Practicing my Telephoto Technique - Nikon 70-300mm AF-S VR and the Ducklings

I am anxiously awaiting delivery of a used Nikkor 200-400mm f4 zoom lens that a friend and I have decided to co-own. It's an expensive lens, so this made it possible for both of us to have access to it.

 

Most of my lenses, especially telephotos, are older technology. Starting with the Ai-P 500mm f4, which is my longest lens, it's manual focus. It's a true beauty, and makes wonderful photos, but clearly doesn't have the latest AF-S focusing. Then there's my 300mm f4 AF-I, which does have autofocus, but not the blazing fast AF-S.

 

In fact, the only long lens I have with AF-S is the 70-400mm f4.5-5.6 G VR zoom lens. So, I decided to take that lens out for a quick shoot before work yesterday, to practice my focusing technique. Based on the video by Steve Perry that I posted yesterday, I set up my D700 for back button focusing and gave it a try.

 

Not an action shot, but here's the best shot I made in that fifteen or twenty minutes of shooting yesterday.

 

Spring Ducklings, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 G AF-S Lens

iso 800, f8, 1/500 sec

 

I wanted to test out the back button method, in which you leave your camera set to continuous AF, and use the button on the rear of the camera to decide when to freeze the focus, if at all. When photographing action (e.g. birds in flight), you just keep the button pressed, and the camera will focus through the entire shooting sequence. For static objects (e.g. these ducklings), you get the focus point you want, then release the rear button, locking the focus at that point. This worked very well for me here.

 

This 70-300mm lens is very good. It's not as sharp as I expect the 200-400mm to be, which should be obvious when you compare the specs and prices. But, I think it did a pretty good job for me in this case. And, it's very light and fast.

 

I can't wait to see what the 200-400 can do!

 

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Use Nikon Autofocus? You MUST Watch this Video by Steve Perry

I have been shooting some wildlife recently with my Nikon cameras. With the spring weather finally here, I love to get out in my kayak and photograph birds and other wildlife.

 

My current telephoto lenses are a 300mm f4 AF-I (very old autofocus lens) and a 500mm f4 Ai-P (manual focus). Both are excellent optics, but are a bit dated. I have worked on my manual focus technique with the 500mm, and can even catch the occasional sharp image of a bird in flight.

Bald Eagle in Flight, by Reed A. George

Nikon D700, Nikkor Ai-P 500mm f4 Manual Focus Lens + 1.4X Teleconverter

iso 1600, f5.6, 1/1000 sec.

 

Of course, things get easier with autofocus, especially Nikon's modern AF-S lenses. I'm about to get my hands on a lovely 200-400mm f4 AF-S VR lens, so I'm reading up on autofocus technique.

 

Here's an outstanding 12 minute video by Steve Perry, showing some of the key concepts for successful autofocus with Nikon DSLRs:

 

If you have problem with getting to the video, (Click Here).

 

One of the techniques that Perry practices is "back button" AF. This means using only the back AF-on button to focus, and not the typical half-press of the shutter release. With the camera set to continuous AF (AF-C), you simply let your finger off of the back button when you want to lock in focus, or keep pressing to follow and focus on a moving subject. Really helpful.

 

Just to try it out, I took my D700 and 70-300mm AF-S VR lens out tonight and gave it a shot with some flying geese. It worked really well. I literally can't wait to get my hands on that 200-400!

 

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Function Button Focusing - A Minor Tweak That I Should Probably Revisit

 

Image Source: http://nikonrumors.com/2014/01/25/how-to-use-nikons-af-on-and-back-button-autofocus.aspx/

Funny how I sometimes forget the little features that my cameras have. I believe that all of my digital cameras that have autofocus (AF) give me the option of assigning a function button (other than the shutter release half-press) to activate AF. Most of us do leave it with the "default" shutter button half-press. In a post on Nikon Rumors, they explain how assigning AF to a separate function button can really help with capturing the moment.

 

(Click Here) to read the post on Nikon Rumors.

 

Probably the most important attribute of doing this, at least on Nikon cameras, is that you can easily switch from single AF to continuous, simply by holding the button down. This means that you don't have to move any other switches or go into any menus. And, to switch back, you simply lift your finger off of the AF button.

 

I have tried this before on my Nikon D700, but not long enough for it to become second nature. I didn't really like having to hit another button on the back of the camera before taking every shot. But, now that I see it here, I can appreciate that if I got used to it, it could really help, especially for nature photography.

 

If it helped me to capture one shot like the one above, it would be worthwhile.

 

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