this post was submitted on 11 Sep 2023
12 points (100.0% liked)

Photography

4916 readers
17 users here now

c/photography is a community centered on the practice of amateur and professional photography. You can come here to discuss the gear, the technique and the culture related to the art of photography. You can also share your work, appreciate the others' and constructively critique each others work.

Please, be sure to read the rules before posting.

THE RULES

  1. Be nice to each other

This Lemmy Community is open to civil, friendly discussion about our common interest, photography. Excessively rude, mean, unfriendly, or hostile conduct is not permitted.

  1. Keep content on topic

All discussion threads must be photography related such as latest gear or art news, gear acquisition advices, photography related questions, etc...

  1. No politics or religion

This Lemmy Community is about photography and discussion around photography, not religion or politics.

  1. No classified ads or job offers

All is in the title. This is a casual discussion community.

  1. No spam or self-promotion

One post, one photo in the limit of 3 pictures in a 24 hours timespan. Do not flood the community with your pictures. Be patient, select your best work, and enjoy.

  1. If you want contructive critiques, use [Critique Wanted] in your title.

  2. Flair NSFW posts (nudity, gore, ...)

  3. Do not share your portfolio (instagram, flickr, or else...)

The aim of this community is to invite everyone to discuss around your photography. If you drop everything with one link, this become pointless. Portfolio posts will be deleted. You can however share your portfolio link in the comment section if another member wants to see more of your work.

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
12
Affordable and decent bird photography setup? (600mm equiv) (lemmy.ca)
submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
6 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I have a Fujifilm camera and decent lens that can do 600mm FF equiv is not cheap. I'm wondering what is the best option for bird photography at that range? There are some tiny 1/2.3 compact cameras like the Sony hx99 that doesn't seem too good. There also seem to be an option of picking up a m43 camera with a 300mm (600mm equivalent) lens. What is everyone's favorite options?

top 6 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] greenjube 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've got an Olympus em5 iii with the 75-300. It's not the fastest lens, but if you're in bright light it work well for everything I've done with it, and the whole set up is smaller and lighter than my old Fuji with the 55-200. Handheld image stabilisation on the Olympus cameras is also impressive even at these focal lengths

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I was also going to suggest m43, although I understand that the contrast-detect auto-focus (CDAF) used on most models is not the best for bird-in-flight photography. At least that's what I recall from reading the dpreview forums. OP, it may be worth a try after you do some more research. Don't limit yourself to Olympus only though. Lumix (Panasonic) also make excellent m43 cameras and lenses.

[–] greenjube 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The body I have uses a hybrid focusing system. From what I understand it uses PDAF for finding initial focus then refines the focus point using contrast. Not all bodies do this though. The "pro capture" mode I've found incredibly useful. Basically buffers in busy mode, until you full press the shutter. This allows you to frame a shot and get focus where you want it, but only capture the frames immediately either side of the shutter press. Other cameras may do this, but it's new to me and very fun

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Right, as far as I'm aware, only like a couple of m43 bodies (Olympus only, I think?) have PDAF, although I haven't really kept up with m43 releases the last few years. It's been long-requested, but Panasonic, at least, seemed to be unwilling to do it, claiming the potential for image artifacts caused by the PDAF pixels. That's a real possibility, but they finally relented on their latest L-mount body (S5x or something?) after the previous L-mount bodies had that the auto-focus in particular being widely criticized. Perhaps the replacements to the G9 or to the GH6 will have PDAF.

[–] IMALlama 1 points 1 year ago

There's no replacement for reach, but if you really want to fill your sensor you're probably going to always be wanting for more unless you go after larger birds. One of my bodies is a Nikon J5 (1" sensor/2.7x crop factor). I have the FT-1 adapter and with my 70-300 get a FF EQ 189 - 810 and I find myself wanting way more. I don't have the time to camp out and wait for birds to me due to having younger kids. At 30 feet my sensor is fairly well filled if I'm aiming at a finch, but the only way I'm getting that close is if I'm using my bird feed as bait.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I'm not sure if this is viable or too expensive, but we do like Sigma and use their lenses professionally. This has just been announced: https://camerajabber.com/sigma-launches-100-400mm-f5-6-4-dg-dn-os-c-for-fujifilm-x-mount/

It might be a bit slow at the long end though for birding, but I'm sure it'll be razor sharp.