Anna’s Hummingbird-Female

Posted in Anna's Hummingbird, birding, Birds in Flight, Birds in the Wild, Birds of North America, Nikon Lenses, Photography, Santa Clara County BirdingTagged , , , , , , ,

Copyright © 2016 Deborah M. Zajac
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I hired the Nikon AF-S 200-500mm 1:5.6E ED VR lens to try out for the week-end since my old 300mm f4 AF-S ED lens is acting weird, and I’ve always wanted more reach.

I spent all day Saturday out birding using the lens, and several hours on Sunday before having to return it. I hated to part with it! I LIKE IT A LOT!

 

Anna's Hummingbird

I used it on my Nikon D300s and found the lens very quick to focus with very little hunting even in low contrast areas, and the images have lovely colors, and contrast. The VR was quite snappy and worked very well on the few images I shot hand-held. I won’t be doing that often.

The lens weighs 4.6 pounds so,  I used this lens on a tripod with my Wimberley  Arca Sidekick Ball to Gimbal Adapter, and let my rig carry the weight, or I shot from the car window using the door frame as my base on the auto-route parts of the refuges I visited.

This little Anna’s Hummingbird feeding on this succulent plant is an image I made this morning. The sky was overcast and gray, and she was in the shade.
Camera Settings: 1/320s| ISO 1000| Manual Priority| Matrix Metering| Single AF

A challenging situation that I think came out well. So, I guess you know I want this lens!

I shot just under 1000 images this week-end and have begun culling them. I’ll be sharing more images as I go through them.

More to come…

30 thoughts on “Anna’s Hummingbird-Female”

  1. Pingback: Allen’s Hummingbird-Male | Circadianreflections Blog

    1. I’ve been really happy with it. Now waiting for the D500 to be released and hopefully it will be bug and issue free. The auto-focus died on my D300s last week-end and it’s not worth sending it in for repair at this point. It’s been good to me these last 6 yrs, and I’ve got over 75K shutter clicks on it, and the flash isn’t popping up like it should either. I need a new wildlife camera.

      Like

      Reply

    1. Thank you so much Myriam! Yes, you did. I’ve for about a year my 300mm f4 was on it’s last legs and have been saving to replace it. I haven’t had much chance to use the lens I bought though. It’s been raining this week, and when it stopped I went out back to photograph backyard birds. I only got a couple of good images of the elusive Fox Sparrow that lives in my neighbors Oleander. I’m super thrilled about that!
      I am hoping I get out Saturday for a full day to see if the lens is a keeper or not.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  7. Beautiful image Deborah, love the blur on the wings which gives a hint of their motion. I have and use that lens quite often, in fact I don’t think I have used my 300 f/4 since purchasing. I find the 200-500 f/5.6 works quite well with the 1.4 and 1.7tc’s as well. You mentioned shooting from the car which seems to work very well as a lot of the animals aren’t overly intimidated with it. My wife made me a rice bag that is kept in the car for just that reason.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you so much Harold! When I returned the lens the store had one new one in stock and I bought it. I’ll be spending the next year and half paying myself back and saving for the D500. I won’t have much $ extra a month, but no regrets I’ll be out shooting and I hope having a whole lot of fun! 🙂

      I received a bean bag for Christmas several years ago that I keep in my car too. I took it on this trip to use, but I didn’t drive so I was able to sit in the backsit and shoot from both sides of the car, but the back window didn’t roll down all the way-only about half way, and the bag wouldn’t balance well to use it.
      Why are manufacturers stopping the windows from rolling all the way now-a-days? My 2014 Subaru’s rear seat windows only go down 3/4 of the way. It’s very frustrating and annoying for we birders!

      Like

      Reply

    1. Thank you so much Todd! I only linked to the Sidekick to show readers what I was talking about. It’s been a well used, and appreciated piece of my kit for several years now.
      My keeper rate went up when I started using it.

      You’re right. I did find my birding glass! 🙂

      Like

      Reply

A penny for your thoughts...

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.