I've been lucky enough to have to go to Nairobi yet once again and did my habitual Saturday game drive in Nairobi National Park. I'm starting to think I know the park roads and animals better than the guides.

Anyway, this time I decided to try something different and put the teleconvertor on my 300mm, turning it into a 420mm telephoto. Since it's not a zoom, you're always at 420mm, which sometimes means you're just too close; you really have to pick your shots. Good for portraits however.













Some people seem to think that using a teleconvertor, especially with a high 36 Megapixel camera like a Nikon D810, will give poor results. Also, handholding a 420mm telephoto with no vibration reduction is also supposed to result in soft pictures lacking sharpness. Whatever. I'm happy with my results. You do lose an f-stop with the teleconvertor (the f/4 becomes an f/5.6) but the hardest part is getting the right part of the picture in focus, since depth of field is VERY shallow and of course staying steady is a challenge with a big and heavy lens. My hit rate, in terms of sharp photos, is less than with other combinations so, yes, it is harder to use. But when you do get it right the pictures are sharp enough.

When you are far enough away you can get the whole critter in the picture. If the distance is just right you can get a frame-filling shot and the shallow depth of field yields a nice effect of isolating the subject.









My lens is the Nikkor 300mm AFS f/4 D IF-ED and the tele convertor is the Nikon TC-14E II. While not exactly obsolete, these have now been replaced with a much lighter, more compact 300mm f/4 with VR and the Nikon TC-14E III (the latter allowing the use of the lense's vibration reduction). With the new lenses out, my kit can be bought on the used market at very interesting prices.

I think this is what Marabout Storks do most of the time, just hang out.





It was nice and dry while I was there. This shot shows limited depth of field with a 420mm.

Wink,

You do some absolutely incredible photography.

TT

Thank you TT. That merits a toothy grin.

As usual, just awesome Wink. Love the old zebra, and sure as hell wouldn't want to meet with Mr Smiles. Thanks for posting!

Wink your shots are incredible, and the clarity is outstanding. Very kind of you to share.

thanks for those pics.