We have, to say the least, had some very cold days, (and nights) the past few weeks.

It’s made venturing out in the field a little less desirable, and being able to turnover, and pull the doona up bit without a conscience possible.

And besides my 500mm PF lens has been in hospital, and I’ve been doing make-shift with a variety of other lenses. Good side to that too. I’ve become reacquainted with the 300mm f/2.8. Yes, its heavy, yes, tis hard to work with in the field, but oh, oh oh, those dreamy smooth backgrounds and crisp sharp details. Nothing there to complain about.

The 500mm PF has been in the capable hands of the team at Digicam in Adelaide
They have been keeping me updated with progress reports, including the news that the parts needed were coming from overseas, and a bit of a delay might be expected.
So it was pretty exciting to get a note saying the parts would be available and the repair expedited.
Then advice with a delivery note from StarTrek,
“Sing Ho for the Life of a Bear,
Sing Ho for the Life of a Bear,
I don’t mind much if it rains or snows,”
and a text message to say “Delivery Today”, and…
It was.
Can’t ask more than that.

Sadly the next couple of days were cloudy, damp and not conducive to really in-depth lens testing.
Not that I was going to line-up lens charts, software and the like.
No. Just shoot the comms disk on the tower across the road, and look at the result. So I plugged the lens on to our spare D500—the main camera now had the 300 f/2.8— and out I went. Took a bit of fiddling to get the right lens correction dialled in and in the end I swapped out the cameras and the old workhorse needed about a minus 8 correction. (-8)
Happy with that, the following day was one of those out of the box days that End–of-Winter/Almost-Spring can deliver. Delivery Sunshine. No wind. Crisp on the Grass.
All I needed to do now was to find some birds.

The beach was empty. Devoid. Vacant. Still. Alone. Bereft. Not a feather to be seen.
A pair of nesting Ravens, and little else.
No beginner’s luck here.

We walked back to IamGrey and as we did, way across the open bracken field, I saw a lone shape in the air.
A Brown Falcon. (I hope my ophthalmologist reads this) I reckon at about 600m
And closing across the field.
It was the male of the local pair. He swung a few loops over our heads in the sunshine and it gave me a chance to really see what the lens could do.
Result. Thanks to Digicam, it’s back to normal, and working as expected on the D500. That is—It’s sharp.

Sitting in IamGrey having a quick cuppa of the Grey of Earl, a number of Fairywrens came out to dance about the dried grass stalks.
And I was able to get some closeups that showed that smooth creamy background that long lenses can produce. Not quite the dreamy soft of the f2.8. But we takes what we can. 🙂

Big shout out to Digicam for the fast and efficient service and for StarTrek for an on-time delivery.

And the Header Image is another Falcon I found late in the afternoon. It didn’t want to sit for portraits.

Enjoy.