your bird shooting setup?

[phildaintith]

Well i have decided to take the plunge and invest in a nice affordable zoom lens on payday (sigma 120-400 os) and will be attempting to take it down to some local wildlife spots for a play. im just curious as to what kind of setup you use to capture birds and other wildlife as i keep having 2nd thoughts that 400mm may not be enough reach at times....do the tele converters stil allow you to keep all the image quality or is some lost?

 

[u8myufo]

Hi Phil, no lens will ever be long enough Most people in reality will have between a 200mm and 500mm, this will include zooms and primes with converters on. If you are going to a reserve then you have to live with where the hides are. If however you are going out in the woods or even your own garden then your best option is to get as close as you possibly can.
Happy shooting

 

[magicaxeman]

Some image quality along with 1 stop for 1.4x and 2 stops for 2x convertors of light is lost, the main issue though is the loss of auto focus, to use a 2x convertor on a canon the lens needs to be an F2.8 as it will not autofocus if the max aperture exceeds F5.6.

It would also be worth thinking about getting a crop body such as a 7D for wildlife as the crop factor when using the smaller APS-C sensor is 1.6, this means that your lens at 400mm effectively becomes a 640mm lens.

 

[phildaintith]

Some image quality along with 1 stop for 1.4x and 2 stops for 2x convertors of light is lost, the main issue though is the loss of auto focus, to use a 2x convertor on a canon the lens needs to be an F2.8 as it will not autofocus if the max aperture exceeds F5.6.

It would also be worth thinking about getting a crop body such as a 7D for wildlife as the crop factor when using the smaller APS-C sensor is 1.6, this means that your lens at 400mm effectively becomes a 640mm lens.

It wont autofocus above 5.6? or do you mean it will just be really slow sorry its been a long day at work

 

[[GSV]Myocardial]

On a non 1 series body it won't autofocus when aperture with extender is above f5.6, on a 1 series body it will autofocus at up to f8 but only with the centre point AFAIK.

You can trick the body by interfering with the signal transmitted by taping certain of the electrical contacts, this will allow autofocus but can be slow or cause hunting as the camera tries to lock onto the subject and is only recommended by most with a x1.4 extender. Never done this myself but can easily find out how with a quick search.

 

[menthel]

Merkel 12 bore over/under.

Cameras- 7D with sigma 120-300 f2.8 os and sigma x2 converter when needed. Either hand held, on bean bag or on tripod with manfrotto kind of gimbal.

The best thing though is to improve your other skills. Most good wildlife photographers have good bushcraft skills to get them as close as possible to then use the best lens possible.

 

[mex]

Phil,

I initially had a sigma 80-400,but in all honesty it was'nt long enough,I now use a Nikon 500mm (which is not always long enough either!!)and a 1.4tc when I need it.You really do need to get in close to get the best shots,reserves generally do not allow for this,so why not get a hide and feeders of your own? you will get much closer to your quarry and you do not even need an expensive hide,they are easily made with logs,twigs and leaves.