Taking Out The Nikon Z8 And Nikon 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 Lens Combination For A First Spin; Part I

This crop represents 4.8% (2.2mp) of the original Z8 file.  The osprey was soaring high above me
and I was standing on a sidewalk on a bridge following it and shooting bursts with my Z8
and 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens.  I'll take this quality any day!

I am a happy camper! I finally received my new lens after thinking I may not take delivery of it until potentially June.  So, with great anticipation last Wednesday morning I went out for the first time with my Nikon Z8 and my new Nikon 180-600mm f/5.6-6.3 lens and made 899 exposures of 5 different ospreys and two Bald Eagles as a test run of this new camera/lens combination.  I did look for smaller song birds but unfortunately I could not find any that particular morning.  Also, I looked for polar bears, grizzlies, moose, wolves, penguins and lions.  I didn't see any of those either.  Darn!  Thought I saw a giraffe, however!  lol.  That said, I was pleased to photograph the raptors I did find.

Prior to the new lens arriving, I studied the camera's user's manual (rarely done these days by most), used the camera a few times to get somewhat familiar with it as well as set it up for bird photography .  I settled on using a combination of Steve Perry's (Back Country Gallery) suggestions from his YouTube channel but I also modified some settings for my own preferences.

As I mentioned in last Friday's post, the lens was delivered last Tuesday evening by UPS (see my post here about my quest to actually find and take delivery of this lens!).  It was a frustrating experience but, in the end, I am very happy I now have one.

Armed with my new lens and Nikon Z8, I drove to a local small bridge in town where I knew there were osprey nests on pilings on either side of it.  Safety was my first concern (as it always should be yours) so I stayed on the bridge's sidewalk so as to keep as far away from traffic as possible.

Immediately, I spotted an osprey sitting on top of a utility pole so I made a few images of it just to warm up.  A static bird shouldn’t be a challenge.  That osprey appeared to be eating.  It then flew off toward its nest on the opposite side of the bridge.  

This is the full image file. (click to enlarge)

This is about 4.6% crop of the above file. (click to enlarge)

I then walked as close as I could to the second osprey nest, which is actually below bridge level, and made some images of that osprey sitting in its nest.  Again, this shouldn’t be a challenge for good gear.  

(click to enlarge)

Within a few seconds it flew away the opposite direction of where I was standing, but then circled around to the left and started flying toward me.  I shot several bursts of images of it flying.  It was only after I looked at my images in Lightroom that I noticed that in one sequence the osprey had a fish tail in its talons and let it go, essentially dumping what was left over from breakfast into the creek below (see the sequence of images below)

You can see the leftover fish tail in the osprey's talons as it circled around. These three images
represent about 16% of the full image.  (click to enlarge)

The osprey lets go of the fish tail.  One talon is closed while the other is open. (click to enlarge)

The fish tail is on its way to the wide creek below. (click to enlarge)

As I watched that and other ospreys fishing and flying around the area, I continued to make bursts of images.  Some of my images of the ospreys showed it ‘skimming’ the water (I’ve never seen that behavior before, only grabbing a fish and flying off).  Others flew against the plain blue sky and another against a busy treed background.  

I've seen and photographed many ospreys taking a steep dive into the water, even becoming
completely submerged to catch a fish.  But I've never seen an osprey skim the water repeatedly.
I'm not sure if it was trying to get fish to the surface or what?  Very interesting. (click to enlarge)

Every one of the images I made with the ospreys on the pole, sitting in the nest, flying against the sky, skimming the water as well as grabbing a fish were in sharp focus.  

Osprey with small stick for nest repair. (click to enlarge)

I was tracking an osprey which flew toward me.  I continued to track it as it flew away from me.
While tracking it, the second osprey suddenly appeared and seemed to be on a collision course with it!
 (click to enlarge)

Luckily, the one I was tracking veered off to the right and they flew by each other. (click to enlarge)

Every one of the images I made of the ospreys flying against the sky such as this one and the ones
above and below were in sharp focus. (click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

An extreme crop of the above image. (click to enlarge)

I did notice in a few of the images made while the circling osprey flew in front of the cluttered tree-filled background, the camera focused on the background instead of the osprey.  This occurred in four out of thirty-seven images in which the osprey was small in the frame and flying in front of trees.  However, once it picked up the osprey, the camera/lens locked on and stayed locked on.  

In four of thirty-seven of images such as this, the camera missed the bird at the beginning of the
sequence, but quickly locked on autofocus and stayed locked on for the rest of the sequence.  The
bird is relatively small in the frame and I'm okay all weren't in sharp focus. (click to enlarge)

On Friday, I'll post some additional images of the Bald Eagles I saw that morning.  However, before I post them, I will say that the nest was about 175 yards away and I only captured one flying away from the nest and me, which made it even harder to lock on and track.  I used the extreme distance to try out the DX setting on the camera which gave me 19mp image files at an effective focal length of 900mm.  Come back to see how those turned out.

All in all, so far I am extremely pleased with all of my images, especially the very high percentage of sharply focused images of the birds-in-flight.  But, this was only my first outing.  I’ll need to go out with the lens several more times before I draw my final conclusions as to how well I think it performs.  

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com.  

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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