I recently was fortunate to obtain this lens at a good price, albeit at the going-out-of-business sale of the best remaining new + used photographic store in the San Francisco Bay Area. A modest gain and a large loss...
I've used the 300/2.8 AIS and 500/4 AIP manual-focus lenses on a D7000 in the past to photograph relatively tame elk
Cervus elaphus nannodes with some success, but more recently found a Canon 800/5.6 FD too tricky to get good focus results on a crop sensor (70D). The animals tended to move too fast, even when quietly grazing, to keep their eyes in focus.
(I was unusually close with the 800/5.6. I had set up by the side of a public road in the elk reserve like I have in the past, and with my good behavior the elk simply grazed closer and closer, to the point where I was getting mainly just their heads.)
The 400/2.8 I examined in the store was well used but seemed to autofocus well on a film body so I went ahead and bought it. I've long regarded fast autofocus supertelephoto lenses as either beyond my means or at least a poor use of my limited funds, though I have given consideration in the past to getting one or another AF-I version. So this was a pleasant surprise and presented exciting possibilities.
I live within a reasonable driving distance of San Francisco Bay, one of the best spots on the west coast of North America to see shorebirds. There are also a large number of waterfowl during the winter months, taking refuge from the frigid winter conditions found farther north and in the high plateaus to the east of California. I had long wanted to try my hand at photographing these birds, but a rough period of years made every hour of sleep precious. More recently my situation has improved considerably and I could once again face rising early on a day off from work to photograph under superior conditions for wildlife viewing.
The day I chose had the darkest morning of any day this year, as in the U.S. this is the last day of Daylight Savings Time yet only 6-1/2 weeks from the winter solstice. That worked well, as I arrived just before the official 0800 opening time of the gate and stopped due to lack of subjects only an hour and a quarter later.
This was more of a trial run than anything else. I have a great deal to learn, and little experience with photographing birds or using an autofocus lens to catch action. Along the way I forgot to consider the aperture, and thus failed to take advantage of the available f/2.8. Despite various other mistakes, I had a great time and got a few nice shots along the way.
The location is the Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline, a park located on the shores of San Leandro Bay which is an arm of San Francisco Bay. The site is heavily modified by humans; the surrounding land is nearly all former bay or marsh filled to make land. Nevertheless, the area still has some marsh and open water, and at least what remains is now safe from being filled.
Camera: Nikon D7200. Support: Gitzo 4330LS and RRS gimbal head. I enjoyed the writing speed and large buffer of the D7200, relative to the D7000 I used in one of my few other action shooting efforts.
Ripples by
Bill de Jager, on Flickr
Birdwatchers I by
Bill de Jager, on Flickr
Stop Thief by
Bill de Jager, on Flickr
Gull I by
Bill de Jager, on Flickr
Canada Geese in Flight by
Bill de Jager, on Flickr
The final shot should have had more space around the geese, but it's entirely uncropped. It's beginner's luck that it was even centered this well as I frantically tried to follow the birds in flight!
