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Nikon D70 ,Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR AF
1/100s f/8.0 at 240.0mm iso400 on monopod


Nikon D70 ,Nikkor 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED VR AF
1/800s f/8.0 at 400.0mm iso400 on monopod

I like the colour contrast of the lion image He really stands out against the grey/white rocks.

Hi Kerry

I would crop out the 'muddy' section of the hippo shot otherwise nice sharp images.

Geoff

G'day Kerry,
The lion on the rocks(?) works a treat, looks great, good regal pose...

The hippo maybe I'd crop out the rock maybe but only just, so the rocks aren't there but his eyes aren't right up against the top of the image, if you know what I mean ... Just a thought

Always enjoy your animal shots... Cheers.

Nice images Kerrie. I agree that cropping the rocks at the top will focus attention on the hippo. Contrast of lion against rocks focusses attention nicely on the lion. I'm impressed with the sharpness and colour of the 80-400VR. I'm actually thinking of buying it for its reach and VR, of course. I was considering buying the Sigma EX HSM 100-300 F/4 and their x1.4 APO teleconverter because of the great writeups-image quality, constant aperture and HSM. Hard decision! How do you find the auto focus and general quality of the 80-400?
marco

G'day Marco,
Kerry isn't logged on and I noticed your question so I'll jump in and help if I can.

I use the 80-400 and find it has great colour and sharp as once you get used to it. I assume the focus would be slow in comparison to the Sigma with HSM, but I suppose it depends on what you're interests are and whether that would be a negative for you. The 300mm with 1.4xTC would give you heaps of reach but have no knowledge of the Sigma, maybe one of the other guys has???

I was going to add that getting the lion to gaze in your direction may had also enhanced the impact of the image. (I hope I'm not intruding on your image reponses.) Mind you to get my staring lion shots at the mareeba wildlife park a few months ago was quite hair raising as he took exception to my attempts. With the increasing growls and only some 15metres from him I was happy to take what he was prepared to give. Still it would have looked better had he been staring at me. I'm not sure if below link will work I'm still struggling with embedding images in these forums.
http://www.pixspot.com/displayimage.php ... &pos=-5074
cheers
marco

Thanks Andrew. Seems I'm a little slow. So much for my last post to kerry.
I'm probably leaning toward the 80-400VR as I prefer Nikon glass but gee its a big decision. Is the tripod collar mount as flimsy as the reviews would have or have they improvede it?
cheers
marco

G'day,
It's always a big decision when spending lotsa $, but I'm very positive about the 80-400 but maybe that's because I haven't used a 70-200VR with a 1.7TC The VR's a treat...

Yep, eye contact is great in a lot of animal shots, depends on the animal too... Link works fine, you can check with the preview, like the deep colours in the shot.

I thought the collar is fine, I don't have any worries with it at all. I flip between landscape and horizontal easy just lossening the nut on the collar a bit, I don't have any worries...

Oh, don't forget Kerry's in the US so I spose he's on a different time zone to us, I was just about to go ni ni myself

Cheers.

Yep sure is when its hard earned. I actually was tossing up whether to get the 70-200VR with teleconverter but that's even bigger bucks and I already own the 80-200 F/2.8 AFD. I think the 80-400 is looking good and might leave me enough to start thinking about either the, hopefully, up and coming D200 or such OR the 12-24 AFS. Decisions, decisions!
I will say good night to you Andrew, thanks
cheers
marco

marcotrov wrote: I'm impressed with the sharpness and colour of the 80-400VR. I'm actually thinking of buying it for its reach and VR, of course. I was considering buying the Sigma EX HSM 100-300 F/4 and their x1.4 APO teleconverter because of the great writeups-image quality, constant aperture and HSM. Hard decision! How do you find the auto focus and general quality of the 80-400?
marco

The quality of the 80-400 is excellent. AF is a little slow because it's a screw drive, rather than AF-S. But, you can learn to get around most of the AF slowness.

The Sigma 100-300 f/4 is an excellent lens as well. The 1.4x TC doesn't hurt image quality with it significantly. The lens is very sharp and the HSM AF is quite fast. But, without VR, especially with the TC, you're looking at needing support to use the lens effectively.

The Sigma is great for sports and flying birds, etc. The 80-400 is a more general purpose lens with strengths that the Sigma doesn't have, like lighter weight and smaller size and VR.

Thanks for all the kind comments, guys. They're greatly appreciated.