S5 Pro with 150-600 lens anyone?

Since this body uses the Nikon D200 AF system and the 800mm AF Nikon lens has been used successfully on the D200, my guess is that there is no issue with this combo. The wildlife will be relatively stationary, no BIF so tracking is unnecessary with this setup.

Typical shots would be a moose in a meadow or a bird in a tree. Setup on a gimbal mount on a sturdy tripod with stabilization off.

With fresh used copies of the Tamron at about $600, it is tempting.

I was happy in a prior life with the original Nikon 80-400 VR on both a D80 and D200 so I'm not anticipating any issues but someone with experience might know better.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bill

TwoMetreBill wrote:

Since this body uses the Nikon D200 AF system and the 800mm AF Nikon lens has been used successfully on the D200, my guess is that there is no issue with this combo. The wildlife will be relatively stationary, no BIF so tracking is unnecessary with this setup.

Typical shots would be a moose in a meadow or a bird in a tree. Setup on a gimbal mount on a sturdy tripod with stabilization off.

With fresh used copies of the Tamron at about $600, it is tempting.

I was happy in a prior life with the original Nikon 80-400 VR on both a D80 and D200 so I'm not anticipating any issues but someone with experience might know better.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Bill

A long time ago I was messing around with this lens at the camera store when I still had my S5 pro and popped it on this sigma.  I probably only shot about 15 photos or so.  Regarding "issues" I don't know exactly what you mean, but I don't think there are any issues with that combo.

What I can say is that because the S5 Pro already has a MASSIVE AA filter in it, when shooting at 600mm I did notice lots of softness, mainly because I was shooting hand held, even with the stabilization on.  But since you are shooting on tripod and stationary object you might get nicer results.  The S5 also has very little resolution and you can tell right away.  Nothing compared to today's newer cameras.  The color output is the best of course.

Sorry that I couldn't help more.

Your reply is very helpful. I'm not a pixel peeper rather viewing the overall image typically at 1.5-2x the diagonal of the image. Without cropping, the S5 exceeds the resolution of the human eye at those distances.

Tamron should give you a commission.

Now to decide between the G2 and the standard version. The G2 will work with a teleconverter but my guess is that the image, in that situation, would be too dark for accurate AF.

Thanks,
Bill