notes from behind the coffee counter

Some Thoughts On A Long Lens…..

I’ve been living with this lens (see previous post) for five days now and have taken a lot of photos. So some thoughts on the lens. First, its incredibly heavy. My usual lens is so light compared to this guy. I really can’t image taking this on a vacation and doing the tourist thing. No way (not to mention no bag to carry it in, at least not safely. More on that below.) This lens is designed for photojournalists. It would be great at a sporting event, even in the shitty seats. Good luck getting in though with out a press pass. For a photojournalists in a war zone this could get you a great shot and not get yourself killed in the process. I’ve been using it to photograph birds. This the first time I ever attempted to capture such quick animals. My cats like being photographed. No, really. Bubbles actually poses for me. Birds are a different story though. They know when you’re there. So I have to sit outside for awhile to I become part of the landscape. Then they show themselves. The only real problem I’ve been having is finding the bird in the viewfinder once I spot him with my eyes. Human vision has a huge field of view of about 140 degrees. My camera lens is anywhere from 8 to 22 degrees. I spend a lot of time searching around. (Mostly I look for angles of branches and such, but it would be really hard to explain it here.) I am getting better at it, though. Too bad the lens goes back Thursday night. Camera shake is not as big as a problem as I thought it would be because I’ve have been shooting mostly at an f/2.8 as I just want the bird. On a bright day that gives me a pretty fast shutter speed. Gods, how I love a fast lens. Here’s a dandelion shot a f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/1000.

OK, enough of the bad stuff. How well does this lens work? I’m in love with it. I’ve been getting beautiful images. Of course a lot has to do with the camera itself, but the lens is great. It pulls it right in there. Some cool things on it. It has two focus settings: manual and an auto/ manual. This means you can use manual focus while in auto. Comes in handy when the camera just doesn’t want to focus, you don’t have to switch to manual on both the camera (which would be in the settings menu) and the lens. The VR (vibration reduction) mode also has two settings normal, for shakes, and an active mode. The active is for when you are shooting out of a moving vehicle. Think I’m going to try that tomorrow. When I read it in the lens manual I pictured a photographer hanging out a Land Rover on the African Serengeti chasing a herd of zebra. Another switch on the lens limits the range of the autofocus if the subject is less than 8.2 feet away. As I understand it this speeds up the focus on subjects further than 8.2 feet. I really haven’t played with this setting. Oh, yeah it also has a focus lock on the lens too. Before I go on about the good things of this lens let me say that this thing retails for about $1800 bucks. Here’s some images on my Mobile Me site.

Final verdict, well worth the rental. Hey, if your kid is playing on a hockey or football team its worth the rental. You’ll be glad you did. I think about all the times I wish I had a high powered zoom (or a good 200 mm or 300 mm prime lens) for those certain shots. From now on if I need a high powered lens I’ll rent. However, if you’re off to Disney World stick to a regular zoom, this lens is way too bulky to carry around. (It make a great weapon, though. Have fun getting it on a plane.) You’ll definitely need a big bag. I’ve been using a bag that normally I carry my D60 with its lens attached and a FG with its 50 mm lens attached and the battery charger and a slew of lens filters and a bunch of other shit I’ve accumulated over the years. This week only the D60 with the 70 – 200 mm attached is in the bag. It’s not the best set up but it’ll do. On a separate note been thinking about this bag for my next trip. I like the idea of it being able to switch from backpack to my sided for easy access.

Finally I’ve been thinking a lot about lenses lately and as a graduate of film school, the idea of DSLRs having the capability of capturing moving images in HD is extremely intriguing. With the availability of a lens like this, that puts that HD capability on the list for my next camera (along with a full frame sensor.) Being able to change a lens on the fly is what makes SLRs and by extension DSLRs so useful. Now with being able to capture moving images and have a plethora of available lenses (whether I rent, borrow or buy) makes video cameras almost a dead format to me.

I’m back. I’ve neglected this spot for awhile. It’s not that I’ve been terribly busy just lazy. I’m one of these guys that gets online and I’m finished for the day. Its amazing I even finished college. Anyways, I’m housesitting for a friend (actually dog and multiple kitty sitting) who has an awesome yard with a garden. While sitting here one night I came up with the idea to take some pictures of birds. This time of year all the real pretty ones, like cardinals and bluejays, are all over the place. Problem is my Nikon D60’s lens ¹ doesn’t get very close, its max zoom is 55 mm which translates to about 70mm on this DSLR, not to mention its not a really fast lens (f/5.6 at 55 mm.) If I’m going to photograph birds I can’t just walk up to them. So I needed a better lens, preferably a zoom. Ever price Nikon lenses? Yeah, no shit. Then I remembered some sites I bookmarked that actually rent lenses. I settled on Lens Pro To Go. To be totally honest here my choice had nothing to do with price or service. It was about availability of the lens. Period. I wanted a fast high powers telephoto zoom. I have no need for a normal or wide lens for this. I settled on a Nikon AF 70- 200 mm f/2.8 VR. Read up on some reviews and made my decision. They’re charging me $110 for the week and that includes insurance and shipping. Well it arrived this afternoon on Fed Ex. First, its packed in a Pelican case. A nice one.

I always wanted one for my cameras (wonder if they make one for laptops, oh well more time to spend on the net.) Next, this lens is huge and heavy. The package weighs in at 9 pounds and the case barely weighs anything. Its 9 1/2 inches long.

It came with a tripod mount ² Took some pictures this afternoon basically testing it. I’ll post some on my Flckr account. But here’s a sample.

That cardinal is about 30 feet up above me. I did some comparison shots between lenses. It’ll take me a couple of days before I really know if I like it. So far so good. Stay tuned.