Posted by Robert Bunch on December 23, 2011 at 11:21 AM
I have a nikon D300s with a 200-400 VR II and a TC 14 which I use for most of my bird photos and I'm pretty happy with it over all. It does a pretty good job of BIF with clean backgrounds like sky or water but has much more difficulty holding or locking on to focus when the birds are against a busier BG like trees with leaves. Could this problem be caused by the TC or do I need a top of the line pro camera like a D3 or D700(as I was told by one guy) or could it be my technique. I use continuous servo AF with dynamic area AF with 51 tracking points to shoot birds. I would say I get less than a third of busy BG pictures sharp.
It may be a matter of "degree," but all cameras have trouble sorting from busy backgrounds. We don't have the 200-400 or that TC, but here's an insight for you: The AF with any lens on our assortment of D300S bodies is better than that on our D2X's. Mebbe newer than either would be better, but the D300S is so fast and reliable I find it hard to imagine. When the shooting gets tough our D2X's stay home and the D300S's get the honors.
Posted by Kent Staubus on December 23, 2011 at 3:36 PM
One factor might be that with the TC, you are losing a stop of light. AF does better with brighter light.
Discussion
2 repliesThanks for any help you can give me.
Robert Bunch
Kent in SD