300mm with 2x converter - my first attempts

[Red Squirrel]

Excellent pictures Toby. If they were mine I'd be chuffed to bits.
I asked about converters a while ago and this has answered my questions.

[Tobyh]

Originally Posted by Red Squirrel

Excellent pictures Toby. If they were mine I'd be chuffed to bits.
I asked about converters a while ago and this has answered my questions.

Thank you, and glad to hear it's helped, exactly what I hoped.

I had another go this weekend and got a break in the weather but still very happy with the results - as before, click twice to view full size




and a heavy crop that still retains reasonable details -


Certainly means it's a worthwhile consideration if you can't stretch to the 500 prime just yet.

TobyH

[Tobyh]

Originally Posted by AndyElliott

TCs sometimes throw the focus off if you use all the points. I'm not familiar with the D300, but try to stick to the centre-most focus points.

Vibration is the real killer for such a long-range combo. So cable-release, mirror lock-up (or self timer/whatever, so there is a delay between mirror up and shutter release) is the order of the day.

Andy

Thanks Andy, i'll bear the focus point tip in mind.

I pretty much shoot from the tripod the whole time to ensure I get as sharp as possible but admit that haven't even bothered with mirror up or cable release with these yet as I'm not focussing on a single area, and as I'm sure you're aware they move rather quick!

TobyH

[AndyElliott]

On my Olympus E-3, I set the mirror-shutter delay at 2 or 3 seconds, usually fast enough to catch something that stays put briefly. The main issue is that you can't catch a particular pose if they move around in that period. The E-3 has to lower the mirror if you shoot from liveview to get a meter reading (annoyingly, even in manual, but there is a reason mechanically why that has to happen - I hope this is fixed in the soon-to-be-released E-5). I know the Canon 40D can shoot directly from being in Liveview without the mirror flip down/up - can the D300? So shooting from liveview may help...

Andy

[nigel_b]

How do you get to 900mm equivalent, is it 300mm x 1.4 x 2 ?

[AndyElliott]

Originally Posted by nigel_b

How do you get to 900mm equivalent, is it 300mm x 1.4 x 2 ?

Nikon's have a crop factor of 1.5 - so 1.5x300x2 = 900mm

(Canon has 1.6, fourthirds has 2)

Andy