Maxxus46 wrote:
These are rediculously good captures of swallows. Wow
Thanks. I'm always on the lookout for new spots to shoot swallows as location is everything. You need to find them in great enough numbers to have lots of chances and ideally in a concentrated area. I was on my kayak and sun had just started hitting this small patch of reeds/grass on shoreline. I noticed them staying over this very small area (maybe 25ft by 25ft). Probably about 20 going around and off to feed fledglings in nearby trees. Tried from kayak but was a little too low. So hopped out on shore and fired away for 1/2hr or so.
It is a lot of hit and miss. It is interesting to hear what is usually a dead silent AF motor in the 600GM start to make noise as they approach at rapid speed. It does a pretty good job. Unthinkable with any previous Canon DSLRs I owned. Somewhat achievable with the more recent Nikon DSLRs. But nothing really compares to these Sony A9/A1 cameras. I'm certain the A1 is outperforming what the A9II could do but it is still hard to quantify. I wish I'd had the swallows around with the R5 as I'd like to see how it does on this type of situation. I'm thinking about getting a Canon test drive loaner through my CPS membership in a couple weeks of R5 and a big supertele (400/600 RF or EF) just to test on these swallows.
Such a test/comparison to the R5 shooting swallows would be interesting indeed
arbitrage wrote:
Thanks. I'm always on the lookout for new spots to shoot swallows as location is everything. You need to find them in great enough numbers to have lots of chances and ideally in a concentrated area. I was on my kayak and sun had just started hitting this small patch of reeds/grass on shoreline. I noticed them staying over this very small area (maybe 25ft by 25ft). Probably about 20 going around and off to feed fledglings in nearby trees. Tried from kayak but was a little too low. So hopped out on shore and fired away for 1/2hr or so.
It is a lot of hit and miss. It is interesting to hear what is usually a dead silent AF motor in the 600GM start to make noise as they approach at rapid speed. It does a pretty good job. Unthinkable with any previous Canon DSLRs I owned. Somewhat achievable with the more recent Nikon DSLRs. But nothing really compares to these Sony A9/A1 cameras. I'm certain the A1 is outperforming what the A9II could do but it is still hard to quantify. I wish I'd had the swallows around with the R5 as I'd like to see how it does on this type of situation. I'm thinking about getting a Canon test drive loaner through my CPS membership in a couple weeks of R5 and a big supertele (400/600 RF or EF) just to test on these swallows....Show more →
Many including myself would be very interested in reading results from that test . Doesn't matter to me which is better but still very interested to see how they compare especially from somebody like you thats experienced with both of those sytems .
I must admit so far I'm finding the A1 shots I'm seeing to be a little sharper in focus on the heads although the R5 look great too , just personal opinion . I'm also finding shots of the A1 more detailed in the whites, R5's look a little blown out more . This isn't just from here but friends that also own the R5 seem a little hot in the highlights
arbitrage wrote:
Thanks. I'm always on the lookout for new spots to shoot swallows as location is everything. You need to find them in great enough numbers to have lots of chances and ideally in a concentrated area. I was on my kayak and sun had just started hitting this small patch of reeds/grass on shoreline. I noticed them staying over this very small area (maybe 25ft by 25ft). Probably about 20 going around and off to feed fledglings in nearby trees. Tried from kayak but was a little too low. So hopped out on shore and fired away for 1/2hr or so.
It is a lot of hit and miss. It is interesting to hear what is usually a dead silent AF motor in the 600GM start to make noise as they approach at rapid speed. It does a pretty good job. Unthinkable with any previous Canon DSLRs I owned. Somewhat achievable with the more recent Nikon DSLRs. But nothing really compares to these Sony A9/A1 cameras. I'm certain the A1 is outperforming what the A9II could do but it is still hard to quantify. I wish I'd had the swallows around with the R5 as I'd like to see how it does on this type of situation. I'm thinking about getting a Canon test drive loaner through my CPS membership in a couple weeks of R5 and a big supertele (400/600 RF or EF) just to test on these swallows....Show more →
A few shots from this morning's dog walk. This is the first time ever for me to find an owl in the wild without someone pointing at one to me. Actually I startled him/her on the ground and he/she flew up to the tree, otherwise I couldn't have spotted him/her.
A couple of walk around shots. The area I wanted to go to was fogged out, but with the pelicans I used a lens I would never think of using for that situation.
I put in 20mins of effort looking for that Wood Sandpiper. When a congregation of birders hadn't spotted it that morning I didn't waste too much time. Would be cool to see but it is in a terrible location for photography and is plain, boring bird.
The long-tailed grackle is another boring, grey female so I didn't even go look for it even though that is where I was kayaking.
DxO is promising to have PureRAW updated to support the A1 this month. It will be nice to be able to clean up the noise created by LightRoom's conversions.
DxO is promising to have PureRAW updated to support the A1 this month. It will be nice to be able to clean up the noise created by LightRoom's conversions.
Hopefully they will let me have another free trial as I mistakenly started one before realizing the A1 wasn't supported. I've been reading some good things about the ON1 NoNoise also. May give that one a trial also. Topaz has changed their algorithms too much now and I'm not as happy with it anymore.
MedicineMan404 wrote:
Wonderful Douglas! I love owls more than any other bierd species. Just fantastic you found one! Awesome captures too.
Thank you Robert! Here is my first shot of the swallow with the A1, BIGGG cropping, the JPEG file is only 4 MP. I have always had a tough time putting a swallow in the frame, let alone tracking it in frame.
arbitrage wrote:
Hopefully they will let me have another free trial as I mistakenly started one before realizing the A1 wasn't supported. I've been reading some good things about the ON1 NoNoise also. May give that one a trial also. Topaz has changed their algorithms too much now and I'm not as happy with it anymore.
Snowy.
Sony ILCE-1
FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
ƒ/6.3 541.0 mm 1/3200 500
Chasing off a rival.
Sony ILCE-1
FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
ƒ/6.3 600.0 mm 1/3200 1000
Not the best photo, but never seen a great egret grab another bird. Seen them grab plenty of lizards and voles. Suddenly there was a commotion and it had a black phoebe or swallow. It flew off with the snack.
Sony ILCE-1
FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
ƒ/6.3 448.0 mm 1/3200 800
