NATURAL HISTORY CINEMATOGRAPHY

[Humberto Ramos]

Humberto - re advice on longer zooms: I have the Nikkor 50-300 4.5 which is a really useful lens. I've not used the Sigma. I also have the Nikkor 80-400. Of the two, I favour the 50-300 - it has greater zoom range ( 6x vs 5 x) and mine is par focal. Depending on the individual lens they can be decently sharp - mine resolves 140 lp at 300mm and the build quality and all-metal construction are in its favour. I find critical focussing with the 80- 400 much harder, although it is pretty sharp. I also have a number of 300 2.8 primes ( both Nikon F mount and PL) and a 500 f4 - but I find I use them far less often because of the time involved in the lens change.
I haven't used the 50-300 with an extender, so can't comment on whether it fits, and would probably go 500mm or 300mm plus x2 if I needed the extra length.

Thanks Mark, The problem on 50-300 is that 300mm is not enough for me, I thing until I have money for a 500mm or even a 300-800mm will have to buy a sigma 50-500mm, I,m filming with a sigma 400mm f/5.6 (old one and very cheap) and the images are good, at 2K is a bit soft, but probably in 2K will be soft with every lens...

[Hussain Neissi]

Beautiful stuff, Christian

[Alan Peterson]

I'm going to be starting production on a long-term bird-heavy documentary project soon, and am looking for advice on extreme telephoto solutions. I'm shooting with a Canon 150-600mm right now, but it's not quite long enough to get the framing I want on small birds, distant nests, etc. Due to its older coatings, its sharpness and contrast barely make for a good 4K image without an extender, so I'm looking to either replace it or compliment it with another telephoto lens.

What solution do you use for 800mm and beyond focal lengths?
Do Nikon 500/600/800mm AI-S lenses hold up well with a doubler on them, or should I hold out for something more modern?
How well do the Sigma 300-800 and 120-300 perform with extenders on them?
Has anyone tried using a spotting scope with an SLR adapter? How well did it work?

Thanks in advance.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Alan,
It is better to go for the new Canon telephoto lenses. The optics is great. I use the older Canon EF 400mm f2.8 L IS USM with 2xII TC so it becomes 800mm optical focal length. Couple that with the S35 sensor of my C300, it becomes around 1200+ and I get sharp images. I have also tried using both the 1.4x and the 2xII TC coupled with the 400mm 2.8 IS lens, however, the quality suffers a bit. Though people won't immediately notice. I have not shot this with 4K. I use the C300 as I shoot a lot in the night or in dawn, with just a spot light or torch light at times.

Best is to get the new Canon 600mm and use a 2x TC with it. That will give you an optical focal length of 1200mm at f8. An 800mm plus 1.4x will give you 1120mm at f8.

I have seen results from Spotting scope with SLR and the quality is not good. Better to drop that idea.

[Alan Peterson]

Thanks for the pointers, Sabyasachi.

I should clarify that anything I get that's autofocus will be F mount, since I have a Nikon SLR and already have a bit of a collection of Nikkors (the Canon zoom I'm using now is a PL mount conversion). I will pass your advice on to my partner in this project who shoots Canon, though.

After that answer and a bit more digging, I guess my questions are narrowed down to:
-How well do the Nikon AIS 600/4 and 800/5.6 perform with extenders?
-Does the Sigma 300-800 give a decent image with a 1.4X extender?

If neither of those is a solid option, I'll probably go with a current or previous generation Nikon 600/4 and the compatible extenders.