Archive for April, 2008
Manhole Uncovered: The Nikon 600mm F4 VR G
Finally finally I got a little time to shoot my first pics with the new Nikon 600mm VR lens. With the lens in a soft regular duffel bag, I carted it to Siwree in my car. Yes, I realise that I do need a new equipment carting strategy now. Not surprisingly, the 600 puts a spin on the current equipment packing & cartage dynamics completely !
The light was low and I had barely two hours before sunset. The high tide was at 1537H and typically the flamingos fly in about one hour plus after high tide and land near the Colgate factory. So thats where I set up. The waders were in their best breeding plumage and we saw heaps of plovers, sandpipers, stints et al.
Quick review is that that this is one classy of a lens. The VR is wonderful and heps get a better keeper rate. The new lenses have “N” on a gold plate on the side to denote “Nano Coating”. The Nano coating on the lens does result in pics with much more of a “bite”. I even got a passable shot with a 2x Nikon tele converter attached. I do need heaps of practice to eke out the best from this lens but, all the same, the first of the pics were definitely encouraging.
Nikon 600mm VR Plus TC 20EII shots below. Thats a whopping 1200mm native + 1.5x crop factor bringing the crop angle to that of a 1800mm lens !!! I doubt id I could have pulled this off without the VR helping me.
The Galvanised Iron (GI) Manhole ;-)
Been frightfully busy with work and travel ( well who isnt ?) and then I get the call I was waiting for….
This is the underground water tank cover at my local gym which I see every day since I end up warming up or doing some free hand exercises right over it. Talk of being rather “auto suggested” every morning 
So this morning I took my S3 Point & Shoot and before I went to change into my workout clothes, I shot off a few lousy frames for the blog . All at 6 AM !!! Had a super workout too !
