Attempting To Shoot Wildlife With Vintage 1970s Glass..

in #animalphotography7 years ago (edited)

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I've been eyeing up the Nikon 300mm PF lens for quite some time, despite never having shot any wildlife. No lens has made me FOMO at the mouth quite like it. So rather than dropping the best part of 2 grand on a wildlife lens, I should at least get out and mess around with a cheaper alternative.


I had forgotten about my good buddy Dave Kavanaghs stash of vintage lenses until a visit yesterday, and he kindly offered me a loan of his Nikkor 300mm F4.5 H lens. For context, this is a vintage lens, manual focus, used throughout the 1970s. Quite cool that us Nikonians have the option of using these old lenses though. This chunky bit of glass regularly sells for under 100 bucks on eBay.

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A pristine 300mm "Nikkor H". Photo credit: www.destoutz.ch

Despite the lack of autofocus, the plan was that a day out with this lens in my local Botanical Gardens might give me a feel for the 300mm focal length.

I also had some questions about shooting with a 300mm lens. How much does camera shake come into play, and at what shutter speeds? And is 300mm long enough for birds? Maybe after dropping a wad of cash on the fancy new version, I will want to spend some extra cash on one of Nikons pricey teleconverters...

My first shot was a tower in nearby Glasnevin Cemetry. I was expecting more colour fringing from such an old lens so was pleasantly surprised. The splotches by the way, are on my sensor, not the lens. My D750 is due a service. ISO 500, F5.6, 1/4000.

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The squirrels down there are very tame. In fact, they came too close to focus. Could it be that 300mm is too long? Just kidding! I certainly appreciated the reach, but I can see the appeal of modern tele zooms such as the Tamron 150-600mm for extreme versatility.

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300mm on a full frame camera is certainly ideal for nearby critters like squirrels, but the limitations of the focal length quickly become obvious when you start trying to shoot song birds up trees. The shot below of the Robin is cropped, and you can see a loss of sharpness. By the way, I got plenty of shots with camera shake, as well as badly out of focus. Manual focusing is an art unto itself, and one I rather suck at.

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This treecreeper (below) was really fast and agile, walking up and down, right way up and upside-down. Cute little things. He didn't mind me getting quite close. Unfortunately the MFD of the lens is around 4 meters so I had to actually back away from the bird to achieve focus.. heartbreaking!

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I came across some Mandarin ducks down by the lake. These are fairly new arrivals to Ireland, but becoming an increasingly common sight in recent years.

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This was my favourite shot, below. For such an elegant looking animal, these ducks love to splash around and make a fuss.

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So, mission accomplished. While I won't be winning any prizes for these shots, I was able to get a feel for the 300mm focal length and answer those questions I had.

Certainly auto-focus will be a must, but that's a given for most of us these days. Camera shake? Most definitely an issue at 300mm, and VR would be much appreciated in a new telephoto lens. Finally, is 300mm long enough for birds? Well, almost. The newer 300mm lenses are razor sharp, so will be more forgiving with cropping, but regardless, I did have to go to some effort to get close to the birds, close enough that they usually moved away before long.

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And what about this old 1970s lens?

Manual focus is decidedly tricky, especially with a beastly 1.1 kilogram lens on a full frame camera, so I couldn't recommend it for wildlife. Still, I should mention how impressed I was with the optics, considering this lens is so old, older than me in fact. I'm happy to fork out for autofocus, especially for shooting moving subjects, but if for some reason you're happy with manual focus on a telephoto prime, this lens has some nice image quality for under 100 bucks!


One more thing...

Just as I was leaving, fairly sold on the 300mm focal range, I spotted a buzzard in the field across the river. It was far enough away to take up very little in the frame but I took a couple of shots anyway. God damn. I guess I will be getting that teleconverter now too.

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Sort:  

Fixed the church photo for you... :D

This is some decent shots man! I wish I didn't shake like a vibrator and could snap magic like this.

Hahaha

bahah! My very own Klye remix. I'm honored!

Niceeee!! This is what is nice about nikon! ANY LENS WILL FIT! Luckily i have an adapter for m32 screw mounts to my canon.... i love messing around with vintage lenses when I feel like it! Maybe i'll make a post about them eventually ;)

Gosh these photographs are simply amazing to say the least. I love those where the animal is focused, and the background is blurry.
Those I really love!
Upvoted

This one I never saw in Ireland!!

Yeah apparently they've been spotted a bit over the years but are doing really well now, especially in Glasnevin!

Wonderful photos bro 💕 @condra

Cheers dude!

Sick Post for the camera - Loved the quality pictures you've shared...
#condra #upvote

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Excellent write-up about the lens! The duck is best but I favor the squirrel just a bit more. :)

Very nice shots! That is one nice thing about Nikon not changing t heir mounts. It was a double-edged sword, though! My first SLR was a Nikon FM-10 :-)

Great job with the manual focus. If you have the visual acuity, it can actually be faster than AF in many situations. Some of that old glass was really good, too, despite the chromatic aberrations and flaring that some of them suffered from. Very nice work!

Very nice pics - love the last two the most - great camera but if you do not have an eye for photography (which you obviously have) I think the camera can be as good as it wants....

Epic shots you have taken each one was a redefining one :D

the duck shots was the most beautiful thing to see interesting and amazing

Great shots dude. The old beast held up well. The lens I mean, not your good self. I'd say you've taken about 1000% more shots with that lens then I ever have. Glad to see its getting some use.

Beautiful shots this is really interesting wonderful and fun

Good photo! I envy you! I will follow you!

its so cool to see wonderful work there wow :)

Some incredible shots, man. Well done!