the 600PF would be right combo for me and what can I expect with such lens. The Tamron is limiting due to poor stabilization, low light performance and reach. Is the Z8+600PF+1.4TC a huge improvement or is the difference not so big and I would be disappointed?
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Trust your instincts. Go for it.
I own it. Its a joy to use. In a pinch toggle to DX.

For those moments you need to zoom out, Think of those moments where you can’t have the picture at all because its too far.

Finding the bird takes practice. Opening the other eye to help point the lens definitely helps even if you close it afterwards.
 
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The edge to edge resolving power, and micro details this lens captures, is amazing.

Same quality as the big, heavy, exotic and expensive 600 TC @f/6.3
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cropped in heavy.
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Welcome to another episode of "trying to make ordinary subjects look somewhat interesting".

Some lovely sunrise light was illuminating this black-headed gull colony. If like here, some of the birds decided to cooperate; it can turn into quite the fun/productive session.

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