This article shares a selection of Nikon 1 V3 osprey images which were captured handheld using a 1 Nikkor 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens. Over the past little while I’ve been culling through older files to get prepared for some computer upgrades. This has resulted in the review of a wide variety of photographs as I decide whether to save, cull or revisit them in post. During the past week alone I’ve culled over 368 GB of old photography files. 🙂 Lots more to go too! Including my back-up drives my computer system is running 50 TB of hard drive space.
As mentioned in an earlier article, I have made some changes to my process in post. This made revisiting these V3 osprey images an enjoyable trip down memory lane.
NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.
All of the photographs in this article date back to the summer of 2017. They were captured during a visit to Hendrie Valley.
I know that many readers of this photography site have used Nikon 1 gear in the past… and may still be using this equipment today.
My wife and I still have our Nikon 1 kit, although with travel and other COVID-19 restrictions we have not used it extensively since our trips to Ireland and Italy in 2019.
Using the 1 Nikkor 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens was always a lot of fun. When fitted to a V3 or V2 body it provided a very lightweight set-up which I could use handheld all day long when necessary.
The small 1″ sensor does create some additional work in post so I developed a number of Custom Presets in DxO PhotoLab 2. When I revisited these Nikon 1 V3 osprey images in post I used DxO PhotoLab 4. This software seems to process files a bit differently than version 2, so I basically used the auto lens corrections, spot weighted DxO Smart Lighting and some microcontrast.
The files processed pretty well, and the balance of my standard process was uneventful. Overall, I was pleased with the results.
All of the V3 osprey images in this article were captured in less than an hour during the same visit to Hendrie Valley.
I always found that the auto-focus on Nikon 1 cameras was quite snappy. The continuous auto-focus on the V2 was slightly more responsive than with the V3. This was most evident in lower light or overcast conditions.
With either V-series camera it is helpful to pre-focus your lens. This helps to ensure that the camera will grab focus on a subject bird quickly.
When photographing birds-in-flight with Nikon 1 gear I always use Manual mode with Auto-ISO.
This will explain the modest shifts in ISO values between various images in this article.
Images 3 through 12 in this article are from the same extended continous auto-focus image run. One of the things that set the Nikon 1 V3 apart in its day was its fast continuous auto-focus frame rate of 20 frames-per-second. The older V2 model could do 15 frames-per-second in this mode.
Using the Nikon 1 system, and the 1 Nikkor 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens specifically, really had me appreciate the importance of reach when photographing birds-in-flight.
As noted earlier, being able to shoot at a fast continuous auto-focus frame rate was also a strength of the Nikon 1 system with birds-in-flight.
Even though the Nikon 1 system was discontinued almost three years ago, it is still a very capable, small format system.
Some Nikon 1 owners have been lucky enough to find a good, used 1Â Nikkor 70-300 mm f/4.5-5.6 zoom lens. They are now enjoying a small, lightweight and capable birding set-up with a V-series body.
The last 5 photographs in this article were from the same continuous auto-focus image run.
Technical Note
Photographs were captured handheld using camera gear as noted in the EXIF data. Images were produced from RAW files using my standard process. Crops are noted. This is the 1,028th article published on this website since its original inception.
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