I spent a few hours in the afternoon until evening today at this site. Look at the face - what a fearsome raptor! This male caught 5 small mice in about 2 hours and brought them back to the female each time for her to feed the chicks. But the last one here, is about to get devoured. Screw the family
AGeoJO wrote:
I spent a few hours in the afternoon until evening today at this site. Look at the face - what a fearsome raptor! This male caught 5 small mice in about 2 hours and brought them back to the female each time for her to feed the chicks. But the last one here, is about to get devoured. Screw the family
Hey, this guy has got to eat too...otherwise no one will be around to feed the family. Great shot...he looks like he is ready to poke your eye out!!
arbitrage wrote:
Hey, this guy has got to eat too...otherwise no one will be around to feed the family. Great shot...he looks like he is ready to poke your eye out!!
Haha, very true!
On a different note, I took approximately 500 images yesterday using... only the A7r IV. Although the GM 600mm worked great prior to the 1.2 FW upgrade, but it seems that it does work even better using the new FW. Only a few were slightly out-of-focus. And I love the details of the files the A7r IV and of course, the cropping capability. Granted, these kites are not the fastest flyers but still, I am happy how the A7r IV could keep up with them. I will post some kite-in-flight images and a few mid-air food transfer actions later.
AGeoJO wrote:
And I love the details of the files the A7r IV and of course, the cropping capability. Granted, these kites are not the fastest flyers but still, I am happy how the A7r IV could keep up with them. I will post some kite-in-flight images and a few mid-air food transfer actions later.
I have no experience with the 600 GM unfortunately, but with the EF 600 F4 II mounted on the RIV i do. And i agree that it is a really great tool to recompose in post and still be able to have a nice file. Having used the R5 for a few weeks now, i think i am fine with keeping to shoot dual system. I will not part with the RIV for my cityscapes anyways It's a great tool.
therealthings wrote:
I have no experience with the 600 GM unfortunately, but with the EF 600 F4 II mounted on the RIV i do. And i agree that it is a really great tool to recompose in post and still be able to have a nice file. Having used the R5 for a few weeks now, i think i am fine with keeping to shoot dual system. I will not part with the RIV for my cityscapes anyways It's a great tool.
Marcus, if I had at least a single long Canon lens, the last one I sold was exactly like yours and I sold it for a bargain price, too, I would definitely look into getting the Canon R5 for fast action bird photography. For slower or stationary targets, that lens adapted on the Sony A7r IV was a stellar performer. I still have images taken with that lens of Mandarin ducks and the details are amazing.
The male white-tailed kite, above, just came back from a successful hunt. The female on hot pursuit was about to pick up the mouse/food to feed the chicks in a nearby nest. Everything went fine until this and all the sudden I just saw leaves. They went behind some tall trees... . Although the mid-air food transfer did take place, I could see it behind some leaves in the subsequent frames, but it was pretty much hidden. Fortunately, the male kite was eager that day and he went out hunting again 3 times and one of the mid-air food transfers took place out in the open and at a fairly good distance from me. Phew!
The results of my previous outing at the site, while testing out the 200-600mm lens on the A7r IV, made me feel confident that the A7r IV would be fast enough to follow the action. Kites are fast but not as fast as falcons. So, to get more details and for better cropping capabilities, I used the A7r IV and I am pleased with the results.
On the 3rd afternoon/evening at the WTK's site, I decided to try my seldom used 2X TC on the 600mm lens. Time to get greedy... but of course, that's when the kites' position during the food transfer got close. To be honest, I chopped off their wings a few times... The resulting images are decent but I quickly changed the longer TC to my my 1.4X again. The position of the food transfer was further away, of course...
The result is not too shabby considering that I handheld the gear using the 2X for this image - it must be all the iron pumping and vitamin intake .
. Great shot...he looks like he is ready to poke your eye out!!
. Although the mid-air food transfer did take place, I could see it behind some leaves in the subsequent frames, but it was pretty much hidden. Fortunately, the male kite was eager that day and he went out hunting again 3 times and one of the mid-air food transfers took place out in the open and at a fairly good distance from me. Phew! 
