Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/12/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Hi Luggers, I went out yesterday with Ray Tai and we combed the camera shops in Tsim Sha Tsui until I located a smooth light focusing, mint Nikkor 300mm f4.5 AIS IF complete with case and tripod socket. I saw half a dozen samples of the R 250mm Telyt but none of them were version two and their prices were almost double the prices of the 300 Nikkors. Today I went out and took a few hundred test shots (hurrah for digital) to see how I could handle the lens - the start of my 10,000 hours to get to be competent with it. Here are a few samples taken at the Hong Kong Botanical Gardens zoo and at the Aviary. The zoo was a bit of a bust because of the cages getting in the way but the aviary was easier because you are inside the big tent with all the birds that can fly around freely. I set the D700 to auto ISO, max of 6,400, minimum shutter speed 1/500 and left the lens wide open at f4.5 to wash out the backgrounds. Focus on stationary subjects was relatively easy to achieve with about 75% consistency (focus confirmation being a big help) but for moving subjects - forget it! - I am not fast enough at all. Please have a look at these few samples: http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/Lemur300Nw.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/yc48nku http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/WhiteCrane300Nw.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/yb57x82 http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/PidgeonNik300w.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/y9jwgd8 http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/BlackYelloww.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/yeqsx4p http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/BlueyeWhitew.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/yedhvqs http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/CrestedBoobi.jpg.html http://tinyurl.com/yad85uv C & C welcome as always. Cheers Howard