Show your Bird Portraits

[HenryL]

Funny - in the car right now I have my EOS-R, the 5D4, and the.........7D2. I've been 'nostalgia' shooting it for two days now and I'll never get rid of it.

Which lens did you use to get these? They're very good! Up here every day is eagle day. The only question is whether or not you can get to them..

Thanks, Bert63. These are with the 100-400 MkII + 1.4x III. I sold a 500/4IS couple of years ago because it just wasn't being used. Last year I bought the 100-400 and it's been great, couldn't be happier.

I wish I could justify keeping the 7D2 for a second body. I'm not going to replace my 100-400 with the 100-500, so that and a 100L macro is the only EF glass I'll have. Could use those on the 7, but they are better on the R5 in any case.

 

[HenryL]

DxO won't be far behind.

Hope not...I started using it this year mostly for noise reduction and it's the only one of my three apps that don't have support yet. C1 just got it late last week, but still...I was really getting on well with DXO. Hope it updates very soon.

 

[Bert63]

Thanks, Bert63. These are with the 100-400 MkII + 1.4x III. I sold a 500/4IS couple of years ago because it just wasn't being used. Last year I bought the 100-400 and it's been great, couldn't be happier.

I wish I could justify keeping the 7D2 for a second body. I'm not going to replace my 100-400 with the 100-500, so that and a 100L macro is the only EF glass I'll have. Could use those on the 7, but they are better on the R5 in any case.

My go-to lens combo as well - including the 1.4X III.

Lately I’ve been shooting the 100-400 naked to see how much I’d miss the 1.4 when I get the 100-500L. Come to find out I don’t miss it as much as I thought I would.

The 7D2 went back in its bag today. Went out yesterday evening and the hawks were flying down at the beach. Had a chance to get some BIFs and checked settings and started shooting. Once he got out of range I reviewed photos and discovered I shot them under.

Completely my fault but we pulled up and I jumped out of the car and started shooting in one movement... All the way home I was thinking that it never would have happened if I was shooting the EOS-R.

Can’t wait for my R5 to get here.

 

[AlanF]

Hope not...I started using it this year mostly for noise reduction and it's the only one of my three apps that don't have support yet. C1 just got it late last week, but still...I was really getting on well with DXO. Hope it updates very soon.

It's usually slow updating, I am afraid. I'll be using Adobe to convert to dng files and then PhotoNinja until DxO updates.

 

[usern4cr]

I wanted to make sure my R5 and 320GB CFexpress card worked at max load, so I took a 8K Raw video through a window of my hummingbird feeder till it was full. Settings: RF 70-200 L IS at 200mm, 1/2000" f2.8 autoISO. I finally figured out how to see individual frames in DPP and output an interesting 1:1 crop from 3 frames, with the last frame duplicated to show the full frame (originally 8K wide from the video raw frame - sweet!). The focus was so shallow that this hummingbird actually flew from slightly too near to slightly too far from focus, and left behind a little "calling card". I know next time to maybe try 1/4000" and f5.6 or so for better DOF.

Verdict: The R5 8K works, and is a new way for a stills photographer to merge with video! Oh, ... and the R5 really does rock!

 

[AlanF]

I took out the 90D with the 100-400mm II as I hadn't used the camera for a long while. The Little Grebe chick that I saw being fed by mum at the beginning of the month can now fish for itself. This is a tiny crop as the little bird was far away. The 100-400mm on the 90D has the equivalent reach of an f/11 800mm on an R6 or 1DXIII.

 

[usern4cr]

I took out the 90D with the 100-400mm II as I hadn't used the camera for a long while. The Little Grebe chick that I saw being fed by mum at the beginning of the month can now fish for itself. This is a tiny crop as the little bird was far away. The 100-400mm on the 90D has the equivalent reach of an f/11 800mm on an R6 or 1DXIII.
View attachment 192432

That's some beautiful detail you've got there. I'm looking forward to getting the RF 100-500 and hope it's as good as this. If so, it's going to be fun!

 

[Bert63]

Just some crows. Love these guys - clever beyond words..

 

[Click]

Very nice shot, Alan.

 

[Click]

Just some crows. Love these guys - clever beyond words..

I really like your series. I especially like the 3rd shot.

 

[tron]

90D + 100-400 II day for me too. I took the combo with me at work. Just as I entered I saw the common kestrel.

 

[AlanF]

I was a very early adopter of the 90D and had to wait a few months until DxO PL was updated to recognise it. I reviewed it here favourably, using dng converted files and then PhotoNinja and was very impressed. But, when DxO became compatible, I became disappointed with the noisy images. Eventually, I discovered the lens sharpness tool in DxO was the cause of the problem so I now use DxO without sharpening and then sharpen with Topaz. The 90D gives very nice detailed images and focuses on what you point it at - that's not a joke, the centre AF spot is very good and great for static shots. For BIF, the centre 9 points are reasonable but not outstanding for AF.

 

[Click]

Nice. Well done, Tron.

 

[AlanF]

I took out the 90D with the Sigma 150-600mm C to compare it with the 100-400mm II. The Little Grebes were further away than yesterday and needed the 600mm. The keeper rate with the chick catching a fish was very low as it was difficult to hold the tiny target in the centre spot and the focus wandered off to the waves. This is where EyeAF would have been very useful. The quality of the images that were in focus isn't bad. I'm really intrigued to try out the R5. These are excessive crops of 1000px wide or so of the birds. The Sigma IQ is much better than its reputation.

 

[Click]

Very nice shots, Alan.

 

[Cog]

Out of curiosity, I tried my 100-400 II with a 1.4 extender on a Canon R. I liked the AF on birds, but BIF experience disappointed me. AF was VERY slow.
Some plovers lurking among mangrove sprouts.

 

[Click]

Very nice pictures. Well done, Cog.

 

[tron]

Thanks for the info Cog. Although I do have the specific combo I haven't tested it EOS R like this since my 5DsR and 5DIV work fine with 500mmII + 2XII for ... equally static subjects. And removing the 2XIII makes them capable for BIF photos (to tell the truth I use 5DsR for that). EOS 5DIV has taken some very nice shots at 1000mm but that's all. Lately I use mostly 5DsR +1000mm for static shots of birds that are far away when I have all my equipment in car and D850/D500+500mmPF for BIF. If I have to take one combo in an excursion it's the later to be covered for BIF.

P.S 5DsR and D500/D850+500mmPf combo were actually suggestions made by Alan - Many Thanks for that!

 

[AlanF]

Out of curiosity, I tried my 100-400 II with a 1.4 extender on a Canon R. I liked the AF on birds, but BIF experience disappointed me. AF was VERY slow.
Some plovers lurking among mangrove sprouts.

I've used the 100-400mm II + 1.4xTCIII on the 5DIV and it's fine for BIF - within the usual limitations of the 5DIV. I've also got some very good BIF on the 5DSR using the centre point+4 helpers. There is a fredmranda thread about the combo on the R5 and one guy has even picked up dragonflies. The R has had a poor reputation for BIF, but the R5 is a great leap forward.

 

[tron]

I wonder how R5 would behave when trying to shoot swallows and swifts.
These are "crazy" BIF situations. I had success with D500 when shooting swallows in distance and lower success rate (but with some good shots) when shooting swifts with D850 in closer distance. I know I am comparing apples to orranges but birds do not give us options!

I had made many experiments with D850. I didn't notice a setting affecting the success rate significantly!
Always set on AF-C. Priority either Release or Focus. The later resulted very slow frame rate (of course!).
Subjects set to erratic or not. Frames per sec tested: 6, 7, 9. (Buffer shockingly less than D500 with the exact same card: Sony G series XQD 240GB and quality set to maximum for both cameras: RAW 14bit). I also made some other tests with no different result but right now I do not have the camera with me. It involved how fast camera keeps or changes focus I think but the exact term escapes me. It is in the same "page' where we chose if subjects are erratic or not.

But anyway I took more than 1000 shots so I got some good ones (Success was not determined by correct focus only, but with distance and lighting too which are not camera's fault of course!)