Heya,
I kind of went for a different, more simple, setup this time.
Totally casual with it.
Last time I went out, I took my 600mm. It worked. But I was tired. I hated how slow it was for what I was doing. It was a bear to take in and out of the dry bag. It survived. But I didn't take it out again. I went back to my super small 200F2.8+2.0xTC setup. It's a black, smaller, 400mm F5.6 basically. It's overall shorter (including lens hoods on this one) than the 400 F5.6L prime with hood. Still focuses really fast and as you saw above, is sharp enough wide open even with a TC like that. But even more importantly, on a kayak, it's easy to stow.
So I didn't take a dry bag this time. I just used a dang lunch box! It made getting it in/out SOOOO much faster. I didn't even feel like I was losing image chances because it was so easy to put it down in the box, or pick it back up. There was plenty of times I put down my fishing rod and grabbed the camera.
Kind of dumb-simple, and super silly looking. But it frigg'n worked.
CRW_0390 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/yCoD21 CRW_0389 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
Still, on APS-H and 400mm, the reach is very, very limited. I have to cruise very close in the kayak to get these small birds shown above. I really can't get to the big osprey. I can get to Egrets and the like, Herons, etc, they're huge. But they're not as interesting as an Osprey diving on some mullet in the Gulf. Pelicans are awesome to see dive into schools, but they too are huge and less spooked by people. The Osprey are super spooky though, ultra-spooks, trout-level spooky.
Ideally I want longer reach, but it's just not going to happen. A faster 400mm would be nice, but it will become ungodly expensive and too heavy for this kind of thing. My ideal lens right now is actually a 400 F4 DO and a 1.4x TC, giving the most reach and aperture for weight and size. But at $2k, that's not happening at all.
So, realistically, the only way for me to get more data on a subject is going to be with the resolution side of things. I'm currently feeling the limits of 8MP on my 1D2. Love the camera. But the resolution has less data on a subject that is already that far away. So my next move is likely to move to an 18MP camera, like an old 7D since they're so cheap these days and still has good FPS and aggressive AF. I'll get more pixels on target with it which is ultimately what I need since I can't get much longer reach without serious money dumping.
So soon to be: 7D + 200F2.8+2.0xTC in a lunch box! Hah.
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/yCmTgY LE1M3257 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/yE4ZvH LE1M3303 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
IMAGE LINK: https://flic.kr/p/yB1eU3 LE1M3350 by
Martin Wise, on Flickr
Very best,
Nice group of Pics Marty
