Test Shot: Nikon D850 + Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E

Nikon D850

It's a Heatwave!

I still haven't had the opportunity to get out for some landscape photography, but I did take a shot or two in downtown Phoenix using my Nikon D850 and Nikkor 200-500mm mounted on my tripod.

I went out on my lunch break and shot from the top level of the parking garage in the state government plaza area, pointing downtown.

Here's what I found...

The Setup

Nikkor 200-500mm f/5.6E

I was impressed with the weight of the D850 + 200-500mm lens, including the tripod mount on the lens and 2 quick release plates, one on the camera (it was nice that I didn't have to remove it) and one on the lens tripod mount. That is not a rig I'd want to try hand holding for very long!

After my previous shots, I tried to minimize camera shake and had changed my settings to use Mirror Up mode with Exposure delay mode (d5) = 3s, Electronic front-curtain shutter (d6) = On. I still used the manual shutter release (man I wish it worked with the IR wireless remote). With the additional delay and front-curtain shutter, I do think I got rid of a lot, if not all, of the camera shake.

The Results

Here's one of the pictures I shot. I couldn't tell you how far away the construction crane is but it wasn't next door to my location. For anyone interested, here's a link to the original raw file: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hwzgttltd0icvpk/_8500174.NEF?dl=0.

Construction in Downtown Phoenix, AZ
1/400 sec, f/8.0, ISO 64, 500mm

I have done some editing in Lightroom Classic. I added some contrast, sharpening, and luminance noise reduction.

I don't notice any camera shake, and that's the good thing. What I did notice was something I'd heard of but never seen - atmospheric distortion. You'd think that, living in Phoenix where it's just lately got below 70 degree F days, that I'd have seen it. Either I've been lucky (and, I don't really shoot much right in Phoenix) or my other bodies couldn't resolve it.

Here's a crop of the top of the building near where the crane is:

Crop of picture above, showing the heatwaves

That was an interesting result! One I wasn't expecting.

Auto Focus

I was then concerned about how the auto focus would work on something like that. In the picture above, I was using single point AF and aiming at the vertical lines on the lower right side of the construction.

I tried to verify the focus manually, using Live View. But my shaky hands made that impossible with the lens at 500mm. As soon as I touched the focus ring the image was shaking around so much that it was useless. This makes me think about getting a different tripod collar to steady things down more. I have read from others that they don't find the Nikon collar very stable and maybe I'm witnessing that.

Slow Shutter Speed

I also realize (now) that I was using aperture priority and not really paying attention to the shutter speed. I wanted to use what is supposed to be a good aperture for sharpness; f/8 is not in any of the stops. Even though I was at ISO 64, my shutter speed was not meeting the reciprocal rule and should have been sped up a bit more. I couldn't have done that without decreasing the aperture or using a neutral density filter which I don't have for that lens. But, looking at the images, I am not sure how much the slow shutter would alleviate the atmospheric impact. It might some since there would be less time for the distortion to occur.

The Bottom Line

I showed the results to my photography mentor (who now really wants his own D850) and he was impressed with how much detail there is when zooming in to the max of 32x. I hadn't thought about that - I guess I'm already taking it for granted!

I was overall pleased with the shots. No - they're not art but I'm trying to get used to a new and more sensitive camera. I'm trying to figure out how to get sharp images with it and I think these images were a good improvement. I really enjoy trying to refine my technique. Now if I could just calm down my shaky hands!