Telephoto for novice bird photography

Consider a 100-400 l and a 1.4 tel converter . Love my 100-400. saving up for the tel converter.

bigVinnie wrote in post #15024532
Canon 400mm f/5.6. There is at least one for sale on this forum. Check the sample archives but I think you will find it one of the sharpest lenses in that price range.

I agree. Except, it's not one of the sharpest... it's THE sharpest lens in that focal length/price range.

Brain Mechanic wrote in post #15025418
Not that simple, specially with birding. With a such a long prime you will have a lot of difficulty when changing from your own eye perspective to suddenly looking through the viewfinder and feeling completely lost trying to pinpoint where the bird just went! LOL! With a zoom you can back away a little find your subject and zoom in.

I use a laser-reticle sight. Works great. For birds in flight, it's quicker than zooming in and out as you lose and re-acquire the bird.

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ScubaDude wrote in post #15026815
I use a laser-reticle sight. Works great. For birds in flight, it's quicker than zooming in and out as you lose and re-acquire the bird.

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My setup by ScubaDude1960, on Flickr

Okay. You got my attention. How this works?? Can it be used with the Bigmos?

It can be used with any lens. You mount it to your hot shoe (see the link for photos of it) and adjust it until the red dot is "looking at" the same spot as your center AF point. I've gotten some of my best BIF shots without looking thru the viewfinder at all. My only beef with it is that it doesn't seat real tight into the hot shoe, and bumping it will require re-adjusting it. So I try not to bump it.

ScubaDude wrote in post #15026838
It can be used with any lens. You mount it to your hot shoe (see the link for photos of it) and adjust it until the red dot is "looking at" the same spot as your center AF point. I've gotten some of my best BIF shots without looking thru the viewfinder at all. My only beef with it is that it doesn't seat real tight into the hot shoe, and bumping it will require re-adjusting it. So I try not to bump it.

Can you show these examples of BIF with this gadget?

Im thinking seriously of getting this but would like to see examples and results with this laser sight.

Here are a few shots that happened so fast I didn't have time to look thru the viewfinder.

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I am very tempted to get one of these...

Nice shots specially the first one.

Thanx. When I took the second shot, above, I was focused on a Great Blue Heron perched on top of a distant tree, looking thru the viewfinder, when a black shadow passed in front of the lens. I looked up and the Yellow-Crown was about 50 feet in front of me and circling to come in to land. I followed him all the way to the ground using the reticle sight. I never would have gotten the shot using the viewfinder. Here's a second shot from that same incident.

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I just ordered one...LOL!! This thing combined with the Bigmos would look beastly....HAHA!

Karen,
The only learning curve with any long lens is shutter speed. The faster the better. At 500mm look for a shutter speed of at least 1/1000 sec. When people step up to long lens and complain their images are soft it's usually because they're shooting at 1/500sec or so. That's too slow for long lens. I know mono pods/tripods/image stabalization helps but shutter speed is king.
Good luck, bird photography is tough but so satisfying when you get it right........

One thing I picked up shooting sports WAAAAAY back in high-school.

Learn to shoot with both eyes open. I keep my left eye on the viewfinder and follow the action with the right. You don't need to really look at anything but the center focus dot in the viewfinder.

Using the laser sight is a similar concept. You get all the peripheral view to easier follow action. Shooting with both eyes open there is no need to re-calibrate

^
I find keeping both eyes open a huge help for tracking birds in flight.

Keep in mind that with lenses like the Canon 300/4 or 400/5.6 you'll need a camera that a great higher ISO performance. Shooting at 4.0 or 5.6 needs a lot of light. You really need about 1/1600 to freeze a bird consistently and that is tough with a 5.6 and oftentimes you want to run a 5.6 @ 7.1 or 8, so keep that in mind.

That said, you cannot go wrong with the 400/5.6 or 100-400.

Also - you don't need a laser reticule or anything like that (not sure how useful that is since you need to take your eye from the viewfinder but maybe someone finds it useful).

I use both eyes open. I find the bird in my left eye and then close that eye, the bird is automatically in view in my right eye.

People don't realize how hard bird photography is. I am no master, but I can appreciate good photography. Getting a sharp useable image means getting close and getting all of the exposure and tracking right. It takes experience - not hard, but you won't be mastering a 500/4 by using it for a couple hours before going out - trust me!

This is with a 7D and 400/5.6:

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