Hmmmm...the 14 that I reference may not be same as the 14 that you see first. I guess the user can select the order in which you see the images. I have the gallery set to automatically sort based on the date I posted the images...last in, first in the viewing order.

If you can change the viewing order, that is the sorting you will want to see my last 14 images that I mentioned. I shot them within the last two weeks.

The hawk shot you reference was shot with my D800e, but I did use a tripod for that one. I took that one in August.

My hand held shots were all done with the 200-400mm lens, and I was literally supporting the lens with my hand or with a BushHawk grip. The BushHawk has a stock that allows you to pull the grip back against your shoulder. It does add some stability, but it also allows you to track a bird more easily and fire bursts while keeping the center focus point on the bird. I keep the device on one of my D800e bodies now all the time. I started using it on October 29th.

For handheld shots, my ISO ranged from 400 to 1250 with most images shot at 1000 or less. I used aperture priority for all shots even though I was advised to try manual in order to get a more precise meter reading and exposure (using exposure compensation when required). I found that the dynamic range of the D800e was so wide that I did not have to go to manual and spot metering. That is one of the beauties of the D800/e...you can get away from exposure compensation for most BIF shots.

I used matrix metering for most shots.

I did not use VR. It was turned off for all shots.

I started off on my last bird trek shooting wide open, but I found I could stop down to f/6.3 to get more DOF and still get enough shutter speed. My shutter speeds ranged from 1/1250 to 1/5000, with an average of 1/2500.

By the way, I found that I could not get the rate of keepers that I wanted with AF activation set to AF-ON as I do for all other shooting. I had to switch to Shutter/AF-ON because I could not move my fingers fast enough to use AF-On only. With the BushHawk, you have no choice but to do that because the trigger uses your cable release connection. It acts just like a cable release but with a shutter button-like travel and feel.

I suspect that a lot of hand held problems that people have with the D800/e is too much jambing down on the shutter button when shooting. I found that using the shutter button the same way I was trained to shoot an M-14 in the US Marines works best. Gently push the button down until it fires while I am exhaling. You get a bulls eye (tack sharp image) with no blur every time if the camera settings are right.

Larry Jordan

D800E, 14-24, 50, 24-70, 70-180 Micro, 70-200, 80-400mm AF-S

Website:
http://larryjordan.smugmug.com/