DocMD

It seems to be a good lens for the price, but make sure your raw converter or editor can handle CA. Remember that it is easier to correct CA as early as possible, so you would ideally want the CA correction in the profile for the lens. Not many converters do this. With the sweet spot @f/5.6 or so, it is a better match for the Z6II than the Z7II as the higher resolution will run into the Nyquist frequency and thus diffraction earlier.

 

The Nikon Z 85/1.8 has its sweet spot @f/4 and is nearly free from CA...

 

For me, the choice is easy, but I am waiting for either a dealer campaign or a Nikon cash back drive before I buy. 

Nice photo. The main problem I have with it is that I think it needs some foreground interest... could be a person or object. This is especially necessary when shooting with wide angle lenses.

 

I probably would have shot at a bit lower angle and under exposed the sky a bit. Then I would have lightened the foreground and saturated the sky colors in post. But again, it really needs a foreground subject.

 

--Ron

Hey Doc, that was a glorious morning!

Yes, critique is asked for, let's see…

EXPOSURE

ISO 100 is just fine.
 

ƒ 5,6 seems a tad weak for the depth of the scene, may I suggest ƒ8~ƒ11?

1/15 s would need to be at least a stop slower to compensate for the ƒ.

PP

 I dig that you did not push the saturation  … a reflex most have.

• The apparent lack of critical sharpness — due to the used ƒ — is easily
compensated, given the richness in details, by a bit of texture increase.
 

• The WB is a tad high and it has the consequence that, if you try to tame
the tonal range, it will increase the saturation… so you don't (very ok) with
the negative effect that the scene loses in dramatic look when tweaking the
low lights.

I took the shot in my converter to verify and it worked well on a jpg… ima-
gine on a RAW file.

 

All photos are beautiful. Thank you for thisthread.

Today, I got this at 7.05 in the morning.

 

...and this at 4.18 in the afternoon.

 

Still the same lens and body. These are both shot in low light, but the widish aperture and a slow shutter speed kept the ISO down at ~400-600. They should be doable with a D80 or D200 and a 35.

Night Rider

 

D810 with Tamron 24-70@50mm

 

 

 

 

 

Today, I got this at 7.05 in the morning. 

I love the impact of the multiple light sources over
the incoming daylight in this composition. Cool!

I was out walking the park yesterday when a North American Kestrel landed not far from me.

…but even this kind of shots one can't get sitting at home!

Thanks for the info!

Ok, I see you're on the lighter side of it. The Manfrotto Befree 3-way
is very capable to carry that load but my very personal opinion is that
it may be way too impractical with its long handles and the "fluid drag
system" may slow down your reaction time in critical moments.

Did you investigate ball heads?

I find ball heads superior in their simplicity and rock solid hold. Plus no long arms to catch on things. I have a Cambo [mage in Holland for Calumet] medium format rated ball head that works beautifully with my Nikon gear [even long heavy lenses].

A small footprint is just convenient for me.

ADDENDUM

IF lenses share outstanding water — as well as dust
and fungi — resistance.

 

I appreciate their very predictable behaviour of my
long lenses on the gimbal… always in balance.

I don't know if you have found Roland Vink's excellent lens resource. To check whether a lens you are interested in has a fixed or a rotating front element, look in the Filter column. r means that it rotates when focusing and z that it rotates when zooming.

 

Link.

 

There are a few rear-zooming lenses that don't change length when changing the focal length. This feature makes for complex linkages in the lens, making them expensive to produce.

You check for dust by closing the aperture down as much as possible and shooting an out of focus photo of either a brightly lit wall or the sky. If there are any dust on the sensor, it will show up clearly.

Start your cleaning by just raising the mirror and opening the shutter by entering the cleaning mode. Blow inside the mirror box with a rocket blower and then check if the dust is gone. Don’t even think of using canned air as the pressure is too high and the propellant can form droplets that can damage the sensor.

If the simple air cleaning doesn’t help, you need to decide what electrostatic or wet method you want to use. Get a kit and follow the instructions to clean your sensor.

Yes and no.

IF means that the lens shows no sign of change during focusing:
• stays the same in size

• the front element will not rotate — that alone permits the use of
  tulip shaped lens shades.

IF may also include in some high end cases — a zoom function as
in the the older 200~400 ƒ4 and its newer version, the 180~400 ƒ4;
and with the 24~70 ƒ2.8 but may not the case for all zoom lenses.

I always go for the IF lenses when available.
 

DocMD, sorry about hijacking your thread.

Your photo is nice, but I would have used a longer lens to get a greater magnification for a shorter DoF.
I tend to use an 85/1.8 wide open or slightly closed down, maybe f/2.3 or so to bring it into its sharpest aperture range for this type of shots. Another fantastic lens for botanicals is the 105/2 DC, but it is a very specialized tool that takes lots of practice to master.