Banking Peregrine

[Doug Brown]

I visited Southern California two weeks ago, and decided to go light and bring my Nikon D500 and 500 PF lens with me; the combination weighs only 5 pounds! I met up with Dave Salem and Glenn Conlan to photograph Peregrine Falcons; AF at this location is very challenging and I was interested to see how the D500 and 500 PF would perform. I was not disappointed! The D500 was able to fairly easily lock and maintain focus on the birds against tricky backgrounds. I caught this banking Peregrine against a sea cliff BG.

Nikon D500, Nikon 500 PF, f/5.6, 1/2500, ISO 800, manual exposure, hand held

[gail bisson]

This is simply superb Doug.
Tack sharp and I love that BG.

[kevin Hice]

Doug great shot . Love the banking shows off the flight feathers perfectly. Only critique is some noise in the background and feathers mostly the primaries TFS.

[dankearl]

This is really nice, just a terrific BG and head turn.
The D500 continues to amaze me.

[Arthur Morris]

Ditto all the positives above. The MAGENTAs in the BKGR rock the bird!

with love, a

[Mike Poole]

Pretty much faultless to my eyes Doug, beautiful flight angle and eye contact. Great light.

I've just tried to send you a PM regarding your thoughts on the D500 v 1dx but your PM box is full. Do you find much of a difference with IQ and AF between the two cameras - I'm particularly interested in the ISO 1600-3200 ares

cheers

Mike

[Bill Dix]

Superb. Can you tell us how large a crop this was?

[Doug Brown]

Superb. Can you tell us how large a crop this was?

Thanks Bill. Here's a resized version of the complete frame.

[Doug Brown]

Hi Mike. I haven't checked my inbox in quite a while (or posted a photo for that matter). The D500 has considerably better AF than the 1Dx or even the 1Dx2 in my opinion. It acquires and holds focus on challenging BGs far more reliably. I know that's saying a lot considering that the 1Dx2 is Canon's flagship body, while the D500 is a lowly crop body that costs one third the price of the Canon. The D500 is also a solid performer in the high ISO department (up to 2000), but the full frame 1Dx is better. Remember that you have to crop in much tighter with the 1Dx and are left with far fewer pixels to work with, so noise will be accentuated as a result. This was the first time I've shot with the D500, so I don't have any experience with ISOs higher than 2000, but I was pleased with the results.

[Mike Poole]

Thanks Doug, thats good to know

regards

Mike

[Bill Dix]

Thanks Doug. Fine work. I love my D500 and I'm just getting used to the 500PF. My only wish is that it would work better with the 1.4 TC, but being able to crop this much with these results maybe it's better to go without the TC.

[arash_hazeghi]

love the pose Doug, love the light and banking pose. Been there done that and know how tough it was with Canon AF to lock on these guys against the cliff. Canon's D500 equivalent , i.e. 7D could waste a life time of effort coming up with a bunch of soft frames....no comparison.

did you process this on laptop or something? the bird is noisy, but I am 99.99% sure it is from processing

TTYS

[John Mack]

Well this is a nice dorsal view. Like the background. The image held up very well to that large crop. Nice one.

[Doug Brown]

Thanks Doug. Fine work. I love my D500 and I'm just getting used to the 500PF. My only wish is that it would work better with the 1.4 TC, but being able to crop this much with these results maybe it's better to go without the TC.

Hey Bill. I don't think the D500 + 500 PF + 1.4x combo could pull off consistently good frames with this kind of shot, or even with less challenging flight shots. But without the 1.4x, it's an awesome combo!

[annmpacheco]

Hi Doug, This rocks and therefore you qualify for Rockstar status! Gorgeous shot and so excited to be trying out all of my new Nikon gear in Iceland... Thank you for all of your help and i look forward to purchasing your E-book for the D850just as soon as it hits the "shelves!"

[Ivan Sjogren]

Everything have already been said but this is outstanding Doug!
Congratulations! The dark background is especially nice as well as the liht hitting those yellow details on the face.

[Doug Brown]

Hi Doug, This rocks and therefore you qualify for Rockstar status! Gorgeous shot and so excited to be trying out all of my new Nikon gear in Iceland... Thank you for all of your help and i look forward to purchasing your E-book for the D850just as soon as it hits the "shelves!"

Thanks Ann! You'll do great in Iceland; can't wait to see your pics! And thanks for the ebook plug!

[Geoffrey Montagu]

Outstanding banking capture of this speedster, Doug.

Geoffrey




http://500px.com/geoffreymontagu

[Doug Brown]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Nice to be posting again!