The Throwback Today posts are a chance for me to get my D100 and D200 out, make sure the batteries are charged, that there’s a fresh CF memory card waiting to receive photos, and go out and shoot with them old workhorses.

Today it’s all about the D200 coupled with the Nikon 80-400mm zoom (a lens from around the same era, about 20 years ago) and the Nikon 105mm macro. Once again, I’m pushing the camera and lens combination and doing so more than I would have when the camera was new.

By that, I mean that while the D200 was a significant improvement over the D100 in terms of noise, it was still fairly limited by today’s standards. Once you went past the ISO 800 range, you were in severe noise territory. Of course, we now have much better tools to handle noise. That means I can shoot higher ISO values (1600 was the max for this camera) and fast speeds (1250/sec) and not worry about getting unusable photos.

Some of these photos have significant processing, but not all that much more than similar photos with newer cameras.

A few things about the D200 . . .

I mentioned the D100 had a solid feel . . . that’s even more true for the D200. The camera is a beast both in weight and size. It comes in at a shade over 1.8 pounds (the D100 is 1.6 pounds). When coupled with the 80-400mm lens, the combination tops 5 pounds. In contrast, the D7500 comes in at 1.4 pounds. (BTW, here’s a write-up I did when I bought the D7000. If you want a more nuts-and-bolts comparison, click HERE.)

As I did with the D100, I tried action shots of hummingbirds flying. I was more successful than with the D100, but still ran into a few issues with focusing. That big lens is not a fast focuser, and if you miss the subject, it cycles through the range of focus in what these days seems like an eternity. Still, the results a pretty good for the majority of shots.

The camera also does well in subjects that aren’t moving around . . .

One of the problems with shooting long zooms is the shallow depth of field . . . I’d have loved to get the hummingbird in focus . . .

. . . but I got the other bird in focus (I presume you saw it); I just couldn’t get both.

I managed to get these guys in focus. It looked as if they were eating parts of the crape myrtle’s flowers. I thought they were eating bugs or seeds.

This next shot isn’t a macro . . . it’s still with the 80-400mm (600mm eq).

Here’s a female House Finch . . . we’ll see more later.

Finches are easier to shoot than hummingbirds. They don’t flit about as much. I can get decent shots of hummers when I’m fast to focus and pull the trigger . . .

. . . but sometimes, the little scamps move just as I snap the photo, and all I get is . . .

. . . unless there’s a lot of action happening, and then I can hardly miss.

About then, I noticed this feather. Only, from where I saw it, it looked like a miniature mouse, so I swapped the 80-400mm for the 105mm Macro . . .

A mouse with a very long and thin white nose.

Those are seed rinds, probably white milo.

I was shooting the feather near the hummingbird feeders, and there are always a few hummingbirds that are not concerned about me being there, even if they react to the sound of the mirror and shutter.

I mentioned that hummingbirds get physical with each other, often striking the chest or back of the head of other birds. Well, I got lucky with this next shot in that I got the shot. I was unlucky because since I was shooting macros, I had switched to a lower ISO value and slower shutter speed, hence the action is blurry . . . but you get the picture.

Anyway, since I had the macro lens on the camera, I switched to shooting flowers.

The thing when shooting macros, you’re focused on a small area of a larger scene . . . and you can miss stuff that’s right next to where you’re shooting . . .

. . . specifically, a butterfly that’s feeding on the flowers you’re photographing.

Anyway, I decided to walk around the house and see what I could find of interest . . . like this branch on a shrub sporting what I think is a spider web.

How about an actual spider web? Not just a spider web, but a spider web covered in dew and strung between grass leaves?

That red/maroon spot is the spider. Here’s another spider web . . .

No spider under the web . . . but if you look just a bit to the right of the spider web . . .

I then stopped by the clematis at the back of the house. It was in the shade, but I managed a few photos.

I then went back to the 80-400mm lens and action shots . . .

Of course, hummingbirds aren’t the only birds that quarrel over food . . . finches do as well.

As with the hummingbirds, there’s plenty of food, but they still fight about it, wanting to hog it all . . . how very human of them.

Some birds prefer to pick up scraps from the ground. Birds on the ground don’t seem to fight nearly as much.

Maybe it’s the cage that brings out the worse in them . . . or it’s human nature they’ve picked up from watching the news.

Squirrels also fight, but on this day, there was only one . . .

But, the most consistent fighting behavior is by hummingbirds . . . 13 feeders around the house, and they still fight.

I think that’s enough for now, so here’s the . . .

. . . slideshow of the Throwback Today 007 Gallery.

Remember, you can pause it and manually scroll through it. Also, if you want to see the original size versions of the photos, here’s the LINK to the gallery.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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