Show your Bird Portraits

It's always exciting for us to see the first Cuckoo of the year - they are very elusive and they are easily heard but not seen. Ours was yesterday. I am posting the not at all exciting images of a very far away bird to show that the R7 + RF 100-400mm used by wife (the first shot) gives results hardly distinguishable from that of my much more expensive and heavier R5ii + RF 100-500mm (both very heavily cropped and not reduced in size). At that distance and image size, you are looking at pixel-peeping resolution.


3R3A8788-DxO_Cuckoo.jpg6L8A0308-DxO_Cuckoo.jpg
 
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It's always exciting for us to see the first Cuckoo of the year - they are very elusive and they are easily heard but not seen. Ours was yesterday. I am posting the not at all exciting images of a very far away bird to show that the R7 + RF 100-400mm used by wife (the first shot) gives results hardly distinguishable from that of my much more expensive and heavier R5ii + RF 100-500mm (both very heavily cropped and not reduced in size). At that distance and image size, you are looking at pixel-peeping resolution.


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The 100-400 even holds up pretty well with the R7 and 1.4 extender. Some diffraction loss, but otherwise decent and sooooo light.
 
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It's always exciting for us to see the first Cuckoo of the year - they are very elusive and they are easily heard but not seen. Ours was yesterday. I am posting the not at all exciting images of a very far away bird to show that the R7 + RF 100-400mm used by wife (the first shot) gives results hardly distinguishable from that of my much more expensive and heavier R5ii + RF 100-500mm (both very heavily cropped and not reduced in size). At that distance and image size, you are looking at pixel-peeping resolution.


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These are very difficult to approach...
 
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It's always exciting for us to see the first Cuckoo of the year - they are very elusive and they are easily heard but not seen. Ours was yesterday. I am posting the not at all exciting images of a very far away bird to show that the R7 + RF 100-400mm used by wife (the first shot) gives results hardly distinguishable from that of my much more expensive and heavier R5ii + RF 100-500mm (both very heavily cropped and not reduced in size). At that distance and image size, you are looking at pixel-peeping resolution.


View attachment 229268View attachment 229269
Thanks for that direct, in-the-field, comparison! It's always great to have good data like this.
 
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A sereies of yellowhammers (Emberiza citrinella).
R6m2+100-500+2x@1000mm.
I blame the extender for the loss of detail. It's on its way to Canon Service now.
The photos in the tree were taken with 1/6400 and leaning against the roof of my car. No chance for blur because of shake.

kestrel_2026_02.JPGkestrel_2026_03.JPGkestrel_2026_04.JPGkestrel_2026_05.JPG
 
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