Of course these shots were taken handhold.
People who tried this kind of things already know that auto focusing with a macro lens combined with a 2xTC on insects in flight is difficult for any AF system and I did not succeed this very well with my D3 and D3s(very low keepers rate). With D800 it is going flawless though and keepers rate dramatically increased over my former Nikon DSLRs (D700, D3, D3s)...
Auto iso was on with max shutter speed of 1/800.
With a flash, a very fast shutter speed ànd the same lens/TC combo I believe I even can capture the facets of a hoverfly while in flight which would be quite a challenge for an AF system. Will try...
Image taken handhold, VR off, 1/800 sec, iso 1250(auto iso), F11, spotmetering...
Cropped from the original and resized to 1024px longest side:
About the keepers rate: I did two sessions, once 8 pictures and once 5 pictures and out of this 13 pictures only 1 shot was OOF .
While some might not believe this keepers rate claim, underneath the screenshot of the shots in nikonview.
Focus accuracy and optical quality of the 2xTCIIIe:
Focusing speed and focusing accuracy with such a Lens/TC combo is one thing, optical quality of a 2x teleconverter is another thing...
In the early days of this forum I wrote a topic titled the nikkor 2xTCIIIe is an optical miracle.
Here underneath you can see a sample to illustrate that statement:
From the same session as the hoverfly in flight picture:
The scene:
(picture taken handhold with D800, 105AF-S VR with 2xTCIIIe, auto iso-iso 1250, F11, 1/800 sec. To my own surprise, VR was off!!!)
And a 100% crop:
Related topics on this forum:
Handhold-autofocus macro with D800 and 105VR+ TCIIIe
D800 is a game changer for macro photography
D800 (and D4)' astonishing AF module.
nikon 2x TCIII is simply an optical miracle.
D800 : handhold macro picture
Thanks for your attention and kindest regards,
Stany - http://www.nikonuser.info" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
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Sincerely yours,
Rita B, site owner.
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