The Chichester Peregrines

[NS3230]

Seen at Chichester Cathedral each year these are viewable on the RSPB cameras with their four offspring.

Taken with the canon 1D4 / sigma 150-600 C combo....


Kestrel at Chi (1 of 1) by honda1998rrw, on Flickr

Kestrel at Chi 3 (1 of 1) by honda1998rrw, on Flickr

Kestrel at Chi 4 (1 of 1) by honda1998rrw, on Flickr

Peregrine (3 of 3) by honda1998rrw, on Flickr

Peregrine (2 of 3) by honda1998rrw, on Flickr

and Yes, I was very lucky with the 'stoop' shots

Other observations are welcome as I am still new to this bird photography and still have lots to learn

Neal

[Nathaniel]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

Nice and clear shots Neal. Well done.

[Dawesy]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

Great set of shots

[Tigger]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

well done on getting the shots, nice set

840mm !! thats some reach, but are these heavy crops still ?

[Stan]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

Knowing just how high up they are at Chichester I would think they are quite big crops and looking quite noisy. Having said that, they look quite sharp

Stan

[Columbarius]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

Super set, you did very well to capture the stoop. It's a great way to keep the pigeons down.

[Nathaniel]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

Knowing just how high up they are at Chichester I would think they are quite big crops and looking quite noisy. Having said that, they look quite sharp

Stan

Question to Stan. I agree with what you have said but it is always a battle between birds at a distance,a large crop and noise. Is it better not to crop too much leaving the image small to avoid noise?

[Tigger]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

Question to Stan. I agree with what you have said but it is always a battle between birds at a distance,a large crop and noise. Is it better not to crop too much leaving the image small to avoid noise?

would you not be better editing your posting so you place a link to your other thread

[Stan]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

Question to Stan. I agree with what you have said but it is always a battle between birds at a distance,a large crop and noise. Is it better not to crop too much leaving the image small to avoid noise?

What I would do is very much dependent on the bird I am shooting. With a bird you don't get a chance to shoot very often, ie something quite rare then cropping in despite the noise or leaving the bird smallish in the frame is fine as you may never get the opportunity again and at least you have a shot to prove you have seen it. With common birds, such as lapwings, oystercatchers, redshanks and the common woodland birds, chaffinchs, goldfinches etc, then I wouldn't bother to shoot in the first place and wait for an opportunity where they are close enough, Even then the light needs to be right to get a good shot

Stan

[Nathaniel]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

would you not be better editing your posting so you place a link to your other thread

Agreed. Please see the link below.

http://www.eos-magazine-forum.com/showthread.php?35295-To-crop-or-not-to-crop&referrerid=1909

[NS3230]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

well done on getting the shots, nice set

840mm !! thats some reach, but are these heavy crops still ?

Firstly thank you all for viewing and commenting.

To put the cropping in perspective the first picture is about 10% of the full image and was taken at 1200mm using the sigma with my 'cheapo' kenko mc7 2x, on the sigma!' Obviously the others using the canon 1.4 mk2 or just the sigma are cropped even more significantly. I'm not too good with a tripod so these shots were taken leant against the wall or railings.

Should be interested about thoughts on whether I'd achieve significantly better quality using the canon 2x

Neal

[Stan]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

Should be interested about thoughts on whether I'd achieve significantly better quality using the canon 2x

doubtful, I have both 1.4x and 2x and unless the light is very good the 2x does not perform as well as the 1.4. You also lose 2 stops of light with the 2x and therefor with the 150-600 you lose auto focus - I only use my 2x with my 70-200 f2.8

Stan

[NS3230]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

doubtful, I have both 1.4x and 2x and unless the light is very good the 2x does not perform as well as the 1.4. You also lose 2 stops of light with the 2x and therefor with the 150-600 you lose auto focus - I only use my 2x with my 70-200 f2.8

Stan

That is interesting as the 1D4 does autofocus with the 2x, though not fast enough for BIF, I don't know if this is due to the body or the non-canon 2x.

Does anyone have experience of the sigma 2x? Or is it preferable to stick with the 1.4x and crop the image yet more?

Neal

[Stan]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

That is interesting as the 1D4 does autofocus with the 2x, though not fast enough for BIF, I don't know if this is due to the body or the non-canon 2x.

mis read the post - very surprising that the sigma 2x does AF as the lens effectively becomes an f13 - way beyond the max f8 for a D series. Would be interesting to see if the canon version does still af but it could be an expensive mistake just to find out

stan

[Lepus]

Re: The Chichester Peregrines

The 3rd and 4th images look the best to me if that`s any help .