Share Your December Photos! (2021)
A friend gave me his old 200-500mm Nikkor. It's stuck at 400mm. Apparently an issue with these lenses. A screw comes loose then gets wedged in the barrel. The front element has a couple marks in the coating, but they are tiny, no way it will harm IQ.. He also fell on the ice cracking the plastic ring that holds the front element. I don't think that's an issue other than cosmetic. The white paint for all the switches and mm markings is totally gone. Another issue with the 200-500 people complain about. My friend did not want to deal with repair so he just bought another. He said it was just sitting in a drawer. I GREATLY appreciate the gesture of my buddy. It actually shoots great, albeit at 400mm the VR is awesome and it focuses really fast. Tomorrow I am going to send it to "my guy" out in California. Going to have him fix the zooming issue, do an internal cleaning and maybe fix that cracked ring.
The HB-71 lens hood is cracked. I fixed it with Solarez UV cured resin. It's solid now. However that $63 hood really sucks. It's cheap plastic and really awkward, falls off and breaks. For once the internet wasn't being whiney, it is truly junk. . The only white paint left on the lens is on that hood and it says "Made in China". It's getting replaced with screw in metal one which will stay on permanently.
It's not as much of a burden to carry as much as I though it would be, but you for sure know you are not carrying a 50mm. My 300 f4 is no featherweight either. The tripod collar serves as a good handle.
Here is a young coop sitting on the telephone pole in my yard. Lighting was flat and yucky till about 3 seconds after it flew off.
One little rant, the 95mm Nikon lens cap for this thing is $32. My friend says he has it somewhere so he is going to dig it out. I picked up two generic caps from Amazon $10 after passing up a 17 dollar one that was similar from amazon. Junk. Incredibly hard to take on and off. Just like the ones that came with my Tampon and Tokina lenses. Why is it so hard?
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Quote from KankRat on December 19, 2021, 5:28 pmA friend gave me his old 200-500mm Nikkor. It's stuck at 400mm. Apparently an issue with these lenses. A screw comes loose then gets wedged in the barrel. The front element has a couple marks in the coating, but they are tiny, no way it will harm IQ.. He also fell on the ice cracking the plastic ring that holds the front element. I don't think that's an issue other than cosmetic. The white paint for all the switches and mm markings is totally gone. Another issue with the 200-500 people complain about. My friend did not want to deal with repair so he just bought another. He said it was just sitting in a drawer. I GREATLY appreciate the gesture of my buddy. It actually shoots great, albeit at 400mm the VR is awesome and it focuses really fast. Tomorrow I am going to send it to "my guy" out in California. Going to have him fix the zooming issue, do an internal cleaning and maybe fix that cracked ring.
The HB-71 lens hood is cracked. I fixed it with Solarez UV cured resin. It's solid now. However that $63 hood really sucks. It's cheap plastic and really awkward, falls off and breaks. For once the internet wasn't being whiney, it is truly junk. . The only white paint left on the lens is on that hood and it says "Made in China". It's getting replaced with screw in metal one which will stay on permanently.
It's not as much of a burden to carry as much as I though it would be, but you for sure know you are not carrying a 50mm. My 300 f4 is no featherweight either. The tripod collar serves as a good handle.
Here is a young coop sitting on the telephone pole in my yard. Lighting was flat and yucky till about 3 seconds after it flew off.
One little rant, the 95mm Nikon lens cap for this thing is $32. My friend says he has it somewhere so he is going to dig it out. I picked up two generic caps from Amazon $10 after passing up a 17 dollar one that was similar from amazon. Junk. Incredibly hard to take on and off. Just like the ones that came with my Tampon and Tokina lenses. Why is it so hard?
Definitely seems like a lens worth fixing. I'm surprised that it doesn't feel too much like a tank. That's a huge lens. And 95mm filter size is enormous! It's like buying a Lamborghini and having to replace a wheel for thousands of dollars. You got a nice Nikon lens and now need a new lens cap and everything is more expensive xD
Went downtown San Antonio to enjoy ice skating. It doesn't actually get cold enough for that here, it's all artificial. Shot the GR for a few shots before the battery died - I had forgotten to charge or bring a spare 🙁
These were shot at ISO 12800 on the original GR, which looks hideous. Cleaned up amazingly with DxO PureRAW. I like the software so much now I bought it and now am trying to get into their affiliate system to refer to others. Wish I had good battery later - we went down to the riverwalk and saw the lights and the lit up boats. Very fun.
Mural Painting at Night by Snappiness, on Flickr
Garage Bus by Snappiness, on Flickr
Holy smokes dude, the DXO Pureraw noise removal is amazing. If I had to guess iso on an APS-C sensor based on those photos I'd say you shot at 1600. That boggles my mind. Might have to get that app for me.
Quote from HeggenDazs on December 21, 2021, 4:26 pmHoly smokes dude, the DXO Pureraw noise removal is amazing. If I had to guess iso on an APS-C sensor based on those photos I'd say you shot at 1600. That boggles my mind. Might have to get that app for me.
The 30 day trial has no restrictions, so it's pretty fun to play with without committing to spend any money. If you do buy it, wait until I can get this dang affiliate program to work. Every company I've tried to work with using a totally different system and it's kind of annoying. But obviously rewarding so I will stop complaining 😛
I haven't tried Topaz yet but that's another really popular one. It seems to work just as well, but gets very different looking results. I think mostly because of the other processing DxO PureRAW does in addition to the noise reduction. I've watched some comparison videos. Still learning a lot about this software stuff. I'm pretty basic when it comes to post processing that I've been out of the loop for a long while on all these cool helpful tools.
Here's the side-by-side zoomed in. Without any extra processing besides color and reduced contrast on my part. Really awesome. I wouldn't be afraid to use ISO12800 on the GR again, at least under these conditions.
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I would like to see a comparison to LR.
@kankrat Solarez UV, I reckon we’ve got ourselves a fly fisherman here. I need to break out my Renzetti Vise and tie up some new bass streamers. I’ve always wanted to try out the Native Nikon 200-500 in comparison to my Tamron 150-600.
@james-warner-b Impressive that you can get such an awesome picture out of that ol GR sensor in 2021. I’ve got some old Nikon D3500 RAW files from when I first started trying wildlife, it was my first body, and it really struggled above 1600 ISO, that I’d like to push through that software.
I spent the solstice at China Hot Springs, caught the daybreak at 11am. Bathing in 105 degree water in a mountain valley was surreal, and then the Aurora rolled through awesomely last night. LX100II, I made a GIF of the exposures I got when it flared.
https://media.giphy.com/media/CYUz5IKcmuRWdZXldx/giphy.gif
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Quote from KankRat on December 22, 2021, 2:29 pmI would like to see a comparison to LR.
I can put a side-by-side together for that with at least my workflow for NR in lightroom. Everyone does it a little different so your milage may vary, as they say. At least the way I do is with masks and applying NR different based on luminance and subject vs background. Just remind me if I don't post one in the next few weeks. Lol.
Quote from SpruceBruce on December 22, 2021, 7:04 pm@james-warner-b Impressive that you can get such an awesome picture out of that ol GR sensor in 2021. I’ve got some old Nikon D3500 RAW files from when I first started trying wildlife, it was my first body, and it really struggled above 1600 ISO, that I’d like to push through that software.
I spent the solstice at China Hot Springs, caught the daybreak at 11am. Bathing in 105 degree water in a mountain valley was surreal, and then the Aurora rolled through awesomely last night. LX100II, I made a GIF of the exposures I got when it flared.
Dude, that is incredible! The gif is so cool! I've done some natural hot springs like that in Idaho and tried to in Texas (got there but it was too crowded, so peaced out). So yeah, I get it. Super cool.
Quote from SpruceBruce on December 22, 2021, 7:04 pm@kankrat Solarez UV, I reckon we’ve got ourselves a fly fisherman here. I need to break out my Renzetti Vise and tie up some new bass streamers. I’ve always wanted to try out the Native Nikon 200-500 in comparison to my Tamron 150-600.
Tis true. "kankrat" is a handle I gave myself for fishing forums. It's an abbreviation of Kankakee River Rat.
My first choice is a flyrod second a baitcaster or spinning rod. Yes I tie.
The "Kank" is a beautiful river about an hour drive outside the Chicago city limits. The Kank and Desplaines merge to form the Illinois river, which is a tributary of the Mississippi.
You would be shocked at how good our bass fishing is, especially smallmouth. In fact, it's pretty crazy how great an outdoor experience you can have here, whether you are a runner, a cyclist, an angler, paddler or a wildlife photographer.
I'm close to being out of the bottle of Solarez I got last year for Christmas last year and 10% of it was used for flies. It's so handy for fixing stuff.
