Show your Bird Portraits

[Durf]

Tell you model to clean off the suit before you'll shoot!

Jack

I tried, the little critter wouldn't listen to me....

 

[Joe Subolefsky]

Nice detail Durf.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi Jay.
Very nice shot of the owl.
I’m just wondering what happened with the guy in the back row , remembered the tripod, gimbal, great white lens, damn no camera body , oh well I’ll just use the lens as a rest for my super zoom bridge camera!

Cheers, Graham.

Hawk owl on Sunday in a subdivision north of Toronto. 7D2 +EF 400mm f.5.6 - 1/1250@ f6.3 .... and the gang it attracted once word spread

 

[unfocused]

I seldom post in the galleries, but I was coming back from a walk today and this Cooper's Hawk was sitting on our fence. I only had a minute before he flew off. The main reason I wanted to post was because I was very pleased with the sharpness of the EOS R and Sigma Contemporary 150-600. I've had good luck with the Sigma, but I really think the combination (no AFMA needed) really helps.

 

[Click]

Nice shot, unfocused.

 

[ISv]

Here's another neat "portrait shot" I recently took. [7D2 with the 100-400L ii]View attachment 187828

I really like this one - not my stile of cropping but still very good! What was the distance to this guy?!

 

[ISv]

Hi Jay.
Very nice shot of the owl.
I’m just wondering what happened with the guy in the back row , remembered the tripod, gimbal, great white lens, damn no camera body , oh well I’ll just use the lens as a rest for my super zoom bridge camera!

Cheers, Graham.

!!! - I didn't notice that! Good eyes Graham!
After your post I was looking hard to figure out if that green at his lower pants doesn't belong to somebody else but it's hard to justify without zooming into the photo. Doesn't look like that. With such a lens and such a tripod he has to be in kind of trouble...

 

[ISv]

I seldom post in the galleries, but I was coming back from a walk today and this Cooper's Hawk was sitting on our fence. I only had a minute before he flew off. The main reason I wanted to post was because I was very pleased with the sharpness of the EOS R and Sigma Contemporary 150-600. I've had good luck with the Sigma, but I really think the combination (no AFMA needed) really helps.
View attachment 187841

You look pretty focused with this photo!

 

[Durf]

I really like this one - not my stile of cropping but still very good! What was the distance to this guy?!

I think I was about 6 or 7 feet from him....

 

[AlanF]

I seldom post in the galleries, but I was coming back from a walk today and this Cooper's Hawk was sitting on our fence. I only had a minute before he flew off. The main reason I wanted to post was because I was very pleased with the sharpness of the EOS R and Sigma Contemporary 150-600. I've had good luck with the Sigma, but I really think the combination (no AFMA needed) really helps.

Good copies of the Sigma 150-600mm C are very sharp on all bodies, DSLR and mirrorless. I've posted lots here with the lens, most recently on the 90D on which it works really well and is at least as sharp in the centre as my 400mm DO II + 1.4xTC and sharper than the 100-400mm II + 1.4xTC.

 

[unfocused]

Good copies of the Sigma 150-600mm C are very sharp on all bodies, DSLR and mirrorless. I've posted lots here with the lens, most recently on the 90D on which it works really well and is at least as sharp in the centre as my 400mm DO II + 1.4xTC and sharper than the 100-400mm II + 1.4xTC.

Yeah, I've got no complaints about the lens. It could be my imagination, but it does seem that when I get the focus right on the R, it really is sharp. But then, I guess I haven't done a lot of side-by-side comparisons with the lens on my DSLRs. At 600 mm there are so many things that can go wrong (at least for me) that when a shot is sharp I'm always pleasantly surprised.

 

[AlanF]

Yeah, I've got no complaints about the lens. It could be my imagination, but it does seem that when I get the focus right on the R, it really is sharp. But then, I guess I haven't done a lot of side-by-side comparisons with the lens on my DSLRs. At 600 mm there are so many things that can go wrong (at least for me) that when a shot is sharp I'm always pleasantly surprised.

Yep, it's a damn good lens. Its IS and speed of AF aren't as good as the 100-400mm II and it is heavier, and I've got far too many telephotos but I can't bring myself to sell the Siggy.

 

[Durf]

Yep, it's a damn good lens. Its IS and speed of AF aren't as good as the 100-400mm II and it is heavier, and I've got far too many telephotos but I can't bring myself to sell the Siggy.

The 150-600 copy of the Sigma C I have is EXTREMELY sharp on both full frame and crop, even at 600mm. I also have the 100-400L ii and most of the time it's very difficult to determine which lens is sharper. I'll never part with my Sigma beast (but the 100-400 is a bit easier to lug around)

 

[tron]

Alan I am sure you will have found the 90D 400DO II or 100-400 II combinations to be excellent. But how do they behave with a 1.4XIII. It seems you are satisfied with this too aren't you?

 

[AlanF]

Alan I am sure you will have found the 90D 400DO II or 100-400 II combinations to be excellent. But how do they behave with a 1.4XIII. It seems you are satisfied with this too aren't you?

I have made a policy decision not to use the TC with the 100-400mm II. There is a gain in resolution but it is accompanied by a loss of contrast, which can be helped in post-processing, and I prefer to use the bare lens at 400mm and f/5.6 rather than at 560mm and f/8, above the diffraction limited aperture. The 400mm DO II at 560mm and f/5.6 is good. In terms of bird photography and BIF, if you are not using the mirrorless aspects of the 90D, your 5DSR holds it own still and the 5DSR +100-400mm II + 1.4xTC produces as detailed images as the 90D + bare lens and is not inferior in AF.

 

[tron]

Many thanks Alan

 

[AlanF]

Many thanks Alan

Ps, as far as I am concerned, Canon's keeping the AA-filter has lowered its performance. Others will undoubtedly disagree.

 

[tron]

Ps, as far as I am concerned, Canon's keeping the AA-filter has lowered its performance. Others will undoubtedly disagree.

Which lessens the difference with the 5DsR. Still I had two cases with moire with my 5DsR. One with Glossy Ibises and another with bee eaters! But moire in birds can be confused - by people who don't know about it - for feathers!

 

[AlanF]

Which lessens the difference with the 5DsR. Still I had two cases with moire with my 5DsR. One with Glossy Ibises and another with bee eaters! But moire in birds can be confused - by people who don't know about it - for feathers!

The lack of Moire is the one consolation. In practice, the 5DSR has given Moire only a handful of times in 10s of thousands of shots with the 5DSR, and I have had Moire even with the 5DIV. The 5DSR files are very clean regarding noise. I have to go with very high Lum settings in DxO PL3 to get rid of the grain from 90D files, but it does so well without much impact on detail. PhotoNinja suppresses the noise well, but with some loss of detail. DxO PL has become compatible with the 90D only just recently so I hadn't noticed it earlier. I am having a play with the Nikon D500, which has a similar pixel density to the 5DSR, and the files look very clean at high iso. I'll report back after it stops raining and I cam take some bird shots

 

[Jack Douglas]

The lack of Moire is the one consolation. In practice, the 5DSR has given Moire only a handful of times in 10s of thousands of shots with the 5DSR, and I have had Moire even with the 5DIV. The 5DSR files are very clean regarding noise. I have to go with very high Lum settings in DxO PL3 to get rid of the grain from 90D files, but it does so well without much impact on detail. PhotoNinja suppresses the noise well, but with some loss of detail. DxO PL has become compatible with the 90D only just recently so I hadn't noticed it earlier. I am having a play with the Nikon D500, which has a similar pixel density to the 5DSR, and the files look very clean at high iso. I'll report back after it stops raining and I cam take some bird shots

And I thought I was a bit of a perfectionist. Clearly I fail the test. Oh well, I can still strive.

Jack