Z9 + 400 4.5 + TC1.4

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lukemeup

lukemeup

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I know some of you are interested how this setup performs. I took it out in the evening yesterday and this morning & so far I'm very pleased. The lens balances really well on the Z9, it's great to ditch the FTZ. No super exciting species but hopefully the samples below will help in judging the performance. :)


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Dave Stargazer said:
Luke - thx for posting - these are very impressive! They put the 400mm back on my radar, although I will wait and compare with the 200-600mm.

Note to other BCGers: click over to his Flickr and click on the image a couple of times to get to full res.

Cheers!
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Thank you, Dave. So far I'm really happy with weight -> performance ratio of this lens. :)
 
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gnpToday said:
Impressive, very nice images with the 1.4 tele! Thx for sharing.
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Yw. I need to take it out some more - the weather this weekend is subpar so far. :)

Lance B said:
Great series, Luke. The 1.4x TC doesn't affect the results at all. :giggle:
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Indeed. That was my only concern while selling the 500PF.

NorthernFocus said:
Looks pretty darn good. Sharp and nice smooth bokeh. TFS.
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Nikon quickly went from having no native tele options to having multiple. If only there was more availability. I'll likely pair this 400 with 800 and be done for long glass.
 
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lukemeup said:
Nikon quickly went from having no native tele options to having multiple. If only there was more availability. I'll likely pair this 400 with 800 and be done for long glass.
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I'm impressed with what they are able to do under these conditions. I don't own any Z-mount glass, but it's looking like that may have to change soon.
 
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It's been two months and I have nothing but good things to say about this combo. :)

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lukemeup said:
I know some of you are interested how this setup performs. I took it out in the evening yesterday and this morning & so far I'm very pleased. The lens balances really well on the Z9, it's great to ditch the FTZ. No super exciting species but hopefully the samples below will help in judging the performance. :)


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Very nice series, well done!
 
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Thanks for posting these. Having the reduced dynamic range when shootting early and late in the day made for some great shots.

The shot of the woodpecker is a bit on the soft side. Which VR setting are you using?

I sold my 500mm PF and have the 400mm f/4.5 arriving on Friday and expect to be using it most of the time with the 1.4x TC. Only with my f-mount landscape lenses will I need to use the FTZ adapter. Two teleconverters instead of four and no need to carry the FTZ does simplify shooting.
 
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Calson said:
Thanks for posting these. Having the reduced dynamic range when shootting early and late in the day made for some great shots.

The shot of the woodpecker is a bit on the soft side. Which VR setting are you using?

I sold my 500mm PF and have the 400mm f/4.5 arriving on Friday and expect to be using it most of the time with the 1.4x TC. Only with my f-mount landscape lenses will I need to use the FTZ adapter. Two teleconverters instead of four and no need to carry the FTZ does simplify shooting.
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To my eyes the woodpecker shot is plenty sharp (it was shot at 1/320s, so maybe there's some slight subject movement). The higher rez version is on flickr:
https://flic.kr/p/2nyvRDJ
(in general photos look better there than with 1200px limit here). I'm using sport VR. It was also one of the 1st shots I got with this lens and in the two months since then most of my bird photos are taken with it (basically 2 pages of this album: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjzApgs). I sometimes take the TC1.4 off & I should try doing it more often. :)

I don't have any f-mount lenses left at this point & no regrets about it. Glad to not have to use the FTZ.
 
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A couple more with this setup taken in the recent weeks. :)

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lukemeup said:
I know some of you are interested how this setup performs. I took it out in the evening yesterday and this morning & so far I'm very pleased. The lens balances really well on the Z9, it's great to ditch the FTZ. No super exciting species but hopefully the samples below will help in judging the performance. :)


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Like, Excellent series. Well done👍👍👍
 
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