Ok it doesn't get worst than this My combo sucks LoooL 350d + 70-300mm IS + 1.4 Kenko TC..sooo no AF and on top of that harsh light on blackbirds...difficult to use the camera's metering...tried all 3 of them w some nasty nasty results Either severe underexposure or blown highlights festival !! So went manual exposure ignoring even when the needle was blinking at -2! Turned out it was better and got a few keepers. All shots at 300mm x 1.4 x 1.6 (crop factor). Efective F9 manual exposure..manual focus. I had a hell of a time at the park though...really enjoyed all 3 hours! can't wait to go back.Hope you like them:
1. Italian Sparrow (Passer italiae) very slightly cropped

great way to get a workout......I go all manual sometimes just for the challenge and the occasional BIF necessity. All the exposure look really good here, maybe a bit sharp and saturated.

Enjoy seeing your Italy birds Nello

Thx for the feedback Dave...I guess my laptop's Lcd isn't top-notch...they don't look saturated to me...go figure
Forgot to mention..all shots are ISO 400.
Dave In La wrote:
great way to get a workout......I go all manual sometimes just for the challenge and the occasional BIF necessity. All the exposure look really good here, maybe a bit sharp and saturated.

Enjoy seeing your Italy birds Nello

Hmmm no feedback..guess I suck too not just my combo LoooL

These turned out pretty good Nello! I especially like the balcbird despite the blow highlights.

I usually shoot in Manual for birds, and only use AV mode if the light is continually changing. Meters are too easily fooled, and if the light isn't changing, there is no need to for any automatic mode. This means on clear or fully overcast days I'm usually on AV until the sunrise is complete, and then on manual. Likewise in the evening, I will switch over to manual as the light starts to dim at sunset. Often I just stay in manual, and keep re-adjusting my settings.

= Ed =

I'm throwin' in another sample...maybe someone's still deciding on getting the Kenko 1.4 TC for their 70-300 IS USM so this thread could help. And YES I do like blackbirds a lot
Same settings as the 1's before..

super color/sat/detail in this one Nello...in my opinion

That last one is quite impressive Nello, in terms of color, detail and clarity. Nicely done.

nice work with the manual settings and focus. #3 gets my vote for the series.

- hung

All nice shots... good job with the focus, especially.

I recently found out the same thing... that I got more "keepers" in manual mode.

With a 400mm & 1.7TC, I set a shutter speed of 1/1000, aperature of wide-open (6.7), and then turn on Auto-ISO to let the camera adjust the ISO up if there is still insufficient light. This results in noiser pictures of course, but at least they are sharp and noisy instead of blury and clean as I'm used to getting on Aperature priority alone.

I don't go near manual focus though.

Well done, Nello. You are making that combo shining.
Socrate