Birding with the Tamzooka? advice please

[weepete]

Hi all,

I recently aquired a Tamron 150-600mm to do a bit of wildlife shooting. Looking for some advice as it appears to be a steep learning curve!

 

[Didereaux]

Hi all,

I recently aquired a Tamron 150-600mm to do a bit of wildlife shooting. Looking for some advice as it appears to be a steep learning curve!

animals or birds? Either way you are going to need some stabilizing at the higher zooms. If you are going to be hiking a lot then a monopod, or better still a tripod that has one leg removable to use as a mono is a really good thing...think hiking stick. No matter bird or animal your success will be greatly improved if you learn all you can about the critter, its habits, its habitat etc. G'luk, it's a gas...even with all the frustrations.


...and don't go for just portraits. Get those critters showing up in their environment.

 

[weepete]

Cheers mate, right now I'm just trying for sharp shots, mostly handheld. Found it hard to get a keeper a couple of days ago shooting birds in the back yard. Today I think I got 3 keepers but not sure on metering mode. Switching between centre, multi point and expanded AF points like mad, turned the tracking to slow (which worked) (spot metering seemed best but it was around sunset I get off work). Just wondering how much blur is down to movement, inexperience or bad technique

 

[BillM]

What camera ?

 

[weepete]

Canon 7D mk 1

 

[runnah]

Monopod is your friends for sure. Even shooting mid day you really shoot at pretty low shutter speed to compensate for the aperture.

 

[Didereaux]

Cheers mate, right now I'm just trying for sharp shots, mostly handheld. Found it hard to get a keeper a couple of days ago shooting birds in the back yard. Today I think I got 3 keepers but not sure on metering mode. Switching between centre, multi point and expanded AF points like mad, turned the tracking to slow (which worked) (spot metering seemed best but it was around sunset I get off work). Just wondering how much blur is down to movement, inexperience or bad technique

when shooting birds we(wife and I) have found that spot focus is almost mandatory. If the bird(s) are flying then AI-servo(canon) mode in continuous is good...this is the only time we might use the auto point metering. Also when shooting against the sky you're going almost always have the bird under-exposed. Just run your exposure comp up +1 or so...the only thing likely to blow out is the sky, and who cares. This really cuts down on the number of noisy subjects made from digging them out from the shadows. A link to a bunch of critters we have shot is here: not world class, but if you look on the right hand side of the page you can pull down the 'expanded info'...it can be of some help maybe. most were shot with Canon 6D and 7D cameras using Canon 24-105, 70-200, and 100-400mm lens'.
Picasa Web Albums - monte

just curious, but you wouldn't happen to know a Wee Mad Arthur of the nac Mac Feegles would ya?

 

[coastalconn]

Post some samples. I always shoot it handheld. It takes some practice if you are not used to a 600mm lens. I like shooting in manual with auto-iso and spot metering, but I'm not sure if you can change exp. comp. in manual mode with the 7D?

 

[BillM]

Agree with Kris on the handheld, a 600 MM prime would be a different story but the Tamron is extremely light weight for a long lens. Try locating your subject at 400 MM first, then zoom out. One or two good days out in the field and you'll be fine

 

[BillM]

One other thing, make sure the focus limiter switch is set to full.

 

[weepete]

Cheers mate, right now I'm just trying for sharp shots, mostly handheld. Found it hard to get a keeper a couple of days ago shooting birds in the back yard. Today I think I got 3 keepers but not sure on metering mode. Switching between centre, multi point and expanded AF points like mad, turned the tracking to slow (which worked) (spot metering seemed best but it was around sunset I get off work). Just wondering how much blur is down to movement, inexperience or bad technique

when shooting birds we(wife and I) have found that spot focus is almost mandatory. If the bird(s) are flying then AI-servo(canon) mode in continuous is good...this is the only time we might use the auto point metering. Also when shooting against the sky you're going almost always have the bird under-exposed. Just run your exposure comp up +1 or so...the only thing likely to blow out is the sky, and who cares. This really cuts down on the number of noisy subjects made from digging them out from the shadows. A link to a bunch of critters we have shot is here: not world class, but if you look on the right hand side of the page you can pull down the 'expanded info'...it can be of some help maybe. most were shot with Canon 6D and 7D cameras using Canon 24-105, 70-200, and 100-400mm lens'.
Picasa Web Albums - monte

just curious, but you wouldn't happen to know a Wee Mad Arthur of the nac Mac Feegles would ya?

I have a passing aquaintance with him through Rob Anybody and his missus Jeannie. Good bunch of lads!

 

[weepete]

Post some samples. I always shoot it handheld. It takes some practice if you are not used to a 600mm lens. I like shooting in manual with auto-iso and spot metering, but I'm not sure if you can change exp. comp. in manual mode with the 7D?

I will post some up mate, was doing a bit of PP last night but have not uploaded any of them yet. I'll see if I can get a few on this evening.

You can't do exposure compensation in manual mode on the 7D. Need to be in Av or Tv to use EC.

 

[weepete]

One other thing, make sure the focus limiter switch is set to full.

Yeah, I found that out!