On day 2 of my Bohol Tarsier visit, I left the 200-500mm f/5.6 in my bag and was keen to check the level of detail I could capture with the new Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E attached to the D850 46 megapixels. I had already given up on the D850/600mm f/4E combo because of the minimum focus distance of the 600mm prime (4.4 meters) in combination with the full frame D850. However, the D500 crop frame will give you an effective 900mm focal length so that should make up a bit for that nasty minimal focus distance of the 600mm.
“happily hanging around”
Nikon 600mm f/4E FL on Nikon D500, f/4, 1/125 s., ISO 400, -1.0 exp. comp.
If you cannot get close to your object and your object is relatively small (e.g. Tarsiers), this is a sweet combo: 900mm does the trick nicely, and the 21 MP of the D500 gives you all the room you need for detail and cropping.
Now, let’s get into an even more detailed level: leveraging the minimum focus distance of the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E (1.1 meters) in combination with the 46 megapixels of the D850…
“protected”
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E @ 200mm on Nikon D850, f/2.8, 1/80 s., ISO 800, -1.0 exp. comp.
With the f/2.8 aperture on the 70-200mm, you’re getting very blurry backgrounds and a razor-thin depth of field (DoF) of around 2 cm. at a focus distance of 2 meters at 200mm focal length. The excellent VR on the 70-200mm helps you keep your shutter speed very low, and the excellent dynamic range of the D850 at low ISO helps to keep noise low when bringing back some of those darks in your image.
“detail”
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8E @ 200mm on Nikon D850, f/2.8, 1/80 s., ISO 140, -1.0 exp. comp.
Ever wondered how many eyelashes a Tarsier has? Go ahead and count! :) (should do nice on a retina or 4K screen…)
This image was cropped by about 50%; I could easily get even more details without comprising any quality. The D850/70-200mm combo is by far the most amazing set I’ve used in almost a decade of photography.
Instead of doing nothing with some of my other D850/70-200mm shots, I’ll post them in the next article or (most likely) two. Stay tuned!
And as usual, for any questions, comments or feedback, simple add comments below (preferred) or otherwise drop me a note at: enquiry@fliek.com
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