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Backyard Birding

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I recently setup a bird feeder in our back yard. Within a couple of days I recorded about a dozen different species. We even had a pair of Mallards taking up residence in our backyard for about a week.
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The few shots here, were taken with a Sony SEL50F18 prime (probably the sharpest lens under $250) on an Alpha A6000. They were all taken from the same spot, behind a glass window about 5 yards away from the feeder.
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The pictures are best described as postage stamp-sized crops. Really, a tiny fraction of the captured field of view.
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Despite all that, the photos are reasonably sharp. However, there's always room for improvement, and I figured that at 210mm even my forever-shelved SEL55210 would get better results...
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Not the case. The last shot is the sharpest (by quite a margin) out of about 20 shots I took with the SEL55210 at maximum focal length. It was taken from the same spot as the photos taken with the prime lens and for both lenses the speed was set to f/4.0. Cropped to a scale similar to the shots taken with the prime lens, it is about 4 times the size. What good is a 200mm telephoto if it can't beat a 50mm crop? Anyone know if a fixed 200mm E-mount exists?

Top to bottom:
-Gold-Crowned Sparrows
-House Finches and American Gold Finches
-Western Scrub-Jay + Squirrel
-Black-Capped Chickadees
-House Finch
Correction: I checked EXIF data again and the SEL55210 shots were taken at f/6.3.
(Edited)
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This is from the winter, but she still hangs out in the snag over the river. I'll have to get some spring time shots of all the birds running/flying around.
j-e-g
306
May 2, 2019
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@Theroc - I love these. A cheery way to start my morning :) Thank you for tagging me. I used to go birding in my younger days ;) I still love to watch them at our feeders. A wise Mama Robin built her nest under a covered porch and close to the kitchen window. ( This photo was taken on an iphone ;) ) Mama was away from the nest, busy looking for worms. Now we wait to see 4 little heads poking out of the nest :)
(Edited)
j-e-gLucky you :)
pummkin
42
May 2, 2019
I was using the Olympus E500 then E510 & eventually E1 with a Sigma50-500mm before opting to go mirrorless with the OMD E-M5 with an M4/3rds adaptor. There are many kinds of adaptors and couplings by Kipon that sometimes restore electronic focusing on half shutter press. I used the same lens on Samsung NX200 & NX300 but I still find the whole setup very heavy (with tripod and gimbal head). For simplicity, I'm now happily carrying the Fujifilm Finepix S1 (water resistant with 50X zoom) on my birdscapades! No problem with rain. This was taken at 149mm focal length, F5.6, 1/50s at ISO800. (I was in full camouflage!)
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pummkinThat's a sweet shot. What bird species is it? I moved away from bridge cameras, even though I was happy with my Panasonic FZ48, once I realized how ridiculously sharp a good prime lens can be. Come to think of it though, there's no reason why I shouldn't have both.
pummkin
42
May 2, 2019
TherocAiks! It's a Snowy Browed Flycatcher! The Panasonic FZ series are quite sharp too and I think they have released a longer zoom model. I'm salivating as I see the Nikon P1000 (at 125x zoom which is a 3000mm equivalent!) after I got my hands on the predecessor, P900 at a shop to see how it would fare against my Fuji S1. I wish it was a constant F2.0 or F2.8 and I will gladly part with my moolah! Tropical rainforests are so covered, lighting is always a challenge. I thought about using prime lens but if I wasn't going to print life-sized posters, carrying them on my expeditions is only risking my back/neck/shoulders.
erickong
7411
May 2, 2019
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erickong😄 🤦‍♂️
erickong
7411
May 2, 2019
TherocI only speak meme. Sorry
StainlessOnly
May 2, 2019
Fabulous pictures brother! Thanks for this little post of happy.
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