Lens envy

[David Martin]

So I went to the Loch of the Lowes. Trying to get some half decent pics.

Chap there with a small setup (I jest)

Heavy tripod. Covered in Camo canvas wrap.
Wimberley gimball head. *The* thing for long telephoto lenses.
D300, with remote lead and an extra battery pack.
And the lens. 1.4xTC on the back of a 600/f4.
Sheesh that thing is big.

At a conservative estimate that is around 10K of kit, and aroud 500 quid per kilo.

The pictures were very good too.

..d

[Zipperhead]

I wonder how many pictures he's planning on taking to need that extra battery pack.

As well as the original battery for my D80 I've got a Uniross (I think) battery that I bought cheaply. I took it out and charged it up recently. The camera said that it had been used for 850 pictures - being saved as raw & jpeg, and I had also transferred 3 cardfulls of pictures to my NAS with it - about 12Gb of transfers. It was showing 65% charged when I took it out. I'm amazed at how frugal this generation of cameras is compared to the previous one (or two perhaps in my case)

[andyoxon]

We had our honeymoon near the Loch Of Lowes, and on one occasion I managed to set the car alarm off there, and totally disturb the peace.     I can see why you might want that kind of set-up for some great raptor pics.  Is that 1260mm 35mm equiv?  I was thinking about a D200/D80 for ages, but now may try and edge a D300, and initially use it with my FE2 lenses.  Fortunately wide angle landscapes and portraits are more my thing...My wish list: 10-20mm, 17-55mm (not F2.8 ££  ), and 55-200 VR.   

[David Martin]

  I can see why you might want that kind of set-up for some great raptor pics.  Is that 1260mm 35mm equiv? 

600x1.4x1.6. the man from casio, he say yes! or at least close enough.

I missed out the two heavy bean bags on top of the lens to damp down any shutter induced vibration. He had prefocussed on the raptor, then fired the shutter from a remote lead with the mirror locked up.

D300 did look very nice, but at 10K for that setup, a bit beyond me.

..d