Spoonbill in a flap, or having a flutter!

[Dennis]

Hello,

On Saturday we drove to the Port of Brisbane Visitor Centre where a bird reserve has been established. We saw heaps of Pelicans, Spoonbills, Cormorants and other water fowl.

I had the WO 80mm F7 ED II Apo and the trusty old Pentax *ist DS. Here are some photos of a Spoonbill having a flutter at the waters edge. The bird was approx 80 metres away from where I was shooting. Provided I keep the shutter speed to 1/1000 sec or faster, the photos are quite sharp from the WO ‘scope. Anything slower and I see the effects of vibrations from the mirror slap as it flips up, even with the built-in 2.5 sec delay.

These photos are cropped heavily from the full frame.

Cheers

Dennis

[h0ughy (David)]

Tell the truth Dennis - you concreted this poor birds feet, he couldnt move and had no choice but to pose for you!!!

Nice Shots Big D!!

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by h0ughy

Tell the truth Dennis - you concreted this poor birds feet, he couldnt move and had no choice but to pose for you!!!

Oooh no – I used some environmentally friendly glue that dissolves - much like the stuff Steve Irwin used to cement radio transmitters on the back of crocs returned to the wild!

Initially I attempted to “predict” the end points of the bird’s wing beat (start and reverse), where the wing speed would be at a minimum to help with maintaining the sharpest focus, but I just couldn’t synchronise the shutter release with the fast beats.

I then set the “Continuous Shooting” mode, although in fact I actually set the “Auto-Bracketing” mode by mistake as the icons are similar.

Anyhow, this mistake was a case of Murphy’s Law working with me and not against me, as the shutter was manually set to 1/1000 sec and the auto bracket took it to 1/1500 which gave me slightly sharper photos in the end, albeit slightly under exposed.

Focusing was a little tough as my WO 80mm only has the single rate Crayford.

Cheers

Dennis

[RB (Andrew)]

Nice photos Dennis.
I like the second and third the best.

[Tamtarn]

Good looking shots Dennis, like them all.

Looks like the bird is posing for you.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

Looks like the bird is posing for you

"Pick me, Dennis. Pick me"

Nice shot Dennis. Doesn't appear to be a lot of CA in those shots. Nice. Is the 80 the big (politically correct) sibling of the 66 that is around $400 at Andrews?

[Dennis]

Originally Posted by [1ponders]

"Pick me, Dennis. Pick me"

Nice shot Dennis. Doesn't appear to be a lot of CA in those shots. Nice. Is the 80 the big (politically correct) sibling of the 66 that is around $400 at Andrews?

Hi Paul

The scope is an earlier model Megrez 80mm ED II Triplet Apo, an 80mm F7 system with the standard single rate WO Crayford focuser. I picked it up O/S during a close out sale. I think that this ‘scope is no longer made by WO, having been superseded by others in the 80mm, and now 90mm, range.

Cheers

Dennis

EDIT: Here is a link to a CN Review

[johnno]

Originally Posted by Dennis

Hello,

On Saturday we drove to the Port of Brisbane Visitor Centre where a bird reserve has been established. We saw heaps of Pelicans, Spoonbills, Cormorants and other water fowl.

I had the WO 80mm F7 ED II Apo and the trusty old Pentax *ist DS. Here are some photos of a Spoonbill having a flutter at the waters edge. The bird was approx 80 metres away from where I was shooting. Provided I keep the shutter speed to 1/1000 sec or faster, the photos are quite sharp from the WO ‘scope. Anything slower and I see the effects of vibrations from the mirror slap as it flips up, even with the built-in 2.5 sec delay.

These photos are cropped heavily from the full frame.

Cheers

Dennis

Hi Dennis,

Lovely shots,especially at that distance,its hard to get shots like those.

Regards.John