Bosque Help with a lens

Hello,

I am planning on going to Bosque in early December. I already own, (albeit inexpensive) a Tamron 200-500 f5-6.3 lens. The pictures I take are generally soft and I do not get the kind of quality I would like. Could someone make a recommendation on a lens that I could rent for my trip. The last thing I want to do is to spend the time and money of going to New Mexico and coming back with crappy pictures.


I was think about either

Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR

Any comments would be appreciated.


Kevin

I think unless you're using a pro body you can't autofocus with that lens.

Kevin I would recommend the 500 at the min. When I was out there last year I used my 500 with and without TC's the most. If you get the 200-400 be prepared to use it with the TC a lot.

Will you be using cropped or FF?

500mm if using a dx camera, 600mm with a full frame. And bring 1.4 and 1.7 tcs with you for that extra reach. You won't need them all of the time, but they will come in handy on occasion. The 200-400 will leave you short, and if you add a tc to it, your focusing speed will be too slow.

I have a full frame d700

Would rent a 600 but do check if its the new VR Does make a difference !!!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevin Tressel

I have a full frame d700

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I would go for a 500 f/4 with and without a TC if you want to be more mobile and 600 if you want to be on tripod. I used 200-400 with 1.4X TC for a shoot sometime ago, AF performance was surprisingly good and D700 high ISO makes up for f/5.6 aperture, I very got good results for large and medium raptors but it doesn't have enough reach for smaller birds.

If you rent a 600 mm (or 500), you will also need a good tripod and head like the Wimberly or equivalent. Unless you have that, you'll need to rent that too. Not sure what all that would cost versus putting that toward a new lens.

Roger

Thanks for all the advise. I think I am going to go with the Nikon 500 MM f4 with VR. I already own a CF tripod and have a a sidekick gimbal head. May plan is also to rent a 1.7 TC. I just hope their is sufficient wildlife at Bosque in early December.


This is a great community to get practical information.

I have viewed the websites from some of the folks in this thread. Really spectacular. I am hopefully i can get similar results.


Thanks
Kevin

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevin Tressel

Thanks for all the advise. I think I am going to go with the Nikon 500 MM f4 with VR. I already own a CF tripod and have a a sidekick gimbal head. May plan is also to rent a 1.7 TC. I just hope their is sufficient wildlife at Bosque in early December.


This is a great community to get practical information.

I have viewed the websites from some of the folks in this thread. Really spectacular. I am hopefully i can get similar results.


Thanks
Kevin

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If you need a source of rental gear I would try Allen's Camera in Levittown, PA (he used to rent stuff--im not sure if he still does) or www.lensrentals.com.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kevin Tressel

Thanks for all the advise. I think I am going to go with the Nikon 500 MM f4 with VR. I already own a CF tripod and have a a sidekick gimbal head. May plan is also to rent a 1.7 TC. I just hope their is sufficient wildlife at Bosque in early December.


This is a great community to get practical information.

I have viewed the websites from some of the folks in this thread. Really spectacular. I am hopefully i can get similar results.


Thanks
Kevin

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Good choice, Kevin. And don't worry, there will be tens of thousands of birds for you to photograph every where you look.

And don't forget to bring a good wide angle. Bosque is also a great landscape spot.