A field test of the 500mm lens that I have rented for the Hungary expedition
I received the 500mm lens on Thursday. I have rented the lens from Kameradoktorn for the upcoming Eagle workshop in Hungary as a tool for hopefully getting better pictures. I have pondered about maybe buying a longer tele lens in the future but to be able to field test it like this is great.
So today I wanted to do a field test of the lens to see what it is capable of. My first impression is that it’s a big lens compare to my 300mm but that it’s still manageable. It will surely take me some time to get a better feeling for it before I can handheld it with ease like I do with my 300mm lens.
I used it with the 1,4x teleconverter making it a 700mm/5.6 lens as this probably is the setup I will use in Hungary with the Eagles. It made the long setup even longer and sometimes it felt like I was all over the place without getting anything into the viewfinder, particularly when I tried the setup handheld. I also tried it with both my cameras and it did produce a decent result with both.
When I go thru the pictures from today I see a better and better result over time. Sadly I had to throw away many of the pictures I took of the Common Buzzard some that would have been excellent as I sat just a few meters from the bird when it went on the hunt. I think it a hard lesson learnt but it´s better to have it today then during the Eagle workshop. The lesson is very simple and that is to use a stable platform and a shutter speed of at least 1/800s.
This is my favorite picture of the day.
It show a Tufted duck just after the head goes into the water. It is a few milliseconds late as I would have liked to have the eye just above the water surface. I like how the water drops are leaving the Duck head but also the buildup of water on the back. You also get a feeling of how much energy goes into the search for food just by looking at the water depth behind the Duck.
So what are my conclusions for the day? Well it’s a competent lens, of that I’m sure. I would require more days to test it before feeling comfortable with this lens but I don´t have the luxury with preparations this time. I will surely get some pictures with this lens but if we are shooting from the car then I’ll use my own lens.
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