Went looking for birds and found......

....these hibiscus flowers on the shore of a small lake. A few days ago I posted some flower pictures taken with my 300/4. I went a step further with these - they were taken with a 200-400/2.8VR and a TC-17 on my D2x. Not your basic macro set-up, but perfect for large flowers at a distance. And thanks to a mistake I made uploading the second image to PBase, I was again amazed at the resolution of the D2x. Here is the first image...



...and here is the second:

View attachment 13750

The second image is a 40% crop from the original NEF. (That means that 60% of the image remains, right? I never know.) When I uploaded the cropped image, I forgot to shrink it to the 800 pixel width you see above. Here is part of the image I saw at full size, here shown as an 800x800 pixel section of the original 12.4 million pixels. That's a 95% crop!

View attachment 13751

Isn't that a beetle on the leaf?

Gordon

 

Hi Patrick -

Since you couldn't "hear" my tone of voice when I asked if it is a beetle, there was no way for you to know that I was kidding in order to highlight the resolution. I knew it was a beetle, but I didn't know it was a Japanese beetle. We have them up here (Philly) too, and they do all the same nasty things.

Gordon

 

Thanks Gordon. It was a fun and successful experiment, although not the easiest way to shoot "macros". I guess you are lucky not to have J. beetles, but don't you have mountain lions and bears and stuff? I'll take the beetles..... :lol:

Gordon

 

Hi Sommer -

I agree with you on all points. I had one of those beetle bags once, and it's even worse than you think - a lot of my beetles were still alive and making threatening noises. We need an emoticon for Argghh! BTW, I'm a little late on this, but welcome to the Cafe. It's a great place, and I hope you are enjoying it.

Gordon

 

Thanks Crystall. You are right about the amazing crispness of the D2x. But what I was surprised about in these images and some I posted last week is how beautifully long lenses can work for flower shots. I was planning on a macro, but now I'm rethinking whether I really need it. Sorry about those beetles.     No concilation, but we have them here in PA too.

Gordon