Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART

August 23rd, 2020

Amazing and Astounding Stuff!

What’s Up?

I drove to Tiger Creek Preserve on Saturday morning and never even got my gear out. There were hundreds of Partridge Pea blossoms, but all were spent and falling apart. I continued on to Ridge Audubon Center and photographed what I think is Southeastern Sunflower. This morning — Sunday 23 AUGUST 2020 — I worked several cranes from Palmetto Drive which abuts North Field. We have had so much rain here that I wouldn’t dare even think about driving on the grass fields right now. The lake is higher than I have ever seen and there are large puddles all along Park Avenue, the main drag that heads down to the lake.

Well more than half of the price-slashed Used Gear stuff listed in yesterday’s blog post sold or have a sale pending. Including and especially Anita North’s Nikon 600 VR. There are still some great buys there.

Be sure to read down to the end to find the link to Arash Hazeghi’s article in which he details the many reasons that the SONY a9ii AF system is far superior to anything in a Nikon or Canon dSLR …

Astounding News?

After hearing so many good things about the Canon EOS R5 and researching the RF 100-500 lens, I am trying to arrange a loan so that I can see for myself. B&H affiliates are eligible to loan photography gear for evaluation purposes. My good friend Izzy thinks that he can arrange it.

Yesterday on the phone with a used gear buyer I mentioned that I would be trying to get my hands on the R5/RF 100-500 rig. He asked if I thought that I might switch back. I only chuckled …

blog-Jul-16-2020_ILCE-9M2_800__DSC7586-1

This image was created at Bolsa Chica by Arash Hazeghi with the handheld Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 400mm) and the blazingly fast AF King, the Sony Alpha a9 II Mirrorless Digital camera body. ISO 400: 1/4000 sec. at f/5.6.

Elegant Tern shaking off after diving for baitfish
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Amazing Stuff!

From Arash Hazeghi via e-mail on 6/22/2020:

If you do a search online you will find out that many will methodically agree with me that the Sony 200-600mm zoom lens isn’t quite sharp and that a lens’s performance should be evaluated 100% under controlled and field conditions. We have discussed this many times. It is based on science and facts not elitism.

In retrospect, that statement gives me a good laugh …

Both Patrick Sparkman and I have been raving continuously about the sharpness of 200-600 G images, feeling that they rival the sharpness of the 600mm f/4 GM images. After I continued raving about the 200-600 G, Arash realized that the lens he was testing so rigorously might be a lemon. B&H exchanged it for him and as it turned out, he had a bad copy …

You can see what folks had to say about this image here on BPN where Arash is one of our top Avian Forum moderators.

From Arash Hazeghi e-mails in February 2019:

Sony is garbage. Ha ha!

Followed by this, discussing the a9 ii:

But it does echo what I have seen from others who use this camera too and what I also got when I used one briefly, i.e. it feels good in the field like it focuses on everything, part because there is no finder blackout and you feel you got the shot, but the files are jack**** when you look at them on a big screen …

Most recently, see Arash’s Sony A9 II for BIF, initial impressions and comparison vs. Nikon/Canon blog post here. In this lengthy, finely crafted article, Arash explains why the Sony A9 II autofocus system is light-years better than any of the AF systems in Canon and Nikon dSLRs. That Arash is technically brilliant is a given. As far as his career work with Carbon Nanotube Electronics, all that I can say is that he is a friggin’ genius. (See here if you doubt me.) Lastly, the slide show on his home page here will will show you just how good he is at bird photography. In a word, “very.”

August 22nd, 2020

Canon, Nikon, & SONY: One New Listing and Lots of Slashed Prices!

6 comments

What’s Up?

Friday was the worst morning for photography at ILE since I began self-isolating here on 22 MARCH. I photographed flower clusters on a sumac bush and made a very few not-too-good crane images. Blooming flowers are scarce. I will leave at about 6:30am today — Saturday 22 AUGUST 2020, head over to Tiger Creek Preserve, make a stop at the Ridge Audubon Center, and then stop in Lake Wales to do some food shopping. I have not been in Publix for more than a month as Jim as been doing the shopping for us.

I learned yesterday that the sale of Denis Westover’s Nikon D5 is pending.

Selling Your Used Photo Gear Through BIRDS AS ART

Selling your used (or like-new) photo gear through the BAA Blog is a great idea. We charge only a 5% commission. One of the more popular used gear for sale sites charged a minimum of 20%. Plus assorted fees! Yikes. They went out of business. And e-Bay fees are now up to 13%. Please understand that e-Bay prices are bogus. And the same is true of the prices of used gear including my dear friends at B&H and the other mega-outfits. They offer you pennies and then try to sell the stuff to ignorant folks for ridiculously high prices. With their huge international exposure, they occasionally find someone …

The minimum item price here is $500 (or less for a $25 fee). If you are interested, please shoot us an e-mail with the words Items for Sale Info Request cut and pasted into the Subject line :). Stuff that is priced fairly — I offer pricing advice to those who agree to the terms — usually sells. With the pandemic and the down economy, the market had been somewhat depressed, but sales have been brisk for the past few weeks. And over the past year, we have sold many many hundreds of items. Do know that prices of many used items have been dropping steadily. The prices garnered for used Canon gear has tanked completely as demand has dropped tremendously. It is ironic that for decades Canon gear had very strong resale value … Recently, however, the Canon used gear market has shown some signs of life. Prices on used Nikon gear have also dropped as well. You can see all the current bargains here on the Used Gear Page.

Note: all BAA Used Gear sales include insured ground shipping via UPS to lower 48 US addresses only. Others who live elsewhere are invited to e-mail the seller for shipping surcharge info. Sellers should charge you only the difference between shipping to the farthest US location from their home and the charge to a non-lower-48 address.

Recent Sales (including some that I missed)

Dennis Westover sold his Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens in excellent-plus condition for a BAA record-low $944.95 the first day it was listed in late July 2020.
John Bowden sold a Canon EOS 5D Mark 4 in near-mint condition for $1499.00 (was $1,699.00) in mid-July 2020.
BAA friend, California botany expert Bob “BugBob” Allen, sold a Canon Extension Tube Set, the EF 12 II and EF 25 II, in excellent plus condition for $124.90 in ealry August 2020.
IPT veteran Matt Schramer sold his Canon EOS 7D Mk II camera body in near-mint condition for a very low $597.00, his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM lens in near-mint condition for $5,249.00, and a Canon EF 1.4X III teleconverter in like-new condition for $229.00 all within a day or two of being listed in mid-July 2020.
BAA friend, California botany expert Bob “BugBob” Allen, sold his Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 IS II USM in near-mint condition for $1399.00 soon after it was listed in late JULY 2020.
John Buswell sold his Canon EOS 7D Mark II in near-mint condition for a very low $598.00 in mid-July 2020.
Charlie Curry sold his Canon 11-24mm f/4 L lens in like-new condition for a BAA record low $1499.00 the first day it was listed in late July 2020.
BAA friend, California botany expert Bob “BugBob” Allen, sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Telephoto lens in near-mint condition for a BAA record-low $2300.00 (was $2348.00), a Canon EF Extender 1.4X III in near-mint condition for a very low $229.00, and a second Canon EF Extender 1.4X III, this one in excellent condition, for a very low $199.00, all within a day or two of listing in late July 2020.
Anita North sold a Nikon D850 dSLR in excellent plus condition with a shutter count of 222,223for the silly low price of $1298.95 (was $1398.95), another D850 dSLR in very good condition with a shutter count 410,710 for the silly low price of $998.95 (was $1098.95), a Nikon TC-E20 III (2X teleconverter) in like-new condition for a very low $196.95 (was $246.95), and her Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR lens in like-new condition for a BAA record-low $945.95 (was $1,095.95), all in early to mid-July 2020.
Long-ago IPT veteran Art Leyenberger sold his Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM Telephoto lens in near-mint condition for a BAA record-low $2349.00 and a Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM zoom lens in near-mint condition for a BIRDS AS ART record low $449.00 both soon after listing them in mid-July.
Jamie Baker was offering a Nikon AF-S Nikkor 500mm f/4D ED-IF lens in excellent condition for $2500.00 (was $2750.00) but decided to withdraw the listing and kindly offered to send me a check for 4% of the orginal asking price as detailed in the Items for Sale Info e-mail. Multiple IPT veteran Patricia Fishburne sold a Canon EF Extender 2X II (teleconverter) in near-mint condition for a very low $129.00 and another Canon EF Extender 2X II (teleconverter), this one in excellent condition, for a BAA record-low $99.00, both on the first day of listing in early JULY 2020.
Long-time friend Alan Levine — Alan and Sara knew Elaine! — sold their Canon Macro EF 180mm f/3.5L USM Macro Lens in like-new condition for the BAA record-low price of $799.00 in early July 2020.
Anita North sold her Nikon TC-E17 II (1.7X teleconverter) in like-new condition for a very low $146.95 (was $196.95) in early JULY 2020.
Gatorland In-the-Field veteran Ron Owen sold his Canon 200-400 f/4L IS lens with internal 1.4X Extender (with extras!) in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $4900.00 in JUNE 2020.

Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS II USM Lens

Jim Babbitt is offering a Canon 500 mm f/4L IS II lens in excellent plus condition for the BAA record-low price of $5248.00. The lens was serviced regularly by Canon with the last service in February 2020. The sale includes the lens hood, the rear cap, the heavy-duty front lens cover, an Aquatech Silicone front cover, the lens trunk, the lens strap, the manual, both feet, a tired but functional LensCoat, and insured ground shipping via major courier to US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Jim via e-mail or by phone at 1-760 626 6435 (Pacific time zone).

The 500 f/4 super-telephoto lenses have long been the world’s most popular for birds, nature, wildlife, and sports for many decades. Canon’s Series II version is light, fast, super-sharp, and produces amazing images with both the 1.4X and 2X III TCs. The 500 II is relatively small, easily hand-holdable for some folks, and is much easier to travel with, focuses closer than, and costs a lot less than the 600 II. Lastly, and you might find this amazing, the magnification for the 500 II is the same as it is for the 600 II: .15X. How is that possible? Magnification is calculated at the minimum focusing distance of the lens — 12.14 feet (3.7 meters) for the 500 II and 14.77 feet (4.5 meters) for the 600 II. Simply put, the 500 II focuses more than two feet closer than the 600 II. The seller for the last one that sold here had five calls the first day; the first four folks quibbled on price. The fifth one jumped right on it … Please do not tarry if you are seriously interested in Jim’s lens as it too should sell almost instantly. Or not 🙂 As the 500 II goes for $8999 new you will be getting a pretty much new lens while saving $3751.00. I loved my 500 II 🙂
artie

Canon EOS-1D X Professional Digital Camera Body/with Extras!

Price dropped $300 on 14 FEB 2020!
Price dropped $400 on 26 JUNE 2020!
Price dropped $200 on 21 AUGUST 2020!

Joe Randle is also offering a used EOS 1D-X camera body in excellent condition for only $1,299.00 (was $2,199.00). The sale includes an extra LP-E4M battery, three Delkin Devices CF1000X UDMA 7 64GB cards, 4 Delkin Devices CF1000X UDMA 7 32 GB cards (all in a nice Pelican CF card case), the lens trunk, the front cap, the lens strap, the interface and stereo AV cables with cable protector, the EOS Digital Solution Disk and Software, instructions Manuals. Insured ground shipping via major courier lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Joe via e-mail or by phone at 1-620.353.8398 (Central time zone).

Two fast, rugged 1D X bodies served as my workhorse cameras for more than four years. I used them to create hundreds of family-jewels-type images. I actually liked the 1D X more than I liked my 1D X IIs … artie

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR Lens

BAA Record-low Price!
Price Dropped $300.00 on 8/21!

Angie Birmingham is offering a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 400mm f/2.8E FL ED VR in like-new condition for $7696.95 (was $7,996.95). The sale includes the rear lens cap, the lens trunk, the original tough front lens cover, the lens strap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only.

Your item will not ship until your payment clears unless other arrangements are made.

Please contact Angie via e-mail or by phone at 1-361-815-8852 (Central time zone).

This, the lightest, latest/greatest version of the Nikon 400mm f/2.8 lenses, is superb for large mammals in low light and birds at close range. It is superbly sharp alone or with the TC-14E III. It offers the world’s sweetest Bokeh. As a new goes for $11,196.95 right, you can save a very smooth $3,500 by grabbing Angie’s lens. artie

This super telephoto prime is designed for FX-format Nikon F-mount cameras, however, it can also be used with DX models where it will provide a 600mm equivalent focal length. Its impressively bright f/2.8 maximum aperture excels in difficult lighting conditions and also enables extensive control over depth of field for isolating subjects using selective focus techniques. Two fluorite and two extra-low dispersion lens elements work to reduce chromatic aberrations, improve overall image sharpness, clarity, and color fidelity; and help to minimize the overall weight of the lens. Vibration Reduction image stabilization helps to reduce the appearance of camera shake by up to four shutter speed stops, benefiting this lens’s use in low-light conditions. Additionally, a designated Sport Mode is well-suited to working in fast-paced conditions and a Tripod Mode helps to suppress subtle ground vibrations when working atop a support system. The Silent Wave Motor affords quick, quiet, and precise autofocus performance along with full-time manual focus override. An internal focusing design is also used, where only the internal lens groups are moved during focusing, to maintain the overall length of the lens during use and to promote faster focusing speeds. Dust- and moisture-resistant magnesium-alloy lens barrel benefits the lens’ use in inclement conditions. A removable tripod collar is included with the lens for well-balanced support when working from a monopod or tripod. The collar ring also incorporates ball bearings for smooth transitions between horizontal and vertical shooting orientations. Specialized electromagnetic aperture mechanism provides greater exposure control stability that is especially beneficial when working with fast continuous shooting rates. This 400 f/2.8 is compatible with optional AF-S Teleconverter TC-14, TC-17, and TC-20 teleconverters. B&H

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR Lens

BAA Record-low Price!
Price reduced $200.00 on 5-28-20
Price reduced $100.00 on 6-13-20
Price Reduced $100.00 on 2 JULY 2020
Price Reduced $100.00 on 29 JULY 2020
Price Reduced $500.00 on 21 AUGUST 2020

Anita North is offering a Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 600mm f/4E FL ED VR lens in excellent condition for a BAA record-low $8265.95 (was $9265.95). The front element is immaculate, the finish on the hood is dinged up pretty good but is functionally perfect, and the body of the lens is excellent plus. The sale includes the lens trunk, the strap, the front cover, the rear lens cap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.