First Official Outing With The 300mm f/4

Well, after working the weekend night shift, I was able to take the 300mm f/4 AF-s on its maiden outing. I was pretty pleased.

From what I have read and seen, the only real area of concern for the 300 was the collar allowing a little vertical movement, taking away from the clarity of the images. A lot of people spring for the Kirk Collar which remedies the situation.

After talking with my wife.... well, listening to my wife... the Kirk collar was out of the question, at least for now. Instead, I had a friend of mine modify the factory collar. What a difference... I will post images of the modification if anyone is interested.. just let me know.

Jukka, Torben or anyone else... I had a bit of a difficult time identifying the first dragon here, hopefully I got it right. If not, please let me know...

Once I started taking pictures of this dragon, he wouldn't go away. After I shot some frames and started to walk away, he flew in front of me and set down right in my path. He did this several times as well as circling me numerous times, even landing on my camera. In the end, he followed me back to my car.... kind of surprised he didn't follow me home.

1. Bison Snaketail (Ophiogomphus bison)? Male



2. Bison Snaketail (Ophiogomphus bison) Male



3. Bison Snaketail (Ophiogomphus bison) Male



6. Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax Longipennis) Female



7. Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax Longipennis) Female



8. Blue Dasher (Pachydiplax Longipennis) Female



9. Western Pondhawk (Erythemis collacata) Male



10. Western Pondhawk (Erythemis collacata) Male



11. Twelve-spotted Skimmer (Libellual pulchella) Female

 

Kees,
This mod is more out of frugallity than anything. At first I really didn't want to damage the original collar, but once I thought about it... if this didn't work, I could always buy a Kirk, so why not try and save $160.00. I know there are going to be those who have the opinion of..

"If you're going to spend that much on a lens, why cheap out now and do this?" or "That doesn't look as nice as a Kirk."

Well:

A. Yes, I spent a lot on the lens, so I really don't have a lot more to spend on a $160.00 add-on, to do the exact same thing that I have done.

B. No damage or modification has been done to the actual lens.... so why not?

C. When I'm out flowers, bugs or birds.... who cares if it doesn't look as nice as the Kirk as long as I am getting solid images?

The whole gist is this... the collar had a design weakness, the weakness has been remedied. And it sure beats this...(click here)scroll down to the asthma inhaler picture!

1. Collar mod



2.

 

Thanks Jukka and Torben,
I hope the ID is correct on this... I was told there aren't any around here and that I was way off. I will have to check into the odonata forum, thanks for the info.

The modification sure helped with the stability of the lens. Since there was no lateral movement issue, my friend chose not to make a cradle type mount on the top of it... works well.

 

Jukka,
I posted these pics on the Odonata Forum, hopefully I will get a positive ID. The funny thing is regardless of which Gomphus it is.... It's not listed as being in my region. None of the Snaketails are listed for my county, or surrounding counties. The listing from our university that I was looking at, shows the nearest of these over a hundred mile away.

 

Jukka,
I think you and Jim are correct with the O. occidentis ID. I have been doing some reading and looking around and tend to agree with you two. I really appreciate your time and effort.

If anything becomes of it, I will let you know.

Thanks Tom,
I'm not worried about the way it looks at all.... and it works great. I am getting a lot more clarity out of my images.

Necessity... and frugality!