Spotted Pardalotes

[avandonk]

Managed to get some images of the Spotted Pardalotes that have taken up residence in my backyard. I put some wire mesh around their burrow entrance to keep them safe from domestic predators.
All taken with the Canon 5DH and 300mm F2.8L at f/5 and ISO 1600 to get the whole bird in focus as at about 6 meters the depth of field at f/2.8 is about 5 mm.

Below are some full frame images with crops to show better detail as these birds are tiny.
Bert

[SkySearcher (Daniel)]

Beautifull bird. Nice close ups. Any reason why you shot with ISO1600?

[avandonk]

With the available light early morning the shutter speed was 1/500th at f/5 and an ISO of 1600. As the shots were hand held it is better to have a fast shutter speed for sharpness.

Bert

[ving (David)]

1/500th is an ideal shutter speed for freezing action too, and as you say hand held 300mm isnt going to be 100% stable so fast is best. an iso of 200 would have resulted in a shutter speed of 1/100th probably which is far too slow...

nice shots bert and good on ya for protecting thier burrow/nesting site

[ving (David)]

oh and its prolly just my monitor but these look a touch red to me.

[avandonk]

Ving the 5DH is modded and I most probably did not adjust the colour balance enough.

Skysearcher the Canon 5D has less noise at an ISO of 1600 than a point and shoot has at an ISO of 100 or a bottom end DSLR has at about an ISO of 800 or even less depending on brand and model.

Bert

[SkySearcher (Daniel)]

Sounds good, just curious. I think the higher shutter speed has paid off, especially on the brach shot.

I suppose the full frame sensor would not be 'working as hard' at ISO1600 compared to a 1.6 size sensor.

[avandonk]

Daniel if you assume all else is equal then the signal to noise of a sensor is directly proportional to the area of each pixel. So the bigger the pixel the lower the noise.

Bert

[Sharnbrook (Mike)]

As a rule of thumb, the minimum shutter speed for hand held shots is considered to be the reciprocal of the focal length of the lens in use.

So for a 300mm lens, use 1/300th sec min, for a 500mm lens, 1/500th sec and so on. Note that this is for 35mm cameras, and so is OK for the EOS 5D, but for the 300D, 350D, 400D and other digital cameras with smaller sensors, you will need to multiply by a factor of 1.6 (in the case of Canons).

Nice shots, by the way!

[acropolite (Phil)]

Well captured Bert, a beautiful happy little bird, we have them here as well (I think the one I usually see is the striated pardalote), their call always sounds to me like they're calling "pretty boy". One site describes the call

The Spotted Pardalote is sometimes known as the "Headache Bird" because of the continuous "sleep-may-be" call it gives during the breeding season

I might see if I can capture (an image that is) one, beats the hell out of pelicans....

[johnno]

Originally Posted by avandonk

Daniel if you assume all else is equal then the signal to noise of a sensor is directly proportional to the area of each pixel. So the bigger the pixel the lower the noise.

Bert

A pleasure to see your shots Bert,very good stuff.

Great to see your protection of them too.

Regards.
John