Since photography is not a cheap hobby I have been renting equipment from a few companies both local and mail order. I find that it is an excellent way to try out gear before you make the purchase as buyers remorse can be costly.
I have been looking for a longer focal length lens for waterfowl/wildlife in the 300-600mm range and have used the Tamron 150-600, old Nikon 300 f4 and even rented the big Nikon 300 f2.8 and Nikon 400 f2.8's on a few occasions as they both cost more than my first car. I decided to pick up the new Nikon 300 f4 PF VR which is about a 1.5 lb lens the size of a 24-70mm. It works wonderfully with all three teleconverters and while I miss having the zoom sometimes for the majority of my use the TC's work great with a bit of pre planning. It is also much easier to crawl around a marsh with this setup versus a 8-12lb supertelephoto lens on a tripod.
Since I was giving up a stop of light (2.8 vs 4.0) I decided to rent a Nikon D4s for a number of reasons...two biggest being 11 frames per second and also native ISO all the way up to 25,600. I figured with the loss of light with teleconverters I would get up into some heavy ISO's. Took a few pictures from the upper deck nose bleed section at Minute Maid Saturday with the roof closed. All shots but one were with the 300 f4 with 1.7X TC. Shutter speeds in the 1/1000-1/1600 range at f6.7 and higher and handheld. ISO crept up to 12,800 regularly and with a bit of noise reduction in lightroom I found ISO 25,600 useable.
As a side note I believe this is the largest focal length lens you could get past security at Minute Maid as a fan. Per their website they limit the lens length to 8" and no monopods or tripods. With a TC in my pocket and lens hood flipped around I was well shy of that.
Here are a few shots.
Astros Rangers-13 by Jimmy Juhl, on Flickr
Astros Rangers-12 by Jimmy Juhl, on Flickr
Astros Rangers-9 by Jimmy Juhl, on Flickr
Astros Rangers-8 by Jimmy Juhl, on Flickr
Astros Rangers-4 by Jimmy Juhl, on Flickr
I have been looking for a longer focal length lens for waterfowl/wildlife in the 300-600mm range and have used the Tamron 150-600, old Nikon 300 f4 and even rented the big Nikon 300 f2.8 and Nikon 400 f2.8's on a few occasions as they both cost more than my first car. I decided to pick up the new Nikon 300 f4 PF VR which is about a 1.5 lb lens the size of a 24-70mm. It works wonderfully with all three teleconverters and while I miss having the zoom sometimes for the majority of my use the TC's work great with a bit of pre planning. It is also much easier to crawl around a marsh with this setup versus a 8-12lb supertelephoto lens on a tripod.
Since I was giving up a stop of light (2.8 vs 4.0) I decided to rent a Nikon D4s for a number of reasons...two biggest being 11 frames per second and also native ISO all the way up to 25,600. I figured with the loss of light with teleconverters I would get up into some heavy ISO's. Took a few pictures from the upper deck nose bleed section at Minute Maid Saturday with the roof closed. All shots but one were with the 300 f4 with 1.7X TC. Shutter speeds in the 1/1000-1/1600 range at f6.7 and higher and handheld. ISO crept up to 12,800 regularly and with a bit of noise reduction in lightroom I found ISO 25,600 useable.
As a side note I believe this is the largest focal length lens you could get past security at Minute Maid as a fan. Per their website they limit the lens length to 8" and no monopods or tripods. With a TC in my pocket and lens hood flipped around I was well shy of that.
Here are a few shots.
Astros Rangers-13 by Jimmy Juhl, on FlickrAstros Rangers-12 by Jimmy Juhl, on FlickrAstros Rangers-9 by Jimmy Juhl, on FlickrAstros Rangers-8 by Jimmy Juhl, on FlickrAstros Rangers-4 by Jimmy Juhl, on Flickr
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