No duck here though - as I haven't seen one yet.
I have not posted here for a long while, due both to a demanding job and to the difficulty of shooting decent (little birds) pics with my XSi and a 70-200 that was somehow lacking reach for birding, and moreover was not a good match for my particular XSi (would have needed some micro-adjustment, not available on that body of course).
Long story short, I upgraded recently to a 5D MKII (I preferred the IQ of the full frame over the extra reach of a 7D) and, yesterday, after months of debate with myself, I received a Sigma 150-500 that I had to put to use today, despite the crappy post-snow storm light.
I tried the BIGMO alone in the morning, using first the window sill as an improvised bean bag, then a monopod. The shutter speed I used is too low for birding in theory, but I was reluctant to push the ISO beyond ISO 1600 (I was wrong considering the quality of the MKII) - and the IS of the BIGMO finally did a good job.
C&C welcome. Thanks for looking.
1. Cardinal
Manual exposure, 1/250s, f.8, ISO 1600, 500 mm, partial meter.
PP and cropping of the RAW image in Lightroom2, a pass of Neat Image in Elements 6, and return to LR2 for some sharpening before exporting in JPEG.
2. Song Sparrow
Manual exposure, 1/250s, f.8, ISO 1600, 500 mm, partial meter.
All PP of the RAW image in LR2, including noise removing and sharpening.
Because the background was cluttered and that clutter the same tone as the bird, I decided to add some vignetting, and to desaturate and slightly underexpose the BG, so that the bird would better contrast from the BG. All that in LR2 before exporting in JPEG.
Interested by comments on this process - and on the result.
3. Cardinal (again - for so long I have tried for a nice pic of a Cardinal in a tree, especially a green one, without sucess, and this fellow let me shoot a complete series).
In the afternoon I decided to take advantage of the (slightly) better light and try my Kenko 1.4 X TC with the BIGMO. It worked well, although the AF does not work (Sigma says in the skimpy user manual that it will work only with a Sigma TC) - thus I did the session in MF, a novelty for me.
Of course the IQ suffers some added softness from the TC, particularly at maximum focal length and wide aperture.
Manual exposure, 1/160 (!), f.9, ISO 1600, 519 mm, partial meter.
This is the original JPEG (shot in Standard image mode), with a pass of Neat Image (noise removing + a tad of sharpening), and cropped and resized in FastStone Image Viewer 4.0
Conclusion: the 5D MKII and the BIGMO form a terrific couple. The IS feature works well (although it's noisy), the AF (when not using a TC) is not lightning fast, but is enough for me (I did not try a BIF). Sure the lens is a bit slow, but anyways it's sharper when stopped down (f.8 / f.9 seem to be OK). Better use it with some light, although the 5D MKII does a fantastic job in high ISO - I tried later 3200 with surprisingly good results, to be kept for another thread).
Thanks again for looking.
C&C welcome.
Gerard
it isn't that hard as with such a shallow DOF it's easy to spot when you are OOF
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