[Theme] Show Birds

[ARTUROARTISTA]

This is the same turtledove that sometimes comes looking for me in the garden so I can give it water or something to eat. She is very nice. This photo is also with the 24 mm. The bird is on a perigallo, a wooden ladder that is used to pick fruit from the trees.

[Nasos Kosmas]

This was taken in 2010 with the 1.7x plus a D300 and the older 300mm AFS

300 f4 AFS is a nice lens and as I see fits 1.7x nicely
The same is happening with 500pf and Z8
On my testing 1.7x was the worst performer between 1.4x III and  2.0x III but on Z8 this is changing for good

[Nasos Kosmas]

This is the same turtledove that sometimes comes looking for me in the garden so I can give it water or something to eat. She is very nice. This photo is also with the 24 mm. The bird is on a perigallo, a wooden ladder that is used to pick fruit from the trees.

Nice mood
Arturo we use this perigallo to gather olives from  olive trees.

[Hans_S]

From todays walk, Merops Apiaster with a  catch

Just beautiful Nasos. I'll have to make an effort to find our local one Merops Ornatus.

[Hans_S]

Superb Fairy Wren Malurus Cyaneus now seem almost more common than sparrows here. Z50 50-250z

[Nasos Kosmas]

Thank you Hans
Beautiful little birds on this part of the world!

[Øivind Tøien]

Very refreshing to see these beautiful unfamiliar species, Hans!

I had my first training run with the 500PF+TC-14E III on Z8 at Creamers Field after doing some read-up on the focusing modes so that I got controls set up for quick switching. I was so fascinated by the performance of the Bird Tracking (with different area modes) in the beginning that forgot to push the AF-on button to get things in focus!    For a start here are my more challenging subjects, the Tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) and the Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota). In the heat of the moment  I had too much focal length when the two copulated on the fence near me and I did not remember that I could quickly switch from DX to FX mode with the Fn2 button. I tracked in flight both in full frame and DX mode. They are pretty heavy crops.  Continued in next post...

   

[Øivind Tøien]

Then I went to the little lake where a Greater yellowleg (Tringa melanoleuca) showed up among others. There were still a lot of cranes and some ducks around, but the processing of that will have to wait. In all I captured >1200 frames in less than 3 hours.    The first battery lasted though about 1000 frames and about 2 hours if I remember correctly. I am working on my reflexes to get ready when action suddenly happens. If one remember to power up before bringing the rig up, it is pretty much ready when the eye hit the viewfinder. These two are as shot in DX mode without any cropping and hardly any adjustment.

[Chip Chipowski]

Duck

[Fons Baerken]

Duck

Your friend, nice!

[Bent Hjarbo]

Very refreshing to see these beautiful unfamiliar species, Hans!

I had my first training run with the 500PF+TC-14E III on Z8 at Creamers Field after doing some read-up on the focusing modes so that I got controls set up for quick switching. I was so fascinated by the performance of the Bird Tracking (with different area modes) in the beginning that forgot to push the AF-on button to get things in focus!    For a start here are my more challenging subjects, the Tree swallows (Tachycineta bicolor) and the Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota). In the heat of the moment  I had too much focal length when the two copulated on the fence near me and I did not remember that I could quickly switch from DX to FX mode with the Fn2 button. I tracked in flight both in full frame and DX mode. They are pretty heavy crops.  Continued in next post...

 

Congratulations with your Z8, you have got some very good images.
What was the AF settings? It would be good to learn from your experience, as the pictures you have taken is very good.

[Øivind Tøien]

Thanks Bent, I am just a learner, and found some useful tips in the following thread: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/67691713. There is mention of a video by Steve Perry.  I limited focus modes to Back button focus with AFC mode of course and under controls (f2) I currently have video record button programmed to cycle though AF area modes limited to Dynamic area (S), Wide-area AF (S), Wide-area AF (L), 3D and Auto Area. (I left all of them available in the shooting menu, as the selected ones need to be selected both places for the switching to work.) This allowed changing AF area mode on the fly so to speak. Subject detection of course to Birds, and with a note that it is not active for Dynamic area, so that would if anything be used for stationary birds.

I also have fn2 set to switch between FX and DX mode. If frame coverage of the subject is too small, detection might not work. No control wheel needed for any of these switches so it is very fast. I think for BIFs I mostly used Wide area (L), but things happened so fast and I experimented a lot, also with Auto-area. I have not scrutinized the EXIF to see what was most successful. I also have a setting for focus handover active. I limited drive mode to 10 fps, and used HEF raw to not go crazy on disk space. The biggest challenge was to preset focus so that the bird would become visible enough for the Bird detection, and actually aiming so that this could happen. If AF-on was pressed to early, focus go way off and one would have to repeat the preset.

[Bent Hjarbo]

Thanks Bent, I am just a learner, and found some useful tips in the following thread: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/67691713. There is mention of a video by Steve Perry.  I limited focus modes to Back button focus with AFC mode of course and under controls (f2) I currently have video record button programmed to cycle though AF area modes limited to Dynamic area (S), Wide-area AF (S), Wide-area AF (L), 3D and Auto Area. (I left all of them available in the shooting menu, as the selected ones need to be selected both places for the switching to work.) This allowed changing AF area mode on the fly so to speak. Subject detection of course to Birds, and with a note that it is not active for Dynamic area, so that would if anything be used for stationary birds.

I also have fn2 set to switch between FX and DX mode. If frame coverage of the subject is too small, detection might not work. No control wheel needed for any of these switches so it is very fast. I think for BIFs I mostly used Wide area (L), but things happened so fast and I experimented a lot, also with Auto-area. I have not scrutinized the EXIF to see what was most successful. I also have a setting for focus handover active. I limited drive mode to 10 fps, and used HEF raw to not go crazy on disk space. The biggest challenge was to preset focus so that the bird would become visible enough for the Bird detection, and actually aiming so that this could happen. If AF-on was pressed to early, focus go way off and one would have to repeat the preset.

Thank you, I will try to learn from this.

[Hugh_3170]

Nope. It is a Drake! 

I love the colours (and the reflections) of this guy.

Duck

[rosko]

Beautiful birds, here !
Below , some bee-eaters, returning from Africa to France for mating.
Very social birds, using to come in the same location each year.
They use to nest inside burrows in sand cliffs.
Thanks for watching.