TWO NEW THINGS

A few days ago I told you I was working on a new piece of photography gear and that I was in the process of testing it. So here it is, a flash bracket that mounts to the food of a long lens and elevates the speed light above the lens barrel. It allows to turn the camera quickly by 90 degree with the flash still remaining above the lens. Yes, there are tons of flash brackets out there. Some are very flimsy and some of the better ones are very expensive. I enjoy building stuff out of wood or metal and designing and building this piece of gear was a fun little “winter project”.

There is another addition I like to introduce today and you can find it right here on my website. Since a long time I wanted to add a gear page to this website and if you click on the link in the side bar of this blog, it will direct you right to it. Please feel free to check it out!

SIGMA 150-600mm f/5-6.3 DG OS HSM SPORTS LENS, FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed light

The Weihnachtsmann was very nice this year and placed a new lens under the Christmas tree. The Sigma 150-600 mm / f5-6.3 DG HSM OS Sports lens will replace my “workhorse”, the Sigma 50-500 mm / f4-6.3 APO DG HSM. It has served me very well during the last six years and it was a perfect match for the Nikon D200, and later the Nikon D300s cameras. Its optics are very good and if focus can be obtained, it always delivered sharp images.

Nikon D750, Sigma 150-600mm / f5-6.3 DG OS HSM Sports Lens, tripod, gimbal head, SB 800 speed light

So what were the reasons to buy the new lens? The additional 100 mm focal length are a big one. On the D300s the 500 mm maximum focal length delivered the angle of view of a 750 mm lens. After changing to a full frame FX sensor, with the Nikon D750 camera, well, 500 mm are just 500 mm. This can make a big difference in wildlife photography. In a critical situation, when it might be impossible to get closer to the subject, changing the camera settings to “quick crop mode” will provide the equivalent of a 900 mm lens. This can make the difference between coming home with “the shot” or nothing.

You have not seen many of my photos here in the blog when I wasn’t able to obtain focus because of shutter speed was too slow, but there were more than you may think. Optical stabilization (OS) will hopefully help me to have more keepers on the memory card after a shooting session. This was another big reason for getting the new Sigma lens.

The old lens isn’t splash and dust proof and as you know, it isn’t always easy to keep water and dirt away in the field. The new one has a weatherproof construction. Big deal for me.

The snow storm that just came through here didn’t leave me much time to do a lot of testing with the new lens yet, but I show you a couple photos and here are my first impressions.

  1. The Sigma 150-600 Sports lens is very well built and has a really nice design. Nothing looks and feels cheap and the lens gives you a professional feeling with its ergonomic features (more about this probably in a later blog post).
  2. It is able to deliver sharp, very sharp images!
  3. I love the bokeh. OMG, much better than with the old lens.
  4. The darn thing is heavy, and I mean heavy. The old 50-500 was called the “Bigma” because of its weight but the 150-600 Sports lens brings 900 grams (2 lb.) more to the scale. I read a lot of reviews about this lens before I asked Santa Claus to bring it this Christmas. Some of the reviewers talked about sharpness by just handholding the lens. Sure, this is possible, and I will for sure handhold the lens, but posting a verdict about sharpness doesn’t seem to be the right way of making an evaluation. Bottom line, this lens needs good support (tripod) whenever possible!
  5. Price. I thought it was a little overpriced in the past. I had this lens on my wish list since it came out over a year ago, but when Sigma lowered the price by $200 and B&H threw in the USB dock for adjusting the lens via computer ($60), I felt the time was right to pull the trigger... 😊. 

I’m sure I will give those of you, who like to read more about this lens, some more thoughts as soon I can do some real field testing beyond my first backyard experience.

As always, equipment plays an important role but it is the person behind the camera that makes the photo. I still believe that…

P.S.: I have added more thoughts about this lens on April 4, 2016. Feel free to click HERE for this new post.

PRACTICE WITH PAINTED TURTLES

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, DX-crop mode

A Painted Turtle is a great subject to practice wildlife shooting or to test new equipment, like I do right now with the new Nikon D750. If the turtles move, they move slowly (with one exception I will talk about in a minute), or they don’t move at all. The yellow lines on its head provide good contrast to lock on focus, which is important for a sharp image. And as a bonus, the turtles are always good for a unique gesture. The first one was not my sharpest shot of this critter but the gesture with the open mouth makes all the difference for me. It looks like the turtle is yawning, but what you don’t see in the first photo is a second turtle, just climbing up the log on the other end. Well, the meet and and greet on the log went well and after some butt sniffing (yes they do that like dogs!) both finally ended up taking a sun bath together.

You may think taking these shot is much easier than photograph a bird at the same distance, but this is not true. If the Painted Turtle senses danger, because you walk right up to them, they will drop into the water as fast as a bird will take off. The good thing is, most of the time, especially when the sun is shining, they will climb back up on the log again after a few minutes. The short break while they are in the water allows to establish a good shooting position near the log. If you are carefully and make your own moves as slow as a turtle  ;-) , they may accept your presence and you get a second chance to make the click.

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head, FX-mode

I switched back and forth between FX and DX crop mode on the D750 while shooting the action as just described. Full frame (FX mode) served very well to make the images with both turtles on the log. For isolating the turtle on the left, like in the first image, I used the DX crop mode. Back in the days of shooting slides on film, rule #1 for having a keeper was ‘Get it right in camera’. I enjoy photography as a form of art and as a craft. Get it right in camera is part of the craft.

WILDLIFE AND A LARGER SENSOR

Nikon D750, Sigma 50-500mm / f4.5-6.3 APO DG HSM, tripod, gimbal head

A filled travel schedule and business meetings in between prevented me from doing serious shooting during the last couple days again. Feels like torture when you have a new camera and no time to work with it… ;-)

This shot of the Great Horned Owl juvenile is from last Friday and pretty much straight out of camera, except for the usual sharpening process. By using the full size of the 24 MP sensor in FX-mode on the NIKON D750 a 500 mm focal length is just what it is, 500 mm, like in the days of film photography. However, the camera can be used in two different crop modes and the DX-mode with a crop factor of 1.5 provides the same angle of view for a particular lens as it is on my NIKON 300s DX camera. With other words you have, kind of, the equivalent of 750 mm focal length. And here lies the big challenge that comes with the change to a full frame camera. You have to get physically closer to your subject in order to use the full potential of the sensor. As mentioned before this is not always possible, like with the owl high up in the nest, but for shooting many other critters I just have to get better. That means to learn more about their biology and behavior and invest more patience and time so that finally the wildlife comes to you. Long way to go… :-)

GOING FULL FRAME

I haven’t talked about photography gear in quite some time but today I’m just excited to tell you that a new camera was added to the gear bag. Nikon finally dropped the price of its FX-format camera D750 and my order went out immediately. I had planned to add a full frame DSLR to my bag of tools since a while, with the clear goal in mind to bring my photography to the next level. I don’t buy photography equipment for just the sake of being ”up to date” and I still love my DX-format NIKON D300s. I know that I have pushed its limits, for instance in low light situations. It has produced some results over the years that I’m very happy with, and it will still remain in the shooting bag as a second body that I can quickly use with a different lens.

Although I had a busy travel schedule during the weekend and today (I’m writing this post in a hotel room in Minneapolis) but I had some time last Friday and Sunday to do quite a bit of testing, studying the manual, and just having fun learning everything about the D750.

Today I won’t babble much about what I found so far. After the first six hundred shots on the meter I just think it is an amazing camera and it may take a little time to unleash its full potential. 

Part of my regular job is teaching people how to use new machines and software that comes with them. And therefor it’s no wonder that I’m a strong believer that actually reading and studying the manual is essential to understand the equipment and get the most out of it. Well I have more than 400 pages left… ;-)

All images: NIKON D750