500mm at 6.3 or 300mm at 5.6??

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rackhs

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Name
Steve
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Hi,

It is another lovely sunny winters day and decided to take a break from work for 30-45 mins or so (WFH has it's perks). Wanted to try and get some shots of the birds in the tree in the garden and around the feeders, but it is very close to a large hedge.

I used a Sigma 50-500mm (non-OS) at f/6.3 but due to the light, still couldn't quite get the pictures as sharp as I would have light (can't cut the hedge down, the neighbours wouldn't like it :) ).

I was just wondering, do you think shooting with my Nikon 70-300VR @ f/5.6 and then cropping would give me better results?

The Bigma shutter speed was around 1/100-1/125, so trying to get shots of the fast moving Blue/Great Tits, Sparrows, Goldfinch etc. isn't that successful for me :(

Any advice greatly received.

Cheers
Steve
 
5.6 - 6.3 is only 1/3ev if I have my sums right, that's hardly going to change the world. I'd just up the ISO if you can. Sharp* and noisy is better than no noise but soft.

*granted the sharpness will be affected by the noise.
 
Thanks Chris, will give it a go. Already bumped the ISO up to 800 (on a D90) so will see if I can get much more out of it with sensible shots :)
 
rackhs said:
Thanks Chris, will give it a go. Already bumped the ISO up to 800 (on a D90) so will see if I can get much more out of it with sensible shots :)
Click to expand...

You can go a bit higher than that ... there is always "Noiseware" ... free standalone the last one on this page LINK
 
I had a similar problem with my Sigma 150-500 which showed a fair bit of noise with the ISO up when trying to get birds.

However, thanks to Martyn's link,I have discovered Noiseware. I did not know that program even existed, but having tried it what a difference it makes. Certainly more 'keepers' now.

Try the higher ISO and Noiseware Steve. (y)
 
Thanks all. Is noise ware windows only? I am a mac guy using aperture. Found something called neat image that has a plug in for aperture, was going to take a gander at that.

Any other tips for mac on stand alone or with a plug in to aperture greatly appreciated :)

Cheers
Steve
 
Is your 50-500 really non OS ?
I thought all the 500's were stabilised :thinking: if so i would seriously consider selling and getting OS, it makes the world of difference.
 
Hi all,

I tried something today that seems not too bad.

There were some Fieldfares flying through my garden so got the 50-500mm going from my office in the loft. Tried with the window open but because of the heat escaping out the window, the images were very messy. I ended up shooting through a double glazed window, cropped the image a bit and tried to use Aperture a bit. Then, I used Neat Image (something I looked into after earlier comments about noise reduction). Here is a pic without reduction and with.

without -

6840926241_4dca5eef0e_z.jpg


with -

6841656237_f8635244c5_z.jpg
 
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