Rodney Campbell's Blog

I flew along the coastline looking fo this composition. It was exactly the type of layered look I was searching for. This is probably my favourite image of the morning session

The Pebbles Between

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/60 sec at f/4, ISO 100

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

These shots are looking straight down over the Fingal Head causeway itself. From the ground it looks like this narrow finger of hexagonal basalt columns sticking up out of the water. From above you can see it’s actually quite a wide triangular “island”

Fingal Causeway

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/80 sec at f/4, ISO 100

Equilateral

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/80 sec at f/4, ISO 100

I’d previously tested the new Nikon Z 24-200 lens with the type of long distance landscape and outdoor subject material one might encounter when travelling. In short it appeared excellent across nearly all focal lengths with a slight weakness at the extreme edges at the shorter (24mm) end

Another typical use case for a lens like this when travelling, day tripping out and about or doing street photography is nice tight crop portraits

It was a nice fully overcast day so I figured I’d see how the lens operates for this portrait use case

This is one aspect of where the near zero focus breathing and very close minimum focus distance (~0.5m) of this lens is fantastic

I suspect I may not have done this well with either my 28-300 (the focus breathing at close distance is rediculous – it ends up being way lass than a 200mm effective focal length at this distance). Perhaps not even with my 70-200 (can’t shoot anywhere near this close as the MFD is around 1.5m)

In this case I have the additional challenge of trying to take portraits of our new puppy. He’s not particularly amenable to staying still to have his photo taken :). So here’s me chasing him around my back yard trying to stay in close :). I shot at 1/400th sec @ 200mm to try and help deal with most of the motion and using Animal Detection autofocus is an absolute godsend 🙂

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR @ 200 mm, 1/400 sec at f/6.3, ISO 450

and here is a 100% crop from the image

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR @ 200 mm, 1/400 sec at f/6.3, ISO 450

One concern I had was the relatively limited f/6.3 aperture and the limits that would have on both available light and the ability to control depth of field. I’m a fan of being able to throw out the background and have a nice soft bokeh blur. This is something that is glorious with say the 70-200/2.8 or faster longer primes like the 85/1.4 or 1.8

I was pleasantly surprised with what the 200mm end of the 24-200 @ f/6.3 can do

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

NIKON Z 7 + NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR @ 200 mm, 1/400 sec at f/6.3, ISO 900

Can you spot the fisherman?

Fishing for Volcano’s

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/60 sec at f/4, ISO 100

Columnar

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/120 sec at f/4, ISO 100

The sun had risen so it was time to switch from land based camera mode to aerial mode

A 180˚ twenty one frame stitched panorama looking up and down the coast at Fingal Head

Fingal Hand

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/640 sec at f/4, ISO 100 x 21 Frames

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

Fingal to Tweed

DJI Mavic 2 Pro L1D-20c + 28.0 mm f/2.8 @ 10.26 mm, 1/240 sec at f/4, ISO 100