Show your Bird Portraits

[AlanF]

I am trying out the 100-500mm with the RF 2x extender as a walk around with the R5. It has been a rainy overcast day, and pretty poor conditions for an f./14 lens. Here are a couple of shots of a female Reed Bunting at f/14, 1/1000s and equivalent of iso 3200. The bird was 12-16m away, and these are 100% crops, which haven't been reduced in size by the site, which appears to have stopped reducing the size to 2048px.

 

[Jack Douglas]

The RF 2x is a bit of luxury with the 100-500mm. It does squeeze out perhaps 20% more resolution than the 1.4x but it's not an extender I would leave on the lens while out on a walk whereas I would with the RF 1.4x, and I could live without it. The cost in the UK is outrageous - £719 = $1000, and the B&H price is only $600. Buying one from the USA and paying full import duties etc would cost $720. So, mine is the first lens I have bought on the grey market. An extender with no moving parts/IS/AF has less to go wrong than with a complex lens and is not much of a gamble to buy though I have had a lemon once. It cost £559 = $780 with full guarantee and 14 days return from a 5*-Trustpilot seller.
For me, it got rid of any GAS for the RF 800 f/11 as it's also a lens I would not carry with me for a day's hiking but I can slip extenders into my pocket as extras.

Alan have you tried CPW (Canon Price Watch)? They line you up with a reputable merchant in Canada and you then deal with that Company at a discount they never offer to the public. Almost all my major purchases have come that way but of course there is the issue of warranty for you.

Jack

 

[AlanF]

Alan have you tried CPW (Canon Price Watch)? They line you up with a reputable merchant in Canada and you then deal with that Company at a discount they never offer to the public. Almost all my major purchases have come that way but of course there is the issue of warranty for you.

Jack

We don't have CPW here. Canon clearly has higher base prices in Europe, which is why grey market dealers can import cheaply from abroad.

 

[IslanderMV]

New Oystercatcher pair arrives in my area. Photographed on a thin sandbar from kayak. I am surprised the shots came out. Had a bumpy ride.

 

[AlanF]

Nice shots, the first one particularly so.

 

[Click]

Nice pictures, Islander.

 

[jprusa]

New Oystercatcher pair arrives in my area. Photographed on a thin sandbar from kayak. I am surprised the shots came out. Had a bumpy ride.

Nice shots , looks like band number 110

View attachment 197639View attachment 197640

 

[Jack Douglas]

We don't have CPW here. Canon clearly has higher base prices in Europe, which is why grey market dealers can import cheaply from abroad.

CPW functions from within Canada but Americans use it for purchases and I assume anyone could use their service, although shipping could be an issue and warranty is probably restricted to US and Canada.

Jack

 

[AlanF]

Some action this morning captured with the R5 @ 1000mm f/14. There was a set to on a Tern raft, and the two contestants then took to the air. It was more Birds in Fight than Birds in Flight.

 

[dcm]

Backyard visitors. R6, RF800. DxO PL4, crop, camera rendering, default sharpness, deep prime.

The doves have returned to hatch a second brood in the same nest. Read they can have five broods in one season. Getting more details with the RF800 than I noticed in the past - mottled beak and eyelids. And the house reflection in the eyeball (zoom in).



And a robin searching for lunch in the ground cover mulch.

 

[Click]

Alan and dcm,

Very nice pictures, guys.

 

[ERHP]

I sat down beneath a smaller pine tree to catch some shots of several species gathering nesting materials and also forage for the some of the growing number of insects. A Purple Finch had hopped up to my boots while White Breasted Nuthatches foraged on the pine boughs a foot from my head when a female Western Bluebird hopped up on a rock looking for a snack. Understated coloring but the detail in the feathers was pretty amazing.

R5 600 II w/1.4X 1/1000 : f/8 : ISO 1000

 

[Click]

Beautiful shot, ERHP.

 

[tron]

I decided to try the R5+EF500mm f/4L IS II + 2XIII combination. I liked the result more than the R5 + EF400mm f/4 DO II + 2XIII combination.
Of course up to now the conditions were different so no exact apples to apples comparison.

Never the less here is the result cropped at 100%.
R5, 1000mm (500mmII+2XIII), 1/2500, f/8 ISO 800. Some PP at camera raw (mainly Sharpening 40% at radius 1, Detail 25,Masking 55, Noise Reduction 8 , Color Noise reduction 25) . No Dxo PL4 noise reduction. I used silent shutter at 20fps.

Unfortunately I didn't think to repeat the test with my 5DsR too but I have used that combination already and I like it.
(The shooting conditions weren't ideal in the sense that I did not have space to use properly my tripod so I would have to take the combo inside, change camera and go again outside).

 

[jmeyer]

One of my favorite shorebirds in spring is the Ruddy Turnstone. Today one showed up at a local beach. 7D mkll / EF600 f4 ll / 1.4x lll

Jeremy

 

[Jack Douglas]

I finally have something worth posting. They haven't been around and I was out by the pond and heard tap, tap, tap.

Jack

 

[Click]

Beautiful series, Jeremy. I especially like the 2nd picture.

 

[Click]

Nice one, Jack.

 

[Click]

A Green Heron in the morning light

 

[AlanF]

A Green Heron in the morning light
View attachment 197664

Nice shot Click. I like the colours.