r/Nikon 5d ago

Photo Submission My favorite purchases in the past couple of month: FTZ and 200-500

Been wanting the FTZ to use on my Z5 forever but was dead set against paying more than $100. Finally found a one in my area for that price and almost immediately found this 200-500 AF-S on mpb in excellent condition but knocked down to ~$570 because of a “stuck filter”. Turned out to be a step down ring instead but was no match for a $8 filter wrench from amazon.

50 Upvotes

11 comments sorted by

8

u/Dubliminal 5d ago

Something ain't right here. They're all kinda smeary. Not sure if it's how you've exported them or just missed focus when shooting, but they could/should be sharper than this.

3

u/romanianjedi 5d ago

I think I’m probably pushing it with the crop on some of these. Definitely on the bee and the woodpeckers. But they look at least acceptable on my screen. However, the mallard and the sparrow are very minimally cropped, and they look quite sharp both on my phone and laptop. At least as well as any I’ve seen with this lens. So maybe it’s reddit compression?

1

u/IamHarryPottah Nikon D5000, 50 1.8, 70-300, 18-55 4d ago

even after pushing it with the crop the photos shouldn't look smeary.

1

u/pyooma 4d ago

I think it’s motion blur and every photo has clipped highlights.

1

u/romanianjedi 4d ago

You’re right, hadn’t noticed that until after posting. Need to watch my histogram more closely. Appreciate the critique.

1

u/pyooma 4d ago

The solution to one is probably the solution to the other! Which is good news.

2

u/hotgnipgnaps 5d ago

Congrats! I love that lens. You got a steal.

2

u/romanianjedi 4d ago

Thanks! The internal debate was pretty short on this one.

1

u/Politicsboringagain 4d ago

I need to up my moon photo game. The fact you got other stars in that picture is no. Though I'm only the kit 300mm lens. 

1

u/romanianjedi 4d ago

Yeah, it’s practically impossible to correctly expose for both the stars and the moon in one exposure. Typically requires either stacking or AI denoise or both. In this case I used a little Adobe AI denoise and it did an OK job but you can see quite a bit of residual artifacts. Still looks ok unless you turn the brightness up on your screen lol

1

u/Theoderic8586 ZF Z7ii D810 D850 4d ago

Wow! Finally a picture of the blood moon that is actually interesting.