Osprey in flight.

[dankearl]

A very pleasant morning photographing Ospreys with Fellow BPN member, Don Nelson.
Low light but some good flight opportunities.
Though I had some better images, Don wondered about the high ISO capabilities of the D800.
Here is 20% crop of full frame at ISO 2500.
Forest background.

1/1000
f5.6
Iso 2500
500mm (300f2.8 w/ 1.7x)
Nikon D800

DSC_1080bp.jpg

[arash_hazeghi]

very cool Dan, got one against nice BG. sharp and even lightning. I would tone down the whites just a bit.

[Marina Scarr]

I am really liking your backgrounds on these ospreys. The whites on the belly/shoulder are looking a tad bright to my eyes. Like how the yellow eye really pops.

[PhilCook]

Agree regarding the whites, but well done on the lack of motion blur in this shot and some nice backlight showing through the wing feathers. Sadly this species has not been seen in my neck of the woods for over 60 years now

[Doug Brown]

When you say 20% crop of full frame, do you mean that this is 80% of full frame or 20% of full frame? I like the sharpness and the lack of noise. Whites do look a little hot, and I'm not crazy about the uneven wing position. Glad you're liking the D800!

[dankearl]

Doug, it is about 20% of the original. I accidentally shot in FX mode today, I have been shooting at 1.2 crop. I will shoot full frame from now on.
While the bird looks small in the frame, I could crop normally (big) and work with the noise much better than in camera cropped photos.
I was shocked processing these. I have a bunch over iso 2000 that look very nice with this large of crop.
Maybe you or Arash could explain why the big difference?
Even with no PP, it looks pretty nice at iso 2500!
Here is the out of camera shot, with no PP, just converted to jpeg.

DSC_1080bp2.jpg

[Ofer Levy]

IQ is amazing considering the ISO and crop!

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Dan, great IQ, and lack of noise too. I like how the osprey pops from your BG, and what an awesome BG.