On Victoria Day I decided to go out to the park by my place to work with 'Johnson'. Johnson is the name I have given my 120mm-300mm f2.8 zoom lens because it is huge. It is 300mm long with a 100mm diameter and weighs 3kg. It is a real paparazzi lens. The name was given in honour of Wendell Ferguson.
I have had the lens for more than a year but have yet to get any good photos from
it. The problem is that its depth of field is so narrow that the autofocus does
not work well with it. This is made worse by the extreme magnification which makes
it hard to hold steady. This makes it even tougher for the autofocus to work.
Since I bought the lens I haven't used it much because until now I had carry it in
a separate bag and the last thing I need at a gig is to keep track of multiple bags
of equipment. This has changed now since Lowe has come out with a camera backpack
large enough to carry Johnson along with all my other lenses.
So, on a nice sunny holiday Monday I head out to the park. These are the first decent photos I've produced with Johnson.
These geese are on the other side of the lake.
This guy was over 100m from me.
Some other long distance shots
I met Mike Rowbottom (the lens is now at its shortest setting)
