[Leica] The 400 Telyt on the Nikon D700

[dstella1 at ameritech.net (Dante Stella)]

I love the shot of the photographers worrying the bird.  Brilliant!

The capabilities of these lenses and the D700 are pretty impressive.

Dante

On Dec 22, 2009, at 9:36 PM, H&ECummer wrote:

> Hi Luggers,
> Santa came early this year and Mr. Lee at Panda camera finished the change 
> of bayonets ahead of schedule.  The change was complicated by the fact 
> that my later model Telyt has different cams than the telyt that David 
> Lladro used to design his special leitax bayonet which can be installed 
> without surgery so Mr. Lee had to perform surgery on the leitax bayonet.
> 
> Here is the lens mounted on the camera.
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/400TelytD700w.jpg.html
> http://tinyurl.com/yag4r88
> 
> I marched over to the Aviary in the Hong Kong Botanical gardens yesterday 
> afternoon with the D700 and tripod - using only one leg extended as a 
> monopod - the 400 telyt and the 300 nikkor. It was sunny and the birds 
> were frisky and the place was crawling with photographers most with huge 
> autofocus lenses. One or two eyed me suspiciously and engaged me:
> "What kind of lens is that?" asked a young fellow with a Canon DSLR and a 
> BIG white 500 or 600 mm AF lens.
> "It's a Leica 400 mm Telyt from the 1970's"
> He raised an eyebrow:
> "But it doesn't have auto focus?"
> "No - but your autofocus wanders between leaves and birds" I said, "while 
> the trombone focusing on this lens can be set very precisely and quickly."
> And I slide the focus barrel back and forth.
> Canon man's eyes widened. "How much?"
> "About $6,000," I said.
> "HK dollars?" he asked.
> "Yes." I said.
> "Hmmm" he said and turned away muttering.
> 
> As I said the place was crawling with photographers; here's a sample:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/BaliMynahPhotogsw.jpg.html
> http://tinyurl.com/ybc3dzg
> 
> I picked up a pamphlet at the Aviary so now I can properly name the birds.
> 
> Here's a black capped Lory taken with the 400. Even at f6.3 a 400mm lens 
> has such a shallow depth of field that it is hard to get the bird's eyes 
> in focus and have the front feathers in focus.
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/Black-Capped-Lory-400-w.jpg.html
> http://tinyurl.com/y9oza57
> 
> Here's the Bali Mynah - its blue eye ring makes it easier to focus the 
> eyes sharply. I used the 300 Nikkor for this picture and it shows the 
> benefit of having auto aperture stop down for increasing the depth of 
> field. And, of course, a 300mm lens has slightly more depth of field than 
> a 400mm one.
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/BaliMynaw.jpg.html
> http://tinyurl.com/yc4j3hz
> 
> I set the minimum shutter speed to 1/500 on the D700 and let auto ISO run 
> up to 6400. Most of these pictures were shot in the 4000 - 5000 ISO  range 
> with the camera on Aperture Preferred. With the D700 I can dial in the 
> focal length and f stops of the lenses and save them for easy future 
> reference and quick changes so I have accurate EXIF data and the camera 
> works with these lenses in spot and matrix modes.
> 
> Here's the Asian Fairy Blue Bird with the 400 Telyt:
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/AsianFairyBlueBirdw.jpg.html
> http://tinyurl.com/yk6vyye
> 
> And here is the PinonImperialPigeon taken with the 300 Nikkor - stopped 
> down for more depth of field.
> 
> http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Nikkor300/PinonImperialPigeonw.jpg.html
> http://tinyurl.com/y8o4ubs
> 
> Having now spent a few hours with the lenses and the camera the skill and 
> artistry of bird photographers like our own Doug Herr is readily apparent 
> to me.
> The road ahead to my better bird photos will obviously be long but 
> interesting.
> 
> C &C welcome as always,
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Howard
> 
> 
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