I went a little crazy just recently and Christmas and my Birthday came early this year, at least from the perspective of buying stuff for myself.

Nikon sent me information on a new camera, a D7500, the next step up from the one that I have, a D7200, which set the wheels in motion thinking about carrying two cameras instead of just the one. This would expedite in changing out lenses for the shots that I wanted to take especially the long distance ones. The camera was not yet available so I added my name to the list at Precision Camera and within a month, they notified me that the camera was in ready for me to pick up “if I still wanted it”. Who were they kidding. I had the bug and just had to have it.

For those of you who follow my blog know that I take a lot of videos of the Austin Pond Society meetings for which I used a Canon Video camera. This camera only got used once a month at these Meetings for about two hours so I figured that I could use one of the Nikon’s to video the meetings instead. I thought about it knowing that I would take a beating on the trade in but accepted that would happen and went ahead with the deal.

I actually used the D7200 at the last meeting for taking the videos which is entitled “Austin Pond Society Post Pond Tour Meeting, June 19, 2017“. You can view the videos by clicking on the link. The only problem is the sound content is not too good and I need to purchase a mic that sits on top of the camera to clear that up and of course I have to remember that it will only run in twenty minute segments. It does take a lot more concentration and attention using this as a video camera in order to stay focused or to zoom in and such. Still, it was a good trade for me.

My goto lens is a Tamron 16-300 which enables me to take close up Macro shots as well as the medium long distance ones but it still lacks the real distance that can be achieved by a true long distance zoom lens. I knew that Tamron also made a 150-600 telescopic lens which would give me that extra length of distance that I wanted and so I really got the bug to add this lens to my collection. As I had nothing left to trade, I had to bite the bullet and pay full price or at least the price after shopping around on the many Photographic Gear websites that are out there. I ended up getting it from Beach Camera with an almost $300 discount. True to their word, the lens arrived within 5 days with the shipping paid for which I deemed to be pretty good service. The lens is heavy at 5 lbs and will take a bit of getting used to plus it is 17 inches long with the hood. Balance and shake will be the problem.

So now I have a two camera setup which I tested by going on a short hike at Pedernales Falls. More on that in a separate blog yet to be written. The D7200 is attached to the new lens and the new D7500 camera is on the shorter and lighter one as I figured I would be taking more shots with the smaller lens and camera. On the “test”hike, I used a separate over the shoulder bag to carry the D7200 camera and lens which was very inconvenient when I wanted to take shots. It meant stopping, taking the camera out of the bag before even thinking about the shots and as we all know most shots are almost instant in their opportunity and I sure wasn’t going to get any in the time it was taking me. I had the D7500 on my single camera belt as per usual.

It was quite obvious that I needed a double camera carrying set up and I again went on line and purchased one from Cotton Carrier which is also the company from which I got the single carrier belt. There were cheaper ones out there but I wanted the same continuity that I had with the single belt in terms of interchangeability so that I could switch carrying positions if I felt the need.

Obviously this is not me and I used a picture from the Cotton Carrier website just to illustrate the double carrier. In my case, the new long lens and camera are in the same place where he has his camera and my smaller lens and camera are on the bottom where the bino’s are. Mine is black and not camo.

With the little use that I have had with the lens so far, it has produced some spectacular results. At the above mentioned hike at the Duckpond, I did not see with my naked eye the two wild pigs that were on the far side of the pond until I focused in with the new lens and there they were. I was actually focusing on the White Egrets. Notice there also appears to be a Black Vulture sitting with the Egrets.

White Egrets

Multi Colored Pig and Black Vulture

Brown Pig

Unknown

Closeup of Multi Colored Pig

Then, at home in my own ponds, I was able to take a close up of the Water Hibiscus which was facing the wrong way to take with the shorter lens but came out great from across the pond with the new lens. The wonderful thing about this lens is that it can also bring close ups of things like flowers and birds that are 20 or more feet away.

Ruellia

Water Hibiscus

I’m hoping for great things with this set up with longer shots and much more detail. I can extend the reach of the lens by adding in a 1.4 Teleconverter which will add an additional 200mm to the setup bringing it up to 800mm or even a 2.0 Teleconverter which will double it to 1200. Maybe next week…