DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... The Camera/Picture Taking Thread Pt. II

Tokina makes lenses that are compatible with either Nikon or Canon bodies. They are not interchangeable.

You want to check out some really great stuff from an obscure photographer, try Vivian Maier.

Vivian Maier

She was a street photographer and her work is captivating.

She started off with a Brownie box camera.

I loved the wing coloring on this one.




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Wings in, flaps up.




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Yep, and the bluejay, out of the ALCS, is already flying south for the winter.

I love my cameras...if I could just figure out how to use it to its full potential. I don't have fancy interchangeable lenses because when I go birding, I don't want to deal with all the extra weight to carry. We have a Canon SX40 HS and a Canon SX50 HS. They are superzoom point-and-shoots. For the $400 price tag you can't go wrong if you just want to take some great pictures.

He did a fly-by this morning.




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Cnet did a pretty nice review of it. A zoom lens that will go from 24mm to 1200mm? Wow! Not sure what you'd need to carry around another lens for, that one pretty much runs the gamut.



According to the article it's the way the camera deals with high ISO is it's Achilles heel. 800 and up they say is pretty grainy and the colors start to desaturate at ISO 1600. As long as you're outdoors on a sunny day or indoors with a good flash it sounds great. It just needs a lot of light. That 1200 zoom will reach out and touch some wildlife. Jfan and I both have the Sigma 150 - 600 zoom. That size is for a full frame sensor. We each have the Canon 7d Mark II with it's 1/1.6 crop sensor and our zoom becomes a relative 960mm. Your zoom doesn't even slow down to wave as it's passing us.

Your camera has aperture priority, shutter priority, a full manual mode and a full program mode as well as preset conditional modes. This should give you all the control you'll need. If there is a way to program it to not go above a certain ISO you might try that. It will limit you in lower light but if those shots would only generate grainy images, are they want you want?

Now you can try a little Jfan trick here and use your flash outdoors to help if your subject is shaded. It can fill in light nicely but it's not going to throw light as far as your zoom can reach. Seeing your camera has a hot shoe you can add an external flash to it that has more power than a built-in flash.

Fill flash can help you get more keepers by highlighting front detail on backlit birds perched in trees. It also puts that sparkle in the birds eye that can make a picture pop. An external flash with a Better Beamer flash extender can throw decent light up to 50-60 yds or even more when set up properly. The flash can also let you use decent shutter speeds in lower light to avoid the High ISO issues.

[quote=Tulsa]





I worry about the motor mechanism on that long of a lens. That often tends to be a weakness on many "point and shoots".

It's got a pretty slow response time to clicking the button...that's one big issue.

Sounds like that may be the autofocus hunting, do you see something like that in the lens?

I'm going tomorrow to do a photo shoot of downtown Pittsburgh from the Roberto Clemente Bridge area and the West End Overlook. Can't wait

I'm looking for a new camera - I'm going to check this one out! I can't afford a full-blown DSLR but I think either of these would take some neat pictures!

For not much more than this you can get the Nikon D3300, which is an EXCELLENT entry level DSLR camera.

does the Nikon D3300 take videos as well?

Yes.

time to do some homework - thanks!

Check out the "Certified Refurbished" bundle packages on Amazon. That is a GREAT way to buy a camera for an absolute steal.

I'm sure it's an AF thing. The lag is pretty noticeable, but you learn when to hit the button after a while to get the shot you want. If you aren't taking a lot of bird shots I can't see how this would really be an issue. It's certainly not frustrating enough to make me hate the camera and I could probably work out some of that lag by shooting in manual.

The shutter lag is something I will gladly live with for not having to carry all those heavy lenses around for another camera.

Here's a review from someone that took it to a baseball game. So much of this jargon is over my head that I really have no clue half of what he's talking about. And, half of his "Cons" are things I'm guessing only a professional photographer would really notice.

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/canon-sx50hs/canon-sx50hsA.HTM

A double crested cormorant looking for some apartment space.





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Here he gets the no vacancy rant.




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Here's the method to get them to come a little closer to you.

Mac, you're impressing me with your bird id skills.

This thread has really gone to the birds.

Don't make this thread take a tern for the worse. You know how some posters will crow on and on with relentless puns.

How are you ruling out a Sharpie for this one?

Eh, don't be such a silly goose.

If it's the autofocus it's probably a low light issue. Does your flash have an auto feature where not enough light for the exposure will cause it to pop up or do you have to choose it manually?

The flash is manual, which I prefer. Nothing worse than the flash popping up for a bird that's 50' away.

The rounded tail? Not definitive, but it looks like fairly fresh plumage. Can't tell if the grey cap goes all the way down the neck.

Yeah, I'm having trouble with the ID, but always do with those two. And, it's funny, I actually thought the tail was more squared off than rounded after looking at a bunch of other pictures. I was just hoping Mac had figured out how to end this debate once and for all.

Tulsa, do you have other shots of this one from different angles?

I have this one.




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and this one.




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Thanks. I'm still torn. I'm so BAD with accipiter ID.

The focus was off on this one but it may help. It's got the sun under his wings and a cleaner shot of the tail.




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I'd go with Mac's Cooper, the tail looks rounded to me.

Even the experts have trouble. The curved tail can be just worn at the corners. I always try to see if the cape goes all the way to the top of the head. On younger birds it's harder to tell anything unless you can compare size to another bird.

On another note, we had our first juncoes today. They seem to be a little late this year. Hopefully that means the winter will be mild?

And that's the problem with accipiters. So hard to make a good, quick ID. Same with some of the sparrows.

Either way, great shots of the bird, Tulsa.