Wildlife Photography across the Water: Nikon D7000-The return

Friday 10 June 2011

Nikon D7000-The return

I received the D7000 back from Nikon a couple of days ago, The list that came back with it was strange showing that within the service they replaced the LCD, Its doesnt look like it and i have no reason why they would do that bit still it showed that they upgraded the firmware and that was already done by me-who knows, What i do know is that it is back to full health and they even gave the sensor a clean-well done Nikon
Yesterday i popped the battery back in along with a SD card, attached the battery grip and put the custom functions back as i like them then decided to go and give it a try, The rear dial now works how it should which was the main problem, I put the 600 vr lens on and attached it to the tripod with a SB900 flash on a remote arm and went into the garden and set up by my hummingbird feeder, I set the ISO to 800 so as to get a fast shutter speed, It was mid dayish so the sun was high and it was over 90 degrees, The shutter speed set to 1/2500 along with the flash set at -1.7 i knew that i would not freeze the wings totally but it should be pretty good, It did not take long before one of the 4 hummingbirds that use the feeder came along and had a drink, The females take their time and take multiple drinks whereas the males dash in drink and go in a split second, I was there about an hour and ended up with the 1.4x on to fill the frame, The images came out pretty good and all were sharp

This is full frame and i have cloned the feeder that was just poking in the frame at the bottom left, The background is a distant bush, You can see that the light was harsh but the full flash has softened the shadows, A few hours later and the temperature is now 97 and i am tucked behind a bush near to the pond, I start with the 600 with tubes and then change to the 200-400 with a 1.4x and tubes just to allow for better framing, The other day i wedged a stick up against the pond and instantly the dragonflies started to perch on it, Its become a favorite place for the blue dasher and the common white tail who buzz each other and try to dominate the stick, The background is all important in images like this and i had to jiggle around abit to get the distant trees in the image rather than grass to tall weeds that surround the pond

Blue Dasher

Common White tail

The dragonflies were in shade and the shutter speeds were very low, 1/40 along with the long focal length meant that the images would more than likely be blurred or soft, The fill in flash has helped freeze any movement and i ended up with plenty of keepers
So pretty good test and so far so good, If you read certain forums you would think that the D7000 is a troublesome camera with oil spots on the sensor, front or back focus problems blah blah blah, Lots of people returning their cameras because of a speck of dust on the sensor, Well my experience with the D7000 has been great, OK its just come back for repair but i have probably put more images on it then most people would in years, Remember its not a pro body, The sensor is great, The images above are all at ISO 800 with no noise reduction, Bang for your buck its a bargain

Dave

2 comments:

rockman12 June 2011 at 03:59
Outstanding pictures Mr. Courtney! I'm hoping when my D7000 returns from Nikon in El Segundo, CA that indeed it focuses as well as yours. I definitely had the problem and my sample shots sent to Nikon prompted them to advise sending it in. This since it mal-focused exactly the same for the kit 18-105mm as it did for the Nikkor 18-200mm.

When they return it I'm going to wait outside by my hummingbird feeder and get a decent shot of the more than 20-40 of them that crowd around it. That is when my neighbor forgets to put her feeder out.
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WPATW14 June 2011 at 00:54
I think the D7000 performs better with the top lenses-as it should and i think that now cameras are getting more and more pixels this will be a common problem, It certainly took me some time to get to grips with the D7000, Its not as easy to get as sharp an image as it was on my D300 or D3s and i am sure this is down to pixel density
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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.