Mountain Goat Nanny
by John Launstein
Here's a second image from our recent trip to Glacier National Park photographing mountain goats. As you can see, this is very similar to Jenaya's picture she posted earlier, but I chose to share it all the same because I am very taken by the background and love the expression and overall sharpness.
As you can see, I decidedly did NOT need the 1.4X teleconverter on for this picture, but I never expected the group of three goats we were photographing to graze this close to us and discovered to my dismay I had left my caps and case for the TC back in the truck so was kind of stuck.
This explains the very tight crop with less than ideal positioning (especially on the right side). I would have liked to back out a little and show more of the goat's shoulder to avoide this "head mount" effect, but that's part of the trade-off for shooting with primes in very cramped spaces (I couldn't back up and keep the angle I wanted for the background).
I do have to take a moment and sing the praises of the Nikkor 300mm f/4 AF-S lens coupled with the TC-14EII teleconverter. As you can see, it yields fantastic sharpness and acuity, even when not stepped down...however I've started stepping down just 1/3 to 2/3 stop recently on suggestions from Brad and others and have indeed noticed a very slight improvement, particularly on images where the subject is a little further away.
Anyway, thanks for clicking through and viewing...your comments and suggestions are always appreciated!
Nikon D7000
Nikkor 300mm f/4 AF-S with TC-14EII
ISO 400
1/400sec @ f/5.6
monopod
Comments
9 commentsBill: I do like my D7000, but it is a bit of a love-and-less-love relationship (never quite making it to hate). I love the AF capabilities, and appreciate many of the extra features like the custom user settings, decent high-ISO handling, etc. I also REALLY like the new AF selection setup, where you depress the button at the AF selector switch and use either command wheel to select various settings. Very intuitive, IMO. Battery longevity is very good, especially with the MB-D11 with either a second battery or rechargeable AA's. Good high-speed shooting (fps), great quiet mode, good overall feature set.
What I don't like, in order of priority is:
- the ridiculously easy way your shooting mode is changed by a rub, bump, insertion or withdrawl into a bag, etc. This has cost me several good images, including my best of the year and one of the best mammal behavior shots of my photographic "career"
- SMALL BUFFER (I get hung often with Class 10 cards listening to my daughter's D300 happily click away during some great animal or bird behavior...leads to very poor ratio of keepers too as I get anxious and start stabbing the shutter!)
- ISO in use not being displayed in the VF when in Auto-ISO mode
- the inability to switch easily between Auto-ISO and manual (you have to go into the menu)
- the lack of a separate AF-ON button...I had to program my AE-L/AF-L button to function as an AF-ON button instead, eliminating the option to use it as AE-L
- only 3-shot bracketing
- stuck pixels from the day I bought it...I did the update and strangely they disappeared...and were replaced by others that have not left in 9,000 images...every shot, every ISO, every SS, etc. ACR removes it automatically, but it bugs me.
- High-ISO is better than my D2X to be sure and noticeably improved over my daughter's D300, but really isn't epic IMO...guess I long for FX but won't trade the "crop-factor" of DX (yet)
- My MB-D11 cost me a mint, more than any vertical grip I've ever purchased, and doesn't feel as solid as I'd like, rattles with the factory battery in (the holder is loose and clunks around when switching from vertical to horizontal, etc.), and now has become inconsistent...I lose the ability to shift my focus point sporadically.
HOWEVER, all-in-all, I actually really do like the camera! There's certainly much more to like than not, and if I took the time to be more thorough and fair, the top part of the above summary would be much longer than my dislikes. It's easier to focus on the things that make you grumble than the things that are working perfectly and so intuitively you forget how nice a camera you're using!
I should give the following caveat: I only returned to photography last August when my daughter's growing interest brought me back. I purchased a lightly-used D2X as my first system, and the D7000 is my second DSLR, so I have very limited breadth of exposure in digital bodies. I did shoot commercially for over a decade in the late-80's and 90's, though, and on the Nikon front owned and used heavily F-801s (N8008s in US), F90X (N90s in US), F4s and other bodies. My single biggest complaint by far on the D7000 is that exposure mode wheel not able to be locked in.
Anyway, not sure if this is the best place for my praise/rant but there's my $.02! :)