1st Post with my new 300/f4

[Nikam]

(and new 500D) Not the usual type of post with this lens, but I've been stuck at home with no vehicle and a back yard with no birds. I couldn't wait to try out the lens, so I put the new 500D on it to give it a go. The lighting was pretty harsh, but I'm quite pleased with this lens combo. The 1st one is at 1/20s and the 2nd at 1/25s, both stopped down to f22.

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[Gale]

WOW

Thats just great..

Beautiful Drgons...

 

[cknight]

Cool shots. I don't see too many of these with that kind of DOF. I'm assuming you were using a tripod? Are these cropped at all?
I'll probably be getting one of the 500Ds before too long to go with my 300F4.

 

[greyflash]

Really nice shots Dennis. The more I see of the 500D in combo with other lenses the more I wish I had one.

 

[Nikam]

Thanks Gale. I was lucky, it flew away a couple of times as I was setting up and came back and landed on the same seed pod each time.

 

[Nikam]

Thanks Chris,

I was using a tripod with a remote and I also used mirror lock-up. The lens goes up to f32 and I shot these at f22, which I thought would maintain reasonable sharpness with good depth of field. The shots are uncropped and this isn't a large dragonfly - the seedpods are about three-quarter of an inch across for comparison.

 

[james thiel]

Very nice and something different.

 

[Nikam]

Thanks, Gordon.

I needed some macro capability and this was a relatively cheap solution. I haven't tried it out with the 70-200 VR yet, but from what I've seen in other posts, that combination also does fine.

 

[Kevin Scott]

Hmmmm 300/f4 & 500D..... ????

Very sharp shots Dennis. I also like the hues in these pics. The glowing brown of the dragonfly against the darker background and the beige foreground~Nice!!

 

[Flew]

Good lens combo Dennis, and very nice shots. I can foresee more good images coming out of this set-up. :wink:

 

[Nikam]

Jim,

Thanks. I really bought the lens to give me some more reach with the birdies when combined with the 1.7TC but I couldn't wait to try it out.

 

[Nikam]

Kevin,

Thanks for the kind comments. Do I detect a smidgeon of LLD? You own the expensive part - the 300f/4. The 500D should also work well with your 80-200 zoom.

 

[bfjr]

Excellent. Now I have to get a 500D too
Thanks for great shots and spending my money :lol:

 

[Nikam]

Frank,

Thanks. I did a few flowers around the yard earlier in the day, and on the first few I didn't have it stopped down enough to get a decent depth of field. Stopped down, it seems to have a pretty good depth of field.

 

[sbuttrick]

Very nice Dennis. I guess I should throw the 500d on my 300mm f4 and give it a try.

 

[Keith]

Neat captures and well done Dennis!!!! As you know I luv dragons. You may have given me the urge to go play tomorrow if it stops raining!! Glad to see you finally got the 300mm, man that was a long time for them to find you one....congrats!

 

[Nikam]

Scott,

Thanks. Do try it. Most posts I've seen with the 500D have been with the 70-200VR. However, it said it worked best with telephotos - so I thought I'd give it a try with the 300f/4 to see what it would do. It certainly gets you right in there.

 

[Nikam]

Keith,

Thanks. I was beginning to think it would never show up but I phoned to check last week and one had just come in. Before they could ship it, the AC adapter that was also backordered came in too so I ordered a visible dust kit and finally have a clean sensor. The guy I bought the camera off had never cleaned it so it had a few spots.

Sounds like you had a great trip last week. look forward to your posts.

 

[JPS]

That combo, apart from beiing b*****y heavy and bulky, seem to give excellent results in sharpness ! These damselflies are nice to shoot as they usually stay where they are long enough for us to set the distance and shoot !
Good job !!!

 

[Nikam]

Thanks Jean-Pierre. It is pretty bulky but these were just outside my back door so it wasn't a problem. This particular one took off twice, but came back to the same spot each time.