Oc, I have seen a few very tasty shots from the 400f4's, for the shots I've done where wildlife is concerned the wildlife doesnt seem to come particularly close, so if you're getting subjects closer than 3.5m you're quite lucky. The birdy on the previous page was taken at 400mm at about 10ft/3ish meters away which pretty much fills the frame, to give you an idea of what I get. Its a small UK garden bird, tip to tail its probably no more than 6 inches.
'A prime gets you thinking again and you start the old gray cells churning out thoughts about composition. You take far fewer shots because you spend more time in composition but you end up with a higher proportion of good ones.'
Absolutely true, you have to be prepared to 'miss' shots too, as you're stuck with what you've got. It is an excellent way to get your head round framing shots too. If you want to see what we mean, then set a zoom lens at the largest focal length or the smallest, and dont move it. Go and spend a day not touching it, (if you do, wash your hands afterwards), and it'll sharpen up your picture taking skills, especially composition, within the day!
Not been to an airshow for years, but when I did, I used to use the zooms pretty much as fixed telefotos. Haven't had the opportunity to use mine yet in that field.Mind you that was in the days of coalburners with no AF, and you had to take sacks of coal around, to fire them up. Tell that to the youf of today, drone drone drone......
Last edited by jumpseater; 1st Oct 2006 at 23:38.
Reason: edited to make sense, well, there was always going to be a first time.....