Kicking off this year's odds and sods with Starlings in a rainbow on that extreme rarity: sunshine.
It was early morning, with the sun barely cresting the tree line. We were able to get out for our morning walk as it wasn't raining. This photo is my trusty Canon 80D and Sigma 18-300mm lens zoomed in at 300mm.
Pulling back a bit.
And finally all the way back.
Oh, 2024 got off to a good start with this.
So far my cat, perhaps two neighbouring cats visiting our garden, a local fox and Tawny owl, and this trap have accounted for at least five of the beasties. Sightings of rats in our garden are getting rarer, so I think I'm winning. Two rather timid and wary rats, that I know of, are proving more elusive to catch. I've resorted to buying a lethal trap. The trap was triggered, yesterday, but no rat, sadly. Though a mouse might have triggered it, and was small enough to be within the kill bar.
90% luck, 5% field craft, 5% camera skills.
Thank you. Such a beautiful bird. I felt privileged to be so close
Santa (my bank account) delivered a late present, yesterday. A secondhand Canon 70-300mm L series lens. I bought it from Wex photos and videos. Their offering was the cheapest of the usual big suppliers of used lens (e.g. MPB, Park Cameras, Harrisons, etc)
Complete with box, both lens caps, manual, lens cover and lens hood!, it was described as being in excellent condition. It looked brand new to me and the Memsahib. Whoever owned this before has barely used it.
Delivered by MPB the next day after ordering (MPB wanted an additional £5.95 P&P). I hooked it up to my R7 and clicked away through our manky double glazed windows.
The weather, as many of you know, was 'orrible. Thick cloud, mist bordering on fog - it was thick fog in Bracknell, but slightly less so in Finchampstead - humidity so high drizzle was condensing out of the atmosphere. Great conditions to test the capabilities of this lens.
This Jay is quite close to me. Say about 20 feet. It's in a dark part of our garden, under a rambling rose and pear tree. The lens is at 300mm (naturally), camera on Program mode. Processed slightly in FastStone: contrast boosted a bit to overcome manky double glazing, an attempt at using FastStone's denoise (not up to AI denoise standards), tiny amount of sharpening. ISO was a whooping 12000.
Now jay in tree at back of garden - about 40 feet away - back lit, reasonably gloomy due to tree branches. Back lit meant this was going to be a tricky shot. The lens and camera did a good job of focusing on the Jay through all those twigs.
Now some heavy duty cropping.
Is this lens better than my ancient, cheapo 18-300mm Sigma? Oh yes.
Here's a photograph I took of Long-tailed tits at my bird feeder ( I really need to pull my finger out and make a new one) at 11:27; when light conditions were better due to the sun (hidden behind clouds) was higher up. ISO 8000. F6.44, 1/512 sec.
Now the Canon lens at 14:32, where the sun is lower in sky, therefore less light filtering through clouds. ISO 16000, F5.66, 1/512 sec.
Strangely, although the Canon lens required a much higher ISO, the noise in the photo appears much less. I've reduced the sizes of the above two photos. The difference between the two is more marked in the full size images.
The Canon lens has, as review say, a lightning fast auto focus. Much better than the Sigma. I also read that you can either use the focus ring or push/pull the lens. I may employ the push/pull technique as I do not like the focus ring. It's small, and near the front of the lens. I'm baffled why Canon didn't make it bigger. The fine focus ring is the same size as the main ring, and is set exactly where I would normally place my hand.
I also hate the front lens cap. It's release mechanism is tiny. My Sigma lenses have nice, large chunky release press stubs. There's very little time to fiddle around trying to get the lens cap off when photographing fast moving wildlife. I may have to look into getting a cheap, third party lens cap with chunky release press stubs.
And as for the lens hood. How do people with small hands cope with it when trying to remove the lens cap? I have small hands (a source of great frustration when I used to play rugby) yet struggle to fit a hand into release the lens cap.
Tomorrow, I shall take the lens out for a proper test drive when the Memsahib and I walk around the Thames footpath and hills around Henley. Allegedly, according to the met office, we will actually get sun peeping out from behind clouds, before overcast conditions return on Monday. Sigh. So far, the Canon lens is looking promising; especially at 300mm.
Images are looking plenty sharp and clean, especially at those iso's. I don't know canon camera's, but on nikon you can sometimes programme the lens rings to different functions, potentially an option? As for lens cap, once I get out of the car at my destination, the lens cap is in my pocket unless i'm changing lenses, or stopping for a cuppa, so no fiddling involved. The glass itself is protected by the lens hood (that's my theory anyway!!)
And fabulous to have a Jay in the garden
Nice set of shots Angus and really clean looking in ISO terms. I'm Nikon and generally have to clean up at high ISO, although I tend to shoot with it high for the speed, especially in these dank conditions lately and ............. a Jay? Really? Our Jays just torment me, all I see is a flash of white tail feathers dammit!
I tried out your keeping lens cap in pocket. Every cell and pore in my body screamed to put the lens cap back on. It felt so unnatural to not replace the lens cap.
I am toying with the idea of making a cap for the lens hood. That should appease my cells and pores. Glass is protected, without need to fiddle with lens cap.
I really, really, really detest the front lens cap for this lens. As a piece of aesthetic design, it is good, having nice clean, smooth lines. As an example of practical engineering, it fails miserably.
Sticking my hand down a lone, thin lens hood, hunting around for tiny release stubs barely distinguishable from the lens rim, whilst keeping my eye on an animal is almost impossible. Trying to get the lens back on again is an equally fraught task.
I will definitely keep the lens cap off during our walk around Henley, today. Particularly whilst on the Thames footpath between the Flowerpot hotel and Henley. I'm in two minds about the section between The Little Angel pub and the Flowerpot hotel. I may keep the cap on whilst traipsing through the woods - there wasn't much wildlife to see the last time we went this route. But the lens cap will have to come off when be break cover.
You're going to hate me. We have up to 3 Jays visiting our garden currently on a daily basis.
Bribery and a semi-messy garden are my secrets. Peanuts and fat balls attract Jays in to our garden. A semi-wild planting, with lots of tree, shrubs and pots allow the birds places to perch which provide cover.
This is a favourite perch of visiting Jays; in amongst heavily pollarded Damson and plum trees, which provide support to rambling roses. I haven't pruned the roses in years. They seem to do well. Our neighbours love the display they put on. The pots will be moved. I am remodeling our garden after I put a soakaway in our ditch and built up the soil level to reduce a 5m wide ditch to a 0.5m wide soakaway; basically where the new section of fencing is.
Jays will quite happily sit in this area of the garden for many minutes, allowing shots like this. The weather was a little kinder yesterday afternoon. The mist actually lifted!!! ISO calmed down to 6400.
Of course, when there is an actual sighting of a mythical yellow orb (6th Dec), along with a cooperative active Jay hopping about, I get this.
Not at all Angus, I can hardly complain I have GSW all day outside my window.
Oddly Jays would visit our urban garden in S Wales quite regularly but up here in wilderness(ish) Scotland, they still have undisturbed woodlands etc.
I'll get them eventually, I've got the Nuthatches now, it's only a matter of time and and endless supply of tempting treats :)
Angus M said:I tried out your keeping lens cap in pocket.
It's a brave new world out there Angus!
I'm kind of on the fence here I tend to walk with my cameras and I've sort of got to know the reservoir walk I do often so ...... the camera tends to stay in the bag, I bought a long holster bag, until I get either a good sighting or I reach the point where I start to see more activity.
However, how many times have I been caught out? Scrabbling to get it out, cap off, focused ........... too late!
There is a patch where I know there can be good activity so at that point I'm carrying it over my arm with the lens cap off constantly and try to keep it angled down but, I do itch to put the cap back on asap!
Weight is definitely an issue, I'll maybe weigh the setup one day. I have a Nikon Z7ii with a Z180-600mm on it, hence I bought the holster bag which I love.
Scozmos said:Weight is definitely an issue
If I've a set destination in mind, I generally only take one lens (recently the 800) unless I know there are different viewpoints or hides around, in which case I'll take the 70-200 and TC as well. If I know i'm going to be in a hide the majority of the time I'll take the 180-600 instead of the 800, for the versatility because of things flying close.
When I'm walking, the camera is on one of the Peak Design straps, around my neck, cradled in my left hand, ready to lift at the first sign of movement. You should see my left bicep... "popeye" I call it lol