American Dipper captured by Z 9 / Z400f2.8 @560mm
A whole lot of you noticed that all the Kodiak Brown Bear photos I’ve been posting for the past week were taken is the spectacular Z400f2.8. That lead to the question, did I add one to my kit? I had the 400f2.8AFS for a long time many years ago. I had it for all the Coastal Grizzly Bear work I was doing. I loved, loved that lens. I only have the opportunity to spend a week or two with Kodiak Brown Bear with this past week the first time to spend time with them on the river. The Z600f4 would be simply too much lens for the close approximately I was with the bears. At the same time, the busy world around the bears required that small DoF of f2.8. That combo made it for me a logical choice to reach out to Nikon NPS and get a loan of the Z400f2.8. It is a spectacular lens that I shot handheld the vast majority of the time. Be it at 400mm or @560 (via its bilt-in 1.4x) the lens delivers spectacular images! I’d love to own the lens and I’ll be honest, I shed a tear or two when that last piece of tape sealed on the box to return it to NPS. I want the lens and oh, I would if I could in a minute!