After seeing all the birds in flight images posted in this section I thought I would give it a go with my camera and lens.
I spent the a short part of the morning outside with the camera looking out for some imaging subjects. The only real opportunity I had was this Magpie that landed on a light post about 50 metres away from where I was standing. I quicking focused the camera and snapped two images one with him on the light post and one with him in flight.
I am fairly limited to what I can do with this lens (18-55mm) but I guess you have got to start somewhere. All in all it was a fun morning.
Canon 450D + 18-55mm lens @ 55mm. Both images were very heavy crops.
Well done on making the effort Matt – you learn by doing, so the time spent is never wasted. I found that even my 70-200mm wasn’t long enough so I got the 400mm. I suspect that soon, I’ll want the 500mm, then no doubt the 600mm. Are you sure you want to go down this slippery slope!
Yeah, longer lenses are all the go... especially quality ones. then you can mount them up on your EQ6 and have a bunch mini-ultra-flat-field APO's..
70-200 F/4L is a great starting 'long' lens, priced well, good focal range for a wide variety of shots, sharp as hell..
Once you look at the 300 prime's and bigger your starting to look at rather specialized lenses, that are only good for a few subjects... birds/sports/astronomy... but lets face it... Everyone.. I mean EVERYONE!! wants a 600mm F/4L
Nice start Matt, its a bit addictive because it's hard to get a sharp bird shot in flight...well I find it hard and thats what drives me to get a better shot.
Keep them coming.
We might have to change this Forum to Birds-in-space....come on Mike....lol
I'm looking to upgrade to the 70-200mm F/4L lens so that will be a good starting for this type of photography. I know that the way I am now heading is towards a very slippery slope but it will definitely be worth.
Matt, Thats another thing I'll have with me at IISAC08, so you can have a play with that and get a feel for it.. will also have my 300F/2.8 400F/5.6L - one (or both) of which you'll be wanting soon after buying a 70-200F/4L - About the 70-200F/4L, The 2 models differ very slightly, the IS enabled one isn't quite as sharp.. In order of sharpness over the 70-200 L series : 70-200 F/4L, 70-200 F/2.8L IS, 70-200F/4 IS, 70-200F/2.8
Matt, Thats another thing I'll have with me at IISAC08, so you can have a play with that and get a feel for it.. will also have my 300F/2.8 400F/5.6L - one (or both) of which you'll be wanting soon after buying a 70-200F/4L - About the 70-200F/4L, The 2 models differ very slightly, the IS enabled one isn't quite as sharp.. In order of sharpness over the 70-200 L series : 70-200 F/4L, 70-200 F/2.8L IS, 70-200F/4 IS, 70-200F/2.8
Thanks for the information Alex, I will have to look into it.
Awesome, I would love that to have a look your 70-200mm L lens at IISAC. Looking forward to it. I might also have a look at your 300mm and 400mm lens as well.
If you're considering using a scope for birding have a look at this thread (it runs to 22 pages) and has some interesting info. Average pics to begin with but they improved markedly. I think they're out to over 5m in 35mm equivalent glass now using a skywatcher ED80 . Extreme digiscoping!!!
You can get AF confirm T-rings off ebay.. last time I saw them they were expensive (ie. 20GPB from europe) but apparently they work for astronomy too... which could be a helpful thing to have at times.
Extreme digiscoping!!!
