Images of a Kestrel at Dudly Bluff near Newcastle.

[tornado33]

Hi all
I got the pics of a kestrel just after it swooped down and got a mouse, which it proceeded to eat on the wing.
http://scottalder.fotopic.net/c511310_13.html
Images from the small bird on the branch onwards are the ones I took at Dudly Bluff. I used my EOS 300D and 2nd hand manual focus 400mm F3.6 lens. Please feel free to browse through any of the images there.
This Fotopic server (http://www.fotopic.net) is a great image server I use, you get 200mb free.
Scott

[tornado33]

I forgot to mention, some of the images are cropped from a bigger original.
Scott

[Dennis]

Hi Scott

Those are very nice images, especially the in-flight ones. You did a good job with manual focus on such a fast moving target. Did you mean 400mm f5.6 by the way?

Cheers

Dennis

[tornado33]

Many thanks
No it is actually a F6.3 lens, next stop down if F8 and so on. It does seem to be an unusual f ratio lens. Its "Flexar" brand, and I got it from Ebay from QLD for $130. Its a good lens though shows some purple haloes around stars (chromatic abberation) when iused for astrophotography. It has front elements and 2 more small ones at the rear (field flattener I think)