p.6 #1 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
I've sold off all of my inexpensive lenses that would have much of a use for wildlife, except for my 85/1.8. So, I may have to imitate Photonadave after a fashion. I do have a D60 which might have a lower market value than the 40D (after all, it preceded the 10D, 20D, and 30D). Would I be allowed to use a pair of cheap magnifying glasses and a cardboard tube? It's not going to happen until Monday; I hope that's not too late for the contest deadline.
p.6 #2 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
Go ahead, Jess, that would be within the contest rules. Looking forward to your experiment outcome.
We may be able to close the contest on Monday night, I am not sure .....
p.6 #4 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
You can’t go much cheaper than a Rebel XT (less than $100) and you can’t go much cheaper than a 50f/1.8 (new for $105). You could give me a little extra credit for subject in this un-cropped image of a live free-roaming wild black bear eating a salmon. You can do the math and calculate my distance to the subject. Please don’t try this at home; spend a few dollars and get at least 100mm.
This was a refreshing thread in a world where everyone acts like they always need the best. I had to go back to 2007 for this image, but I still shoot wildlife with that cheap 50. Of course I get far better results with a 5D3 behind it.
p.6 #5 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
Ed Swift wrote:
This is from a couple of years ago:
Canon 1000d & 50mm F1.8 mkII I can't see a body on KEH so I'll go with about $220 if that's ok (Slightly less than Petkal's 40d) and $105 for the lens = $305
Great shot! How did you get a picture of a wild kestrel with a 50mm lens? Were you baiting it or just lucky?
p.6 #6 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
PetKal wrote:
Let us see who can shoot wildlife with the cheapest gears, i.e., camera + lens.
The cheaper, the better. The winning photo entries will be those taken by the very cheapest kit of the cheap.
A few contest rules:
(1) The gears must include a Canon dSLR. The lens could be by a 3rd party.
(2) Pictures of house pets, domestic animals, or zoo animals are not allowed in the contest.
(3) Shots of roadkill or otherwise expired/taxidermied animals are not allowed.
(4) No iPhones.......they are not considered Canon dSLRs.
(5) When adding the total price of your gears, use the following guideline: for gears currently in production please apply the new retail price by Adorama or equivalent. For gears out of production, you may wish to use the KEH used gear sale website, for the particular condition of your equipment....Show more →
Photonadave wrote:
"I don't need no STINKING lens!
2nd submission taken about an hour ago.
I know, I know, its a little fuzzy due to DPP not having a DLO profile available for pinhole adapted EOS 40D cameras! What is Canon thinking! I need to complain to Chuck Westfall about this heinous lack of support!
Trust me, this is a fly."
PetKal wrote:
Dave, that is superb. Indeed, the rules do not stipulate that a lens is mandatory. What might hold your submission back in the final analysis, is a relative lack of subject detail. But hey, art has no sharpness prerequisites.
Thanks Peter! You're way too kind!
In reference to your original rules I must protest and move that my submission of the 40D equipped with a pinhole opening be disqualified on the following grounds:
1. A pinhole does not constitute a lens by definition, see Here. Your original rules do say "camera + lens".
2. The sprit of the completion is demonstrated by the many amazing photos including yours submitted as examples of the quality of imaging from the "cheapest kit of the cheap" taken by the aforementioned "camera + lens".
It is therefore implied that the useable level of image quality and types of images a reasonable person could expect to attain is derived from readily available equipment purchased from the usual common sources.
With that in mind a reasonable person would conclude, aside from any ill perceived artistic merit , that my submission of a portrait of a fly sitting on a leaf under natural daylight taken with a Canon 40D adapted with a pinhole opening does not look like a fly sitting on a leaf in natural daylight.
3. Last and most importantly, I was being a smart a@@!
Please continue to consider my earlier submission "biplane Dragonfly" in this competition.
Thanks, Dave
Edit: My pinhole adaptation adventure reminded me how far photography has come since the Camera Obscura days! See here
Canon EOS 40D + EF 300mm f/4L IS USM settings: 1/40, f/5.6, ISO 250, using a tripod
This young pair was not flying yet and were from the first of 3 broods of 2 chicks each from the same nest that summer. After each pair left the nest a new pair of eggs would appear in less than a week! Needless to say I estimate that I took over 1k pictures of the 3 broods & their parents. This is my favorite shot.
p.6 #8 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
Dave, that is one super dove shot.........it shows again that proximity beats lens FL easily.
Now, let me provide you with an official interpretation of that contest rule : when a lens was addressed by the rule, the intent was not to mandate any lens type, or even that one must have a lens at all. The logical intent was that a lens was a kind of a hardware necessity in order for the camera to acquire images, and its choice was left to each contestant, be that a Canon lens or a third party lens. Therefore, the rule's intent is not lens-restrictive, quite the opposite, it is lens permissive in an open-ended manner, including, in the extreme case, no lens at all if the camera could be made to work in such manner.
p.6 #10 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
TAKe4 wrote:
You can’t go much cheaper than a Rebel XT (less than $100) and you can’t go much cheaper than a 50f/1.8 (new for $105).
Wow, $205.....that's gonna be hard to beat. However, your probable proximity to that bear reminds me of a Russian special forces initiation ritual consisting of a wrestling match with a wild adult brown bear. The aspiring cadet must also be buck naked and unarmed
(Unless you had the camera actuated remotely ?)
p.6 #11 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
PetKal wrote:
The aspiring cadet must also be buck naked and unarmed
(Unless you had the camera actuated remotely ?)
I was unarmed on that particular trip. No comment on the other half of the initiation.
This was a handheld shot. I was on a boardwalk and I think the little black bear was using the passing tourists to keep the brown bears from stealing its lunch so it was actually happy to have me standing there trying to get a picture on a gloomy rainy day.
p.6 #12 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
Two more shots with the combo 1DMkIIN ($575 per KEH) + 100 f/2.8 USM Macro ($500 per KEH)=$1,075.
(When only one shot of a kind is posted, then various experts may say "a lucky shot". Now when you can show three similar shots, then it's a bit harder to qualify them all as "lucky".)
p.6 #13 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
PetKal wrote:
Two more shots with the combo 1DMkIIN ($575 per KEH) + 100 f/2.8 USM Macro ($500 per KEH)=$1,075.
(When only one shot of a kind is posted, then various experts may say "a lucky shot". Now when you can show three similar shots, then it's a bit harder to qualify them all as "lucky".)
I bought a 1DIIN in E+ condition a few weeks ago for $320 CA.
So, you could say, " 1DMkIIN ($320 CA, per Kijiji)". That's about five bucks US.
p.6 #15 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
mttran wrote:
I like the 1D2(s) series, their images always pleasing my eyes. Great shots, Peter.
Thanx Michael, I do not have any 1DMkIINs left, however, I do have one 1DsMkII which is very dear to me, and I use it sparingly only when it's appropriate to do so, given the camera's strengths and weaknesses. The camera has less than 20,000 shutter actuations now, and I hope to keep it till the bitter day.
Under favourable light conditions, 1DsMkII image quality matches that of 1DX, and the files are even a bit more pleasing to my eye, perhaps because of some colour tint differences, or it may even be that 1DsMkII files take my sharpening methods somewhat better than 1DX.
p.6 #16 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
I am thinking we should be closing the contest and announce the winner etc. tonight. Therefore, if you have been planning to enter your photos, you've got yet several hours to do it.
p.6 #17 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
Peter, I've no more to add, a hard drive is being elusive and my pool pijuns are within, thus my entry into this 'contest' is finished. This was a great idea, the images are amazing and inspiring, it's good to see what lesser gearz in a 'photographers' hands can create
p.6 #18 · FM Canon Contest: Wildlife photography on a shoestring budget
J-man wrote:
Great shot! How did you get a picture of a wild kestrel with a 50mm lens? Were you baiting it or just lucky?
Jay
Hi Jay,
Thanks very much.
I was just lucky. it's a heavy crop, but we were walking along a cliff edge where it was hovering looking at something on the slope. This was as it went in for the catch!
This is a BTS shot my girlfriend took. (Red box is the bird)
, that my submission of a portrait of a fly sitting on a leaf under natural daylight taken with a Canon 40D adapted with a pinhole opening does not look like a fly sitting on a leaf in natural daylight.
