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Thread: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

  1. #1
    Saorsa's Avatar
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    Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    I just acquired the Nikkor CX 70-300mm for my V2. Picked it up today and stopped off at a pond with the packing lying on the floor of the passenger side of the car.

    Here is a FastStone Raw conversion of one shot at near 300mm. A Lesser Scaup.

    Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Here is a crop to the center of that image.

    Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    And now one where I actually moved a bit closer to fill the frame with a couple of Florida Mottled Ducks.

    Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Handheld at the equivalent of 840mm.
    Last edited by Saorsa; 20th January 2015 at 03:42 AM. Reason: Duck identification

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    IzzieK's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Very nice, Brian...so you shoot wide then zoomed in to crop. I've never done that..I better look for some birds to shoot tomorrow.

  3. #3
    Saorsa's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Quote Originally Posted by IzzieK View Post
    Very nice, Brian...so you shoot wide then zoomed in to crop. I've never done that..I better look for some birds to shoot tomorrow.
    Everyone who shoots wildlife eventually does that. I stopped by the lake to try the lens at various focal lengths. I think that Lesser Scaup was at almost 300mm which would be the 35mm equivalent of 775mm. I couldn't get any closer without a boat. The cropping was done in postprocessing to see the center detail of the image at that FL which the EXIF says is 287.2mm. The shot was taken to see if a slight backoff in zoom would improve the image. It doesn't with this lens but the extra 12.8mm of full zoom wouldn't have made much difference in magnification. The full zoom shot didn't have the attractive preening pose so I picked this one to show.

    The Mottled Ducks were not cropped on the horizonal axis and that shot would have been at about the equivalent of 500mm or so. The top was just more grass and the bottom more water.

    One of the nice things about using the web to display your images is that you don't have to fiddle with cropping to a standard aspect for a pre-cut matte board or custom cutting a Matte to fit the image. In general, I don't try to fill the frame and leave a little bit to crop for composition.

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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Will be interested to see how things work out for you with that lens. I have a love/hate relationship with the Nikon 1 system. I only use it when traveling to places with reliably good light such as you had in these shots. I hardly shoot my V1 at all in Alaska. I've toyed with the idea of getting that lens as a travel wildlife lens but can't bring myself to invest more in the Nikon 1 system. I'd like to have a V3 but am not about to drop $1200 on it.

    The info. on focal length as described between first and second posts is very confusing.

  5. #5
    Saorsa's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Sorry for the confusion.

    There is only one shot of the Lesser Scaup there. The EXIF shows that it was taken at an actual 287.2mm focal length which is a full frame 775mm equivalent using the 2.7 crop factor of the V2 sensor. The duck was pretty far out on the pond. It was well centered on the frame so the second image is a post process cropped of only the center of the first image to see sharpness.

    I am pleased with the result compared to using my FX 70-300mm with the FT-1 adapter.

    I agree that the Nikon 1 is a better fair weather camera with the kit lenses. I seem to get a lot of noise as the light drops. I expect about the same with this lens. If I were to need more dim light capability, I would probably go with the system primes or use faster lenses on the FT-1. When it gets to that though I just get one of my DX cameras out.

  6. #6

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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Quote Originally Posted by Saorsa View Post
    ...When it gets to that though I just get one of my DX cameras out.
    Exactly.

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    IzzieK's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    I truly appreciate your explanation. It'll help me when I go see some birds tomorrow. Today wasn't a good day. 'Was travelling all day. Tomorrow will be better and I am free. I will copy and paste your message here in my word processor and read it again. Thanks for the help again.

  8. #8
    Saorsa's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Quote Originally Posted by IzzieK View Post
    I truly appreciate your explanation. It'll help me when I go see some birds tomorrow. Today wasn't a good day. 'Was travelling all day. Tomorrow will be better and I am free. I will copy and paste your message here in my word processor and read it again. Thanks for the help again.
    Izzie, I'll make it real simple. I just cropped the image to see how well my new lens was working at extreme ranges. Both of those images are the same exposure. One uncropped and one cropped extremely to the center of the image.

    I was just seeing how well a new lens worked. I didn't expect the image I got.

    A lot of long telezooms get soft at the far end. My FX 70-300 does that so I wanted to see if the CX 70-300 did the same thing. I shot a picture at 300mm and then backed the zoom off a little to compare 300mm to something a bit less. I had no idea what the actual focal length was when I took the picture. The EXIF tells me it was about 280mm.

    The 300mm picture was equally good but the birdie was preening it's butt at the time. This picture was more attractive so I used it to show the capability of the lens. Personally, I think it is a great lens.

    There is no special technique here that will improve your ability to capture an image. As much as I like to fill the frame with the subject that just isn't always possible.

    The ducks, on the other hand, did pretty much fill the frame. In fact, if you look at the right side you will see that the last bit of the tail of the male is outside the frame. That's because the guy behind the camera (me) didn't get the image level and leveling it in post processing pushed it outside the frame. My bad.

  9. #9
    Saorsa's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Quote Originally Posted by NorthernFocus View Post
    Exactly.

    It's horses for courses. I have at least four different types of hammers in the garage.

  10. #10
    IzzieK's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Well at least it will be a good exercise for me after all testing all the lenses that I have so I will know what to take to my trip to Oz. And btw, I like your sense of humour. Hammers, eh?

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    Moderator Dave Humphries's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Quote Originally Posted by Saorsa View Post
    ~ I have at least four different types of hammers in the garage.
    Absolutely - you can't beat using the right tool for the job - and it applies as much in photography as to DIY, carpentry, building, et al.

    The downside, especially in photography, is that not everyone can afford to own the metaphorical 'four hammers', and even if they do, that they brought the correct 'hammer' out with them to the shoot

    Happy shooting with your new hammer - err, I mean lens, Brian.

    Cheers, Dave

  12. #12
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    I bought a V2. Going on the price now for a refurb there may be a new model coming out. I wonder if it's down to one of the other cameras having fewer pixels and less noise according to some. It's way way better than any bridge camera I have tried and fairly usable control wise.

    This lens interests me too but the current price is off putting. My only worry on the camera is the image stabilisation. I've had odd doubled images at times both sharp. It's in raw and jpg so nothing to do with the jpg processing. I'm putting it down to the shutter button being stiffer than what I am currently used to. The E-M1 is very very light.

    I have several hammers as well but when it comes to very long focal lengths as we all know crop has it's advantages and in the case of the Nikon 1's they are at least trying to make the lenses live up to the pixel density. I haven't really tried to find out how it performs noise wise. Maybe I will get a nice surprise like on my E-M1. Chroma noise is relatively low. I feel that one causes most of the problems if it's on the high side.

    Edit
    It seems one of the firmware upgrades has improved IS.

    John
    -
    Last edited by ajohnw; 21st January 2015 at 11:23 AM.

  13. #13
    Saorsa's Avatar
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    Re: Nikon V2 with 70-300CX

    Quote Originally Posted by Dave Humphries View Post
    Absolutely - you can't beat using the right tool for the job - and it applies as much in photography as to DIY, carpentry, building, et al.

    The downside, especially in photography, is that not everyone can afford to own the metaphorical 'four hammers', and even if they do, that they brought the correct 'hammer' out with them to the shoot

    Happy shooting with your new hammer - err, I mean lens, Brian.

    Cheers, Dave
    Well, yes, I am fortunate that in retirement I can afford my pleasures and hobbies. But that ability came after a pretty full work life.

    My wife once thought that Photography was expensive and suggested I take up golf. I had to break the news about club memberships and greens fees to her gently. Buying good gear will last a long, long time. I still have an old 55mm f3.5 Micro-Nikkor that bends light exceedingly well and a 500mm Reflex-Nikkor that does not. I still use a couple of AF-D lenses. In fact, my old 24-85mm f2.8-4.0D works just fine on digital bodies with a screw drive.

    Taking the V2 to the shoot is easy. Bags are often a topic on DPReview and I wrote up one for the V2 with pictures here.

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