Hello all,
I think I must have missed the original email that Brian has responded
to but I thought I might stick my head into this one.
Image stabilisation (IS) (VR- vibration reduction for Nikonians)- it
works and has to be the greatest boon to wildlife photographers in 20
years. Highly recommended if you can afford it- with the compact
digitals or with digital SLR's. You can hand hold a 500mm standard lens
on an SLR with it. You wouldn't want to be doing it for longer than
about a minute but you can do it! The problem would come with the
photographers physical ability to hand-hold a large lens. Arnold
Schwarzenegger would make an awesome wildlife photographer if he ever
develops the interest. However, today's 300 or 400mm lenses with IS are
very hand-holdable for the average person.
However, if you want to hand-hold and get sharper shots your ratio of
sharp shots will increase if you use some sort of support like a
shoulder stock which I've used a lot especially in rainforest when a
tripod becomes a bit inconvenient. Another cheaper alternative which I
'm intending to have a go at is a strap that you connect to the lens
(best in a quick release plate) and then loop the other end around your
foot. By pulling up with the lens it has the effect of holding the lens
surprisingly still. Just don't walk off until you've removed your foot
from the loop in the strap or you might have a nasty accident! I don't
think the strap method would work on a boat though. On land, I imagine
this method could work with compact digitals as well.
As Brian said- shutter speed is the key. The faster your shutter speed
the sharper your shots. IS doesn't help with movement of your subject,
only of your camera, so there is no escaping the importance of shutter
speed.
Cheers
Mick
Michael Todd
Wildlifing Images & Sounds of Nature
Latest Additions: Barking Owl, Splendid Fairy-wren, Mulga Parrot
www.wildlifing.com
Toronto, NSW, Australia O41O 123715
brian fleming wrote:
The subject is sufficiently important for a general reply.
500 mm is long for hand held work, but both Anthea and I have used 500
mm mirror lenses with success - no question of stopping down as they
are fixed aperture. They are very light, so there is no problem with
what I will call "fatigue shake" - a conventional 500 is going to be
500mm long and correspondingly heavy, and awkward, although the mass
itself will have a damping action. A zoom lens will be much shorter
but will still be fairly heavy. Using the highest available shutter
speed with lens wide open will reduce the distance the camera moves
while the shutter is open; this of course will mean less depth of
focus. (Life wasn't meant.....).
Hold the camera firmly but not tightly with both hands, and elbows
braced against your body. Breath out as you prepare to "click" , and
in again afterwards. After several years, this becomes automatic!
Even on a boat off Stewart Island NZ, where the albatrosses were often
too close!
Brian Fleming
Ivanhoe
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