I shoot birds largely using two (three really) lenses and set-ups - (1)
hand-held with a 300mm F4 & 1.7x extender for flight shots, (2) same
set-up on a monopod (best thing ever invented for bird/sports/people
shots!!) with a ball-head - great for opportunistic walking around shots
and (relatively) close-up set shots of birds where you need to be able
to move quickly, and (3) my big lens - an old but great and pin-sharp
600mm (manual) F4 - with 1.4x or 2x extender on a very heavy tripod for
set-up and static shots where I know I'm going to be in one place
(concealed in a hide/car etc at or around a nest/roost/foraging site)
for any length of time and am within walking distance to a vehicle.
And no, I don't spend too long at a nest - often I'll spend some time
without shooting or moving - just checking from a safe distance on the
bird/s to see if they are disturbed by my presence...my best most recent
example of that is a Black-breasted Buzzard nest near to here - it is in
a dead tree in the middle of an open plain so approaching it without
alerting the parents to my presence is impossible and the last two times
that I did approach they both appeared alarmed - so I observe from a
hundred and fifty metres or so away... I miss the photos but there will
be other nests.
And on my wish list (and has been since it came out) is a new body (D3)
and a new 600mm AF and a 200-400mm zoom and a 12-24mm w/a and a...
And, even though he is a Canon shooter - I cannot recommend Arthur
Morris's Bird As Art highly enough - http://www.birdsasart.com/
Peter Shute wrote:
The tracking sounds like it would be really helpful. But I guess you need to
be able to get it to focus on the bird through the leaves initially before it
can start tracking it, and that you need to be able to keep the camera
reasonably still for it to keep tracking.
Robert Gosford wrote on Friday, 12 December 2008 2:59 PM:
Just a note re focussing with DSLRs - most high end cameras
have readily adjustable focus points - either as single
points or as adjustable groups (my Nikon D2H has a four-way
adjustable thumb button) and a variety of focussing programs
that allow for movement of the primary target - i.e. can
track a moving bird within the focussing screen. It takes a
while to get used to but, for example, I can quite quickly
follow a bird's head within the range of a bird's movement so
that, even if there are sticks/leaves in the way, you can
track the birds head to ensure the eye (as is most important IMHO) is
in focus.
julian wrote:
Modern focusing screens in DSLRS are not actually designed to help
the AF system since they are unrelated to how the AF works and are
used only by the human user.
The normal DSLR is provided with a plain focus screen (without a
split prism) because that is less distracting for general work and
split prisms can affect light metering. But these plain screens are
lousy for manual focus, especially with small aperture lenses (f4,
f5.6) like those mostly used for birds.
Most up-market and many mid-market DSLRs allow you to replace the
focus screen with OEM or after-market screens. Here's a link to the
best-known manufacturer's replacement screen for my camera (Canon
30D). The only reason I haven't got one yet is because of the cost
and that I can't work out from the installation instructions how
tricky it is to install, or how much can go wrong, Also there is the
issue of "funny" performance around the centre of the screen where
the split image and microprisms are, but where many of my birds live
their entire lives (i.e. within the small centre circle). I'd like
to try before I buy. Other than those unknowns, I agree that manual
focus with the standard screens is all but impossible for critical
work, so split prism screens would be a great improvement. And help
prevent those hundreds of photos I've taken with perfectly focused
twigs and blurred bird.
http://www.katzeyeoptics.com/item--Katz-Eye-Focusing-Screen-for-the-Ca
non-30D--prod_30D.html
On this site can also be found lots of other good info on this topic.
Cheers
Julian
At 11:49 AM 12/12/2008, you wrote:
In the old days of film and manual focus only cameras focussing
screens were fantastic and had split prisms etc to ensure you were
getting what you wanted in focus. Since the advent of auto focus
teh focussing screens are designed to help the AF system not the
user. This i think is the single biggest reason why manually
focussing modern cameras is quite difficult.
I didn't know that. I assume the optical screens on DSLRs are much
better that the approx 100k pixel electronic viewfinder on my Canon
S3, but perhaps not so much better as I thought. Are there
particular brands and models that have better focusing screens than
the rest?
Given the number of occasions that the bird is behind twigs or
leaves, I would have thought that the quality of manual focusing was
essential, yet it doesn't seem to be discussed that often.
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message:
unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
