Decompressing
I should start off by saying that my web silence is not entirely on purpose. I was working dutifully on the blog for the most part, and my mom said she would buy me a graduation gift. I found a cheap Opteka 800m lens for under $200 (don’t tell me that’s not cheap!) and decided to get that. Yesterday when I was supposed to go to NYC, I got a call from Amazon that said the lens would be coming This Friday instead of next, since that lens distributor is only 45 minutes away.
Man, it would have been cheaper and faster to drive to Brooklyn than wait until 8pm for the lens. But I have it and all I’ve been able to discern from using it in the dark is that I definitely need my monopod when I use it, due to it’s weight and lack of autofocus.
Since I bought this lens specifically for going to the zoo (and for baseball games at Shay Stadium), I figured I’d take a bigger trip today to relax with not many people around and shoot some animals. For those of you that don’t know, the lions at the zoo have three yet-unnamed cubs, sonI hope the lens will get those three really well. The last time I went to this zoo, I only had my point and shoot, so today should get me better results, especially with three lenses.
Happy shooting everyone! I will see you all later 🙂
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Sounds like a deal to me. A Nikkor 600mm would have set you back over $10,000.
You will absolutely need a tripod or monopod to keep it steady.
What camera are you using?
The lens is way too heavy for me and I’m going to send it back and use the money to get something smaller and (hopefully) actually from Nikon. I wasn’t happy with the image quality at all, especially since the lens was so heavy and HAD to connect using a t-mount adapter.
I did end up using my monopod, and it was very necessary to use.
I use a Nikon D5000 since I’m just a hobby person and as a student, I can’t afford anything better for quite a while.
The D5000 is a great camera. Don’t worry about the fancy glass. Just keep shooting!
By the way, I thought HDR in CS5 is really good. I took nine bracketed shots and merged them to HDR from Bridge and it worked like a charm. Way better than CS3 which is what I had before.
Ciao,
Bisogno
I’ll have to check your blog/site for your HDR images. I don’t worry about glass too much, just when I’m talking to someone on the street who has a great camera and compares gear. 😛
Forget about the guy on the street. I used to be a drummer and we had an old saying, “It’s not the drum set. It’s the guy sitting behind it.” This holds true for all the arts.