Alternatively, imagine you are in an African savanna where you are photographing a grazing herd of Elephants at a distance, and right after that, you see a beautiful Eagle on the nearby tree. In terms of lens design, Nikon threw in quite a bit of its modern optical technologies into the lens. A lens hood provides essential protection for the front glass element of the lens, shielding it from minor bumps, tree twigs, and rain.

Leave it ON unless you're on a very sturdy tripod, or if you're making exposures longer than a second on any kind of tripod. This Nikon 200-500mm is very sharp, but it's difficult to get sharp images with long lenses because of their shallow depth of field, and atmospheric heat shimmer and seeing conditions easily can cloud results. If you need help deciding which camera and lens combination are best for you, then why not check out our specially selected camera packages. You also can shoot at slower shutter speeds in low light—great for those magic moments at dawn and dusk.If the hood was mounted on the lens reversed instead of separately, the box could have been much shorter. I can’t blame only Nikon for this, since all other lens manufacturers follow a similar practice of providing useless tripod collars and feet, but perhaps if one moves towards that direction, others would follow. To maximize the Nikon 200-500’s autofocus capabilities, I recommend limiting your minimum focusing distance and only switching back to the full range when your subject is close enough. Whether youre a birder, a sports photographer, a fan of air shows this latest FX zoom delivers in all areas. The ability to focus at 500mm at a far off corner then adjust down to 200mm, increasing the FOV getting the whole vehicle in the picture as it goes past is where the superzoom wins.

m), it provides an unparalleled opportunity to capture stunning images of elusive wildlife up close and personal. That’s a lot of weight to keep steady out in front of you handheld, proper shooting technique or not. bigger or camera-original 36MP file to explore on your computer (most portable devices can't show all the pixels in the full resolution file). If you are a wildlife photographer on a budget, you will not want to miss these articles where I provide in-depth reviews about some of the most affordable Nikon cameras and lenses on the market. So this was an ideal opportunity to take a closer look at this type of lens and why most of us use a superzoom.Note: While lens sharpness is important for wildlife photography, your technique often plays a more significant role in achieving sharp results. This 200-500 is as nice as the 80-400mm, except that it's bigger, heavier and doesn't focus as fast or as close.