Friday, June 29, 2012

Getting sneakily technical with wee Grebe


Sneaky way to sneak up on Australasian Grebe (Tachybaptus novaehollandiae) in Tyto this week: (tech alert!) attach Kenko 2X converter to 100-400mm F5.6 lens. So what? So Kenko somehow tricks Canon 7D to retain some autofocus, which it won't allow with Canon 1.4X converter, let alone 2X. Image quality suffers a bit, but even at ISO1600 above picture not bad (tech ends). 


Nothing technical about Australasian Darter (Anhinga novehollandiae) closeup. Bird surfaced in small Tyto pool but wouldn't risk emerging fully to fly off, so ducked and dived for several minutes until I walked away.


Long-distance noisy 400mm shot of Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides) on fallen tree near Orient Station this week was to be paired with 2X image, but bird put breakfast ahead of posing.   


Soft image high-angled Black-shouldered Kite (Elanus axillaris), near Orient Station, also put food first and took off before tripod could be deployed for steadier picture.


Sacred Kingfisher (Todiramphus sanctus), in Tyto, sits still, too far away for sharper detail. No 2X at hand at time, but nothing technical fixes things if the bird is simply too far off.   
Click pix to enlarge

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Enjoyed all these Tony & makes we wonder about whether there is a role for a teleconverter in my gear!

Tyto Tony said...

Hi Pete: Can't beat big glass but teleconverters can be affordable compromise; 1.4X usually the choice as 2X hurts image quality too much.

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