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| I was tracking and photographing this osprey around the sky when it flew directly over me. This image is a crop of the original. About one-half of the entire frame. (click to enlarge) Nikon Z8; 180-600mm lens @ 600mm; 1/2000th sec. @ f/6.3; ISO 1000 |
As my long time readers know, I’ve been trying to up my game, so to speak, when it comes to bird, birds-in-flight and wildlife photography. I have found trying to successfully photograph birds-in-flight the hardest genre of photography I’ve ever attempted. It's even harder than those doggone weddings I photographed back in the 1970s and 1980s. At least people can do what you tell them and (sometimes) take direction. Birds, not so much.
In my pursuit of improving my bird and wildlife photography results, I’ve read the advice and teachings of master bird and wildlife photographers, watched YouTube videos by excellent photographers exuding ‘best practices,’ studied all of the best techniques, practiced, practiced and practiced some more and also bought reasonably good cameras and lenses with the necessary features to use for this pursuit. Unfortunately, I have never been entirely happy with my results. My percentage of images in sharp focus were not nearly where I wanted them to be. It has been discouraging. I started to wonder was I just not cut out for photographing critters? At 72 am I too old and can’t get the job done? Should I give up and just go back to what I know best? I didn’t know. What else could I do?
A bit of background. Since I hadn't photographed birds, birds-in-flight and wildlife that often, I didn’t want to invest a lot of money for top-of-the-line cameras and lenses. I was (I’ll call it) somewhat successful with my Fujifilm X-H2S and 150-600mm lens as well as with my OM-1 with the Olympus 100-400mm lens. Using those two setups, I did bring home many excellent images. I've posted many here, in fact. However, the problem I encountered more often than not was AF inconsistency. For example, in a series of images of a Great Blue Heron standing in water, I may shoot a burst of 15. Out of the 15 there may be 5-8 that are slightly out of focus. This is for a bird standing still! Not moving or flying. I would think all 15 would be sharply focused but that was not the case. Some were. Some weren’t. So I did make in-focus photos but the problem arose when a bird, fox or other critter was fleeting, I often found the optimum image I would have wanted, was slightly out of focus. Frustrating, to say the least. After a year of this frustration I decided to make a change and sell some of that gear and just buy something better. I bit the bullet and spent the money, so to speak.
So, after taking stock of what gear I already had, what camera and lens combinations were rated as being some of the best for these kinds of photography as well as how much I would need to spend, I bought a Nikon Z8 (from Nikon during one of their sales on refurbished gear, an $800 savings!). I then tried to buy a Nikon 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens to attach to it for birding and wildlife. Little did I know that trying to find that lens would be so difficult. That's where this story begins.
Initially, I looked for the lens at my regular haunts—B&H, Adorama and Amazon, etc. The places where many of us who don't have any local camera shops buy our gear. All showed the lens back ordered. I then decided to just order it from B&H using their proprietary credit card so I could save paying the sales tax, which is a goodly sum when buying a lens for $1700 US. On January 17th, I ordered it. I knew they were scarce but I figured it would be a couple of months at most before I received my copy. Prior to this, I've never had to wait more than a few weeks for something backordered. How wrong I was.
In the mean time, I have now planned a wildlife photography road trip to Yellowstone National Park and Grand Teton National Park for late May, hoping to see and photograph grizzlies sows and cubs, wolves, elk, bison, moose, black bears, etc., as well as some landscapes. I plan on driving out leisurely so as to make time to photograph along the way. Same for my return. I plan to leave in late May. I surely would have the lens by mid-May. Plenty of time before I left. Or maybe not.
Every day I would check Amazon just to see if they had any arrive. Sometimes they have these scarce items come in and they are quickly sold. Nada. Nyet. Nope. None. They do list gray market copies from a non-“Nikon Authorized Dealer” as well as ‘used’ copies for sale. Both were priced about $250-$275 over list price. Also, I noticed the prices changed often—sometimes daily. However, I was determined not to buy one of those. I would go without the lens before buying one of those as there would be no Nikon warranty and repair support if I encountered an issue with the lens. Store warranties are kind of suspect to me.
Toward the end of February (I believe) I read on NikonRumors.com a small blurb that B&H had just shipped their orders for the lens from September of last year. Oh? That didn’t sound good. About the first of March I contacted B&H and asked if they had any idea as to when they thought I would receive my copy of the lens. The B&H guy said they had no idea. Also, the nice young man told me they had not yet shipped their October, 2023 orders as of that day. Grrr. If I extrapolate that out, that means I may not receive my lens until after I return from my road trip in June. That won’t do. I felt stress rising and panic setting in. What to do next? What could I do to try to find one?
I then decided to download the list of every authorized Nikon dealer in the U.S and check their websites to see if anyone had one. After sitting for over three hours and checking every Nikon Professional Dealer’s (Nikon has two tiers of dealerships, Nikon Professional Dealer and Nikon Imaging Dealer) website, there was not one lens in stock anywhere in the entire United States! Unbelievable.
Time for more aggressive action. I thought about it and I felt that smaller, lesser known dealerships might have shorter waitlists than the big, nationally known dealerships. So, I put my name on the waitlist of a whole bunch of smaller stores hoping that my name would arise to the top sooner than it would on B&H's list. Also, I decided I needed to develop a Plan B in case I couldn't find the lens by the time I left for my road trip.
My first inclination for Plan B was that my m4/3 gear would be my choice if the Nikon lens was not available. Since I hadn’t photographed large species of wildlife with my OM-1, I didn’t know how it would perform. It wasn’t the greatest for birds as I have described above. I have the Olympus 100-400mm lens and the OM-1 body and they do a reasonably good job, but not up to what I wanted for this trip. A good friend offered to let me take his Olympus 300mm f/4 lens which is wicked sharp. That is a huge and much appreciated gesture. Another friend offered to let me take his copy of the Fujifilm 150-600mm lens to use with my X-T5. Another extraordinary gesture. The third alternative was to bite another bullet and buy the new OM-1 Mark II, which from every report, internet and YouTube site as well as from friends, is much better at finding birds, animals, etc., locking on focus and holding it accurately. So, Plan B might cost me a bit more than my original plan. But at least now I had a Plan B.
Last Wednesday while out running errands, I received a call from Murphy’s Camera in Louisville, Kentucky. The gentleman who called by the name of Doug (really nice guy), told me they had received a Nikon 180-600mm lens and I was next on the list and did I still want it? Holding back my immediate jubilation, I told him I already had my credit card in my hand and absolutely, I want the lens! Woo Hoo!
Since my mother-in-law’s funeral would be two days later and I would have to sign for the lens, I asked them not to ship it until Friday so I was sure to be home when it arrived. They did. I received it Tuesday. It was well packed and safely shipped. The next morning I took the camera and lens out for a test run and photographed several ospreys and a couple of Bald Eagles. Unfortunately, there were no songbirds anywhere to be found. My next post will let you know how that went. Spoiler alert—amazing!
I would have thought that most all manufacturers would have fully reconstituted their labor force and resolved their supply chain issues from the pandemic long before now. I continue to be amazed at the number of products, across the spectrum, that are still in short supply and cannot easily be had. Or….maybe that is the way they want it to be (or want us to think) so as to be able to artificially continue with high prices as well as plans for future price hikes! And...I'm not a conspiracy theorist kind of guy. Just considering the possibilities.
My recommendation to you is that if there is an article or product you really want and/or need and can’t find it through your regular source, think outside of the box to figure other ways to obtain it. You may be lucky like me and have your efforts pay off handsomely.
Come back Tuesday for a rundown on my first experience with the new lens. Can you tell I’m smiling? 😁
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis A. Mook
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Great story. I can see the tenacity of a long career in law enforcement in practice. You caught your lens from relative obscurity.
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