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Jul 28, 2015
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Waterfowl are still moving through my area and more are arriving each day. The past couple days were two of my favorites. Wood Duck and Ring-necked Duck. It's usually dark and gloomy by me in early spring, and it has been exactly that lately. 7D mkll / EF600 F4 ll / 1.4xlll

Jeremy

It's the low angle that lifts these images from record shots to excellent. Well done!
 
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becceric

Making clumsy photographic mistakes since 1980
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:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:

Man, you've made my day... birds... Social Distancing... right now... I'm lying underneath my desk... cyring for joy... *gasp*
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Thanks. After 20 minutes, the female flew into a tree cavity. A few minutes later, she reappeared with another male. All three hung around for a while. Unfortunately, I could not get a clean shot of them together.
A couple years ago in the same area, I watched two males and a female lingering together during nesting season. I would not have expected a trio.
 
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Maximilian

The dark side - I've been there
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I am still practicing on small birds. Here is a nuthatch shot through the window from my home office workplace.
Still thinking about why my AF is not spot on, exposure data is:
5D3, 100-400L2 with 1.4xTC3 @560mm, f/8, 1/1600, ISO 1000, croping to 1/3 of original size.

Nuthatch.JPG
 
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AaronT

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Jan 5, 2013
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I am still practicing on small birds. Here is a nuthatch shot through the window from my home office workplace.
Still thinking about why my AF is not spot on, exposure data is:
5D3, 100-400L2 with 1.4xTC3 @560mm, f/8, 1/1600, ISO 1000, croping to 1/3 of original size.

View attachment 189510
Your camera+lens+TC might need an AF Micro-adjustment (AFMA). At say, 12 feet, 560mm at F8 your depth of field is about 3/4 inch. Not much room for error. Also, when using the 100-400+1.4 TC it might help to stop down a bit if you have enough light. It has been said that the 100-400+1.4TC combo is sharper when stopped down a bit. With mine I usually use F9.5 as a minimum. You were shooting at 1/1600 so you had room to trade some speed for aperture. The big whites are different, they are sharp wide open. But they are primes and cost 5 times as much. Just my opinion. The shot below was ISO800, F9.5 with 5DsR, 100-400L MKI, 1.4TC MKII at 560mm. About a 1/3 crop. I used center point, single shot AF. BTW, I got the same results when shooting with my 5D MKII.

BlueJay7331PhzWeb.jpg
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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Aug 16, 2012
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I am still practicing on small birds. Here is a nuthatch shot through the window from my home office workplace.
Still thinking about why my AF is not spot on, exposure data is:
5D3, 100-400L2 with 1.4xTC3 @560mm, f/8, 1/1600, ISO 1000, croping to 1/3 of original size.

View attachment 189510
I never get sharp shots through windows.
DSC_1507-DxO_nuthatch_close_crop_cv.jpg
 
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Maximilian

The dark side - I've been there
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Your camera+lens+TC might need an AF Micro-adjustment (AFMA). At say, 12 feet, 560mm at F8 your depth of field is about 3/4 inch. Not much room for error. Also, when using the 100-400+1.4 TC it might help to stop down a bit if you have enough light. It has been said that the 100-400+1.4TC combo is sharper when stopped down a bit. With mine I usually use F9.5 as a minimum. You were shooting at 1/1600 so you had room to trade some speed for aperture. The big whites are different, they are sharp wide open. But they are primes and cost 5 times as much. Just my opinion. The shot below was ISO800, F9.5 with 5DsR, 100-400L MKI, 1.4TC MKII at 560mm. About a 1/3 crop. I used center point, single shot AF. BTW, I got the same results when shooting with my 5D MKII.
Thanks for all that good advice, AaronT.
 
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Maximilian

The dark side - I've been there
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I never get sharp shots through windows.
I think, this starling (though almost twice the size of a nuthatch) looks much sharper, though shot from the same position, with worse light.
So to me it is not so much about windows and not so much about AFMA but more about my technique or a steady hand. But I'll keep both in mind and try.
Here I loose sharpness also because of ISO 3200 and noise surpression.

Starling.JPG
 
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AlanF

Desperately seeking birds
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Aug 16, 2012
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I think, this starling (though almost twice the size of a nuthatch) looks much sharper, though shot from the same position, with worse light.
So to me it is not so much about windows and not so much about AFMA but more about my technique or a steady hand. But I'll keep both in mind and try.
Here I loose sharpness also because of ISO 3200 and noise surpression.

View attachment 189513
One of us has the motto of Through a glass darkly, I recall
 
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Maximilian

The dark side - I've been there
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One of us has the motto of Through a glass darkly, I recall
Not easy to understand for a non-native speaker, but as I said, "I'll keep both in mind and try". Thank you, again.

But I already did my tests and I see not much difference with window open or closed, shooting at a - non moving - bud.
If interested I can show you examples.
But of course I am also aware that my window glass is not coated as optical glass is and so I try to avoid any kind of reflections and get as close as possible to the window glass.
If I manage to get the "sharp" shot through the window, I'll let you know - fully aware that I might be mistaking...
 
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AaronT

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Jan 5, 2013
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Not easy to understand for a non-native speaker, but as I said, "I'll keep both in mind and try". Thank you, again.

But I already did my tests and I see not much difference with window open or closed, shooting at a - non moving - bud.
If interested I can show you examples.
But of course I am also aware that my window glass is not coated as optical glass is and so I try to avoid any kind of reflections and get as close as possible to the window glass.
If I manage to get the "sharp" shot through the window, I'll let you know - fully aware that I might be mistaking...
That photo of the Blue Jay was taken through 2 panes of glass. :)
 
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Jul 28, 2015
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I am still practicing on small birds. Here is a nuthatch shot through the window from my home office workplace.
Still thinking about why my AF is not spot on, exposure data is:
5D3, 100-400L2 with 1.4xTC3 @560mm, f/8, 1/1600, ISO 1000, croping to 1/3 of original size.

Th reflection in the eye looks really sharp - so it seems to be either a front focus issue or a DOF issue.
 
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Maximilian

The dark side - I've been there
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Th reflection in the eye looks really sharp - so it seems to be either a front focus issue or a DOF issue.
Thanks Mike!
At full resulution (RAW, can share if you like) the reflection looks close to sharp, but not really.
I did set the center AF point on the breast of the nuthatch. Normally I go for the eye or at least the head. Can't remember the scene, but maybe I was too exited or in a hurry. When you look at the branches to me it looks like motion blur (@ 1/1600 !!!), either my hands, some wind or the IS. Not sure whether I'm wrong or where it comes from. Still guessing...
 
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