D800E - who needs TC's or long telephotos?

[Lance B]

A bit tongue in cheek, but it does have some basis in the real world in some situations.

Sar and I took some photos of some tiny birds yesterday, an Australian bird called a Double Bar Finch which is about 4 inches long from head to end of tail, so, very small! They were at a nature reserve where they feed them seed in a plate and they are very flighty and so getting close to them was a bit difficult, but we managed to get about 3.5 meteres from them sitting on the ground staying very still and then they would return to the plate to feed. This was as close as they were going to let us get and any slight or sudden movement and they were off!

Using the D800E with 300mm f2.8 VRII + 1.4x TCII attached and handholding, I managed quite a number of shots and here is an example of the resolving power of the D800E, not to mention the superb resolution of the 300mm f2.8 VRII + 1.4x TCII attached. As you can see, I still had to crop quite heavily from the original image to what I actually wanted to end up with. The cropped image that I ended with up was 4065 pixels wide from the original 7138 pixels which is 43% linear crop! So, I would need a lens of about 600mm, but with a close focus of 3.5mts! I could have used my 2x TCIII, which would have allowed the close focus of the 300 bare, but I do not think the result would have been better and possibly would have been worse.

Captured in RAW, converted in Capture NX2 and tweaked in Photoshop. These are all 1800x1200pixels, so to see their full potential, you will have to click on the images and expand them to the full size.

D800+ 300mm f2.8 VRII + 1.4x TCII, @ f5.6, 1/200sec, ISO900, handheld.

Original image:



Image I was aiming to end up with:



Here is an even tighter crop to show off the incredible detail. This is cropped to about 2100 pixels which is about a 70+% linear crop!

[extraball]

simply stunning, what else can you say!

[ameerat42]

Lance. You can say all that again!

[Cargo]

I'm going to have to do it ....
OMG (sorry ) ..... Absolutely amazing Lance, the detail is out of this world. You must be very happy
Cheers Cargo

[Rattus79]

Gee, those d800's are impressive!

I had a bunch of these little guys at my front door yesterday. Besti I managed to get was an out of focus mess. Didn't help that I was trying to shoot through a mesh screen door though! I figured I had a better chance shooting through it then to open it and scare the little buggers away!

[Lance B]

simply stunning, what else can you say!

Thank you very much for your very nice comment, extraball!

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Lance. You can say all that again!

Thank you very much for your lovely comment, ameerat!

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I'm going to have to do it ....
OMG (sorry ) ..... Absolutely amazing Lance, the detail is out of this world. You must be very happy
Cheers Cargo

Thank you very much for your lovely comment, Cargo!

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Gee, those d800's are impressive!

Thank you very much for your nice comment, Greg!

I had a bunch of these little guys at my front door yesterday.

Wow, you lucky thing! I had never seen or even heard of them until last September when Mongo told us about this place that we went to.

Best I managed to get was an out of focus mess. Didn't help that I was trying to shoot through a mesh screen door though! I figured I had a better chance shooting through it then to open it and scare the little buggers away!

LOL. You'll have to set up a feeder for them and try to entice them to come back. Such beautiful little birds!

[knumbnutz]

Great detail Lance, very nice shooting.
You know what it also says, is that all the hype regarding Moire and the 800E is typical of the net BS where a camera hasnt been released yet every man and his armpit (eg KR) tells us how it can't work because of...- it is non existent when this type of shot is perfect for Moire if it was going to happen (in the feather area where has uniform repeating patterns)
nice..

[Darey]

Geese Lance, you have now given me the biggest case of equipment envy I have ever suffered.
Ah well, I'll just have to get out with the D7000 Sigma 100-300mm f4 and 1.4X TC and see if I can get anywhere near this quality.
Oh boy what a challenge.

All jokes aside, your shots are excellent as usual.

[Lance B]

Great detail Lance, very nice shooting.
You know what it also says, is that all the hype regarding Moire and the 800E is typical of the net BS where a camera hasnt been released yet every man and his armpit (eg KR) tells us how it can't work because of...- it is non existent when this type of shot is perfect for Moire if it was going to happen (in the feather area where has uniform repeating patterns)
nice..

Thank you for your lovely comments, Neil.

You are right about the moire, KR and the internet in general. I have had more moire from my D700 than I have had from the D800E!

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Geese Lance, you have now given me the biggest case of equipment envy I have ever suffered.
Ah well, I'll just have to get out with the D7000 Sigma 100-300mm f4 and 1.4X TC and see if I can get anywhere near this quality.
Oh boy what a challenge.

All jokes aside, your shots are excellent as usual.

Thank you for your lovely comments, Darey!

However, the D7000 should be just as good at giving high res shots and the 100-300 f4 is no slouch!

This was taken with the D7000:

[arthurking83]

...... it is non existent when this type of shot is perfect for Moire if it was going to happen (in the feather area where has uniform repeating patterns)
nice..

The nature of the detail in the birds feathers is not, strictly speaking, ideally repetitive to induce moire in this situation.
The detail needs to be repetitive, not intricate(as it is in this instance).
Think of distant cyclone fences, or parallel lines of a distant fence. Due to the very small pixel pitch of the sensor, the pixel pitch of the detail also needs to be quite small for moire to become apparent.

Moire can be induced if the conditions are right. .. but in saying that, the only instance I've seen it happen it only required a simple click of the Colour Moire Reduction tool in CaptureNX2. Even the lowest setting removes it easily and efficiently.

.....
You are right about the moire, KR and the internet in general. I have had more moire from my D700 than I have had from the D800E!

.....

LOL! I had more moire issues with my D70s than I've seen on the D800 too. Whilst I have yet to capture the number of images I had with the D70, moire from that camera was a constant issue, and the removal of it was not possible using Nikon's then current software(Nikon Capture 4.x)

BTW, nice image, nice looking bird.


Oh! .... and a great example of the that direction photography is headed off towards(again) now. Think D7100 and the impending mad race to secure the No1 position as the leading manufacturer of pixels!

[Lance B]

T
LOL! I had more moire issues with my D70s than I've seen on the D800 too. Whilst I have yet to capture the number of images I had with the D70, moire from that camera was a constant issue, and the removal of it was not possible using Nikon's then current software(Nikon Capture 4.x)

BTW, nice image, nice looking bird.


Oh! .... and a great example of the that direction photography is headed off towards(again) now. Think D7100 and the impending mad race to secure the No1 position as the leading manufacturer of pixels!

Thank you for your lovely comments, Arthur!

[Wayne]

Astounding detail Lance. I appreciated the detail the D800 offers at the Airshow this weekend gone. We will need to catch up again for some bird action.

[Lance B]

Astounding detail Lance. I appreciated the detail the D800 offers at the Airshow this weekend gone. We will need to catch up again for some bird action.

Thank you very much, Wayne. Definitely need to catch up, drop me a line when you are free.

[AVALANCHE]

Magnificent work.

[Lance B]

Magnificent work.

Thank you for your nice comment, Avalanche!

[Dylan & Marianne]

makes me want to 'consider' a defection lol - especially given my recent woes with the mk3 grrrr
that detail is to die for!

[Rattus79]

makes me want to 'consider' a defection lol - especially given my recent woes with the mk3 grrrr
that detail is to die for!

If you're going to jump ship, you may as well make it worth your while with one of these mate:

http://www.dpreview.com/news/2013/03...-digital-backs
13 EV DR
80 Meg
Down to ISO35
Exposure times of up to 1 hour without apparent noise/hot pixels
MF goodness
Pocket emptying price!

[Lance B]

makes me want to 'consider' a defection lol - especially given my recent woes with the mk3 grrrr
that detail is to die for!

Thank you for your nice comments, Dylan!

Did somthing happen to your MKIII? I must have missed something, I'll have a search.

As for defection? Hmm, your work using Canon has been exemplary and I'd hate to think Nikon didn't do what you want and then everybody blame me for it. You know how Canon works and you get the best from it and in reality, the MKIII is a gem of a camera, although the extra res and the extra DR may help in your landscape work. However, is it enough to make you jump?

[rellik666]

Blimey that is impressive. I have neither the time or the funds for such a camera, and probably not the skill to execute as well as you, but you have made me want one!

[old dog]

great result Lance. This is just stunning and I have said before...you must be extremely happy with your gear to get this sort of shot.