p.10 #2 · Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Image Thread
this was a 4 day heli ski trip in mid march. this was literally the first time i had ever used this lens. i have never heli skied with my camera before, but after 3 years of bringing my gopro and never even opening the files i decided to try photographing the trip. it was a mix of juggling skiing, the fast paced loading/unloading of the helicopter with all the ski gear/avalanche gear/photo gear, and then obviously the photography part! i devised a magnetic lid fanny pack to carry my camera so that it wouldn't interfere with my backpack full of avalanche gear (you can see me wearing it in the photo of the blue skier).
i found the focal range excellent for the task at hand. i rarely wished for wider and 50mm is so much more useful than 100mm on the tight end. previously i used a 100-400gm and the original 70-200 f4 g for resort skiing, and the 50-400 was noticeably more versatile. the sharpness was... good enough. the raw files always looked good after editing but they never wowed me straight out of camera. the focus was also good "enough." i probably had a 80-90% hit rate if the focus mode and area were set up properly by me. i only shoot at like 10 fps because i hate culling action bursts and a dropped shot here and there just makes my job easier. the weather sealing was great as this spent several days completely covered in snow and had no issues. overall i was pretty pleased with this lens' debut
p.10 #9 · Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Image Thread
Hi all,
I own and use this lens with my A7V and I love it. It packs a punch especially considering it relatively small size, weight and price. I have a question that I hope the experts here can help with. Some of you manage to fill the frame with wildlife. How do you do it at a distance? Some have to be at a distance like lions or mid-water birds. Unless I am within 20-30 ft of a bird or animal, it just doesn't reach far enough for me. Is there a technique I am not aware of, either a shooting one, or post processing?
I am attaching a maxed out sample from my own backyard. I "think" this little guy snagged a spider, but it's not clear enough to see.
p.10 #10 · Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Image Thread
Malka_1 wrote:
Hi all,
I own and use this lens with my A7V and I love it. It packs a punch especially considering it relatively small size, weight and price. I have a question that I hope the experts here can help with. Some of you manage to fill the frame with wildlife. How do you do it at a distance? Some have to be at a distance like lions or mid-water birds. Unless I am within 20-30 ft of a bird or animal, it just doesn't reach far enough for me. Is there a technique I am not aware of, either a shooting one, or post processing?
I am attaching a maxed out sample from my own backyard. I "think" this little guy snagged a spider, but it's not clear enough to see.
It’s common for most of us to not always be able to get as close as we would like for frame-filling shots of birds and animals, so it’s routine to crop the original in post-processing to provide a more desirable result. This is especially useful with the 61mp sensors in several of the Sony cameras, providing lots of pixels to crop in deeply when needed. Here’s an example from a recent shoot with the Tamron 50-400 at 400mm, first the cropped shot and then the overall original scene (this was processed in Lightroom):
p.10 #11 · Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Image Thread
Malka_1 wrote:
Hi all,
I own and use this lens with my A7V and I love it. It packs a punch especially considering it relatively small size, weight and price. I have a question that I hope the experts here can help with. Some of you manage to fill the frame with wildlife. How do you do it at a distance? Some have to be at a distance like lions or mid-water birds. Unless I am within 20-30 ft of a bird or animal, it just doesn't reach far enough for me. Is there a technique I am not aware of, either a shooting one, or post processing?
I am attaching a maxed out sample from my own backyard. I "think" this little guy snagged a spider, but it's not clear enough to see.
Those little birds are damn small! Extremely small, quick moving subjects. You're asking a lot of 400mm, but don't be dismayed that you're not getting the shots you want. I bet if you put out some food on the ground or a table, and sat in a chair near by for an hour, you could get some great shots. Let them get used to you. I have a Sony 400-800 and find that 800mm isn't long enough at times with my A1 with these little birds.
Here is a bird example from the A1/400-800 combo that pushes the the combo to it's limit for posting on social media. Beyond a cell phone screen it starts to fall apart and look like a cartoon. I spent a few hours over 2 days letting them get accustomed to me being nearby. Post processioning with LR denoise/sharpening.
p.10 #12 · Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Image Thread
Ross Martin wrote:
Hi Malka,
It’s common for most of us to not always be able to get as close as we would like for frame-filling shots of birds and animals, so it’s routine to crop the original in post-processing to provide a more desirable result. This is especially useful with the 61mp sensors in several of the Sony cameras, providing lots of pixels to crop in deeply when needed. Here’s an example from a recent shoot with the Tamron 50-400 at 400mm, first the cropped shot and then the overall original scene (this was processed in Lightroom):
Thank you Ross, what a lovely image of a lioness and a perfect illustration to my question. I do crop, and de-noise in Lightroom. The sample picture I sent is cropped to the maximum, barely usable as is. With A7V my pixels start at 33MP. I have the new A7R IV on my wish list (one long day off), but even that would only give me, in my estimation, only about 50% more linear.
p.10 #13 · Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Image Thread
BigBabyMoses06 wrote:
Those little birds are damn small! Extremely small, quick moving subjects. You're asking a lot of 400mm, but don't be dismayed that you're not getting the shots you want. I bet if you put out some food on the ground or a table, and sat in a chair near by for an hour, you could get some great shots. Let them get used to you. I have a Sony 400-800 and find that 800mm isn't long enough at times with my A1 with these little birds.
Here is a bird example from the A1/400-800 combo that pushes the the combo to it's limit for posting on social media. Beyond a cell phone screen it starts to fall apart and look like a cartoon. I spent a few hours over 2 days letting them get accustomed to me being nearby. Post processioning with LR denoise/sharpening.
Pretty bird gets the worm! Or was it early bird? Or the bird with the longest lens?
Anyway, this makes me feel better. If you're running of reach with your rig, I can be touting Hubble telescope and still not have enough. So I am not missing any mysterious tricks - learn to make the most of my reach, and good stealth skills wouldn't be amiss either. Alas, more pixels are out of budget for now.
p.10 #14 · Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Image Thread
Malka_1 wrote:
Thank you Ross, what a lovely image of a lioness and a perfect illustration to my question. I do crop, and de-noise in Lightroom. The sample picture I sent is cropped to the maximum, barely usable as is. With A7V my pixels start at 33MP. I have the new A7R IV on my wish list (one long day off), but even that would only give me, in my estimation, only about 50% more linear.
Ok, I hear you. Longer lens or more pixels can help for sure. What about using Adobe’s Super Resolution first on your original file, then crop that down? This might provide a little more cropping ability.
Edit: I just tried Super Resolution on my file, then cropped tighter. I’m impressed with what this can do. And I forgot this original is 45mp (Nikon), not the 61mp Sony.
p.10 #15 · Tamron 50-400mm f/4.5-6.3 Di III VC VXD Image Thread
Ross Martin wrote:
Ok, I hear you. Longer lens or more pixels can help for sure. What about using Adobe’s Super Resolution first on your original file, then crop that down? This might provide a little more cropping ability.
Edit: I just tried Super Resolution on my file, then cropped tighter. I’m impressed with what this can do. And I forgot this original is 45mp (Nikon), not the 61mp Sony.
That may explain some of the images I've seen that made no sense for the equipment used (NOT Hubble). Thanks for the tip about Super Resolution. I looked into it a bit, but found it strays further into GenAI realm than I am comfortable with at the moment.
