Taken the other day with the Z9 and the 600mm f/4 TC. The first two images were shot wide open at 840mm, while the third image was shot at f/8 at 840mm.
gear-nut wrote:
“Poor Man’s Macro” love it! FYI, add a multi-element diopter (relatively inexpensive) and it becomes a very nifty zoom macro! Mine is a “Nisi” 77mm and cost about $130 at B&H, and hits 1:1 at around 200mm. FWIW.
For thread posterity, a few examples of the above Nisi diopter on the 100-400 zoom just because. Not the greatest image, just an African daisy in my backyard for reference and shot hand-held as well, so don't take this as its best version . This flower is about 1-¾" (45mm) diameter petal to petal, working distance remains a comfortable 12" to 16" (300mm - 400mm) depending on focus, and it does hold pretty well across the frame. First shot is full frame as shot at 100mm zoom, 2nd shot is same at 400mm zoom. Note that I attempted to keep the focus distance same for both, but there may be some movement in or out there, so not "scientific" by any stretch, really just posting for informative purposes in case anybody wants a truer "poor man's macro" lens . Oh, the yellow spots in the center of the flower are individual pollen grains, and the abdomen of the bug seen partially in the second frame is only about 1mm in diameter -- no idea what it is or how long it is, looks to be trapped in a small web.
FWIW, the 100-400x with the 1.4x is about all I need for "pseudo macro", you get .53 magnification which is still close enough to necessitate an aperture of around f/13 to get anything in focus
Here's a skipper surveying his domain, this is with the CV 40/2
RoamingScott wrote:
FWIW, the 100-400x with the 1.4x is about all I need for "pseudo macro", you get .53 magnification which is still close enough to necessitate an aperture of around f/13 to get anything in focus
Here's a skipper surveying his domain, this is with the CV 40/2
For sure. But for folks wanting more, with the diopter and 1.4x, you can get in to around 2x magnification while at the same time maintaining a very comfortable working distance -- and the result is at least as good or better than any of the F-mount dedicated macro lenses. However, once you're down in this range, DoF is so small even at f11 that a tripod and focus rail become almost mandatory.
What would be cool is to try the Z9's focus shift-stack in conjunction with it -- I have not experimented with that yet.
I know this is an image thread and not a camera specific discussion thread, but I keep coming back to this particular sensor's ability to render really good color and the associated relative ease to get equally good B&W conversions off of it. IMHO, it is pretty significantly superior to the Z7ii's sensor in this respect, but not looking to start a flame war. Perhaps I'm just getting better at working the files, IDK, but the more I work with the files, the more I'm appreciating the differences. Even with the weird 100-400 ISO behavior...
So now for an image conversion, this one done with a B&W style I created specifically for the Z8/9 files inside CaptureOne. The fanciest McDonalds I've ever seen, Gent, Belgium. For reference, it was a low light, heavily overcast day:
Here are two images from late yesterday afternoon in the Skagit River estuary. The first image is a northern harrier (aka, "hawk of the marsh"), while the second image is a northern shrike. Both images were taken with the Z9 and the 600mm f/4 TC, shot wide open at 840mm. I wish I had had the shutter speed to 1/3200 instead of 1/2500 in the second image, but it is what it was...
Evaluating my new toys today. I had my Sony A1+600GM+1.4 TC with me at the same time but I wanted to try out the Z9 more so I didn't really touch the Sony. Sensitive topic here so I am not going to open another can of worms.
Douglas L wrote:
Evaluating my new toys today. I had my Sony A1+600GM+1.4 TC with me at the same time but I wanted to try out the Z9 more so I didn't really touch the Sony. Sensitive topic here so I am not going to open another can of worms.
FW 4.1, auto area AF, bird subject selection.
I like how you included the OOF image No way the A1 would have let you down!
These are nice, hope you're enjoying the new bit of kit.
Douglas L wrote:
Evaluating my new toys today. I had my Sony A1+600GM+1.4 TC with me at the same time but I wanted to try out the Z9 more so I didn't really touch the Sony. Sensitive topic here so I am not going to open another can of worms.
FW 4.1, auto area AF, bird subject selection.
I'm sure you had no intention of opening up a can of worms. That's why you felt the need to post the oof images as if that means anything. Small in frame subject against busy background and you got a miss. That's a mind blowing revelation. At first I just thought you were just trying to be "artsy"
My plane for the west coast leaves in about 4 hours. I'll be gone for at least a month and I can't login here while I'm away. So looking forward to helping out my daughter, taking bike rides with my son-in-law, playing with my grandson, and getting out for some wildlife shooting. A break from all this nonsense couldn't come at a better time
Looks like the Conowingo action is pretty good. Maybe I'll take the trip down when I get back.
Are we so sensitive these days? Seems like anything can offend somebody. I have a couple hundred images taken with this kit from yesterday, some are really great, some are not, like any other systems. Am I wrong to show what worked and what could be improved? I didn't say the other system has no such problem, if fact it does. If I were a fanboy of that other system, I wouldn't have put $20K on the line.
. This flower is about 1-¾" (45mm) diameter petal to petal, working distance remains a comfortable 12" to 16" (300mm - 400mm) depending on focus, and it does hold pretty well across the frame. First shot is full frame as shot at 100mm zoom, 2nd shot is same at 400mm zoom. Note that I attempted to keep the focus distance same for both, but there may be some movement in or out there, so not "scientific" by any stretch, really just posting for informative purposes in case anybody wants a truer "poor man's macro" lens 
. Oh, the yellow spots in the center of the flower are individual pollen grains, and the abdomen of the bug seen partially in the second frame is only about 1mm in diameter -- no idea what it is or how long it is, looks to be trapped in a small web. 
