Another crack at the Kingfisher

marcuskill

marcuskill

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marcus
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Was very lucky today to have seen the local Kingfisher, he didn't hang around long, and to be honest I was struggling today with damp grey conditions...also, since putting on the 1.4x converter, the cameras focus is all over the shop, think I may be struggling with back focus issues..:mad:

Kingfisher....Canon 550D, sigma 80-400mm 1.4x teleconverter

Thank you for looking

kingy1sharpercrop2_zps725f7953.jpg


Marcus
 
At least you captured him and you know where he is :)
 
Oh I love these birds, sadly can't ever seem to get close enough for my lens. Well done, look forward to seeing more now lol
Makes me want to have another crack at them, when we get some decent weather.
I've borrowed my mates 2x converter, I have to go manual focus for the reasons you mention with the same camera.
 
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Another shot, this time further away....quick little buggers they are...

043_zps619de58f.jpg
 
As said, you know its whereabouts & you may be lucky enough to get closer next time.
 
Thanks guys, having real trouble at the minute with focus, not sure why exactly, these were taken at ISO 1600, F 5.6 AI Focus, center spot metering, all was getting better until I tried out this 1.4x converter....I am really annoyed with myself to be perfectly honest, the bird to today was in a good prime place on top of the depth board, but the dam camera hunted and wouldn't fix on to the target properly...these sort of shots dont arise everyday and I just feel that today could have been better, but not sure what to try next to solve this focus issue....:(
 
Why not try manual focus Marcus but well done anyway, keep trying!!!
 
The AF problems are more than likely going to be due to the converter. Your lens has a max aperture of f5.6 at the long end. Adding this converter makes your lens a maximum of f8.

The problem is your camera needs an aperture of f5.6 as the slowest, hence your AF is now misbehaving. The converter is now working against you, it's now going to be a case of working out a way to get yourself closer to the Kingy
 
Thanks Robbie....its doing my head in, the camera nearly went in the bin..lol....these things are here to test us...going to take off the converter on the next outing as that seems to be playing a big part of the problem I had today, having said that, would love to know what settings I should be trying, for example, what focus to use, one shot, AI focus or AI servo...

I took a couple of test shots today, pointed the camera away from a target and focused, then came back to a target that was closer, and focused again...then took the shot....tried it with and with out the teleconverter, the focus without was deffo an improvement, but I did one manually and it was spot on, its as if the camera doesn't quite get there on its own...if you know what I mean...its weird...
 
Just read your post now Mike, it came through after I posted the above....
 
For this situation, where you're shooting a (temporarily) static subject at a fairly large distance, I'd opt for a single centre point on one shot. Don't go for AI servo, from my experience it doesn't work very well, and I don't personally know anyone who uses it.
 
pooley said:
The AF problems are more than likely going to be due to the converter. Your lens has a max aperture of f5.6 at the long end. Adding this converter makes your lens a maximum of f8.

The problem is your camera needs an aperture of f5.6 as the slowest, hence your AF is now misbehaving. The converter is now working against you, it's now going to be a case of working out a way to get yourself closer to the Kingy
Click to expand...

Thanks Mike for the info...

Not trying to sound like a complete Newb...which as you all know I am.....can you please help me to get my head around this one then...

So, for me to get good accurate focus, I now need to be closer to the Kingy for instance, I understand about the F ratio due to the converter, So if I took it off, the bird today would have been in focus??

So why are the converters needed, if you put one on, you have to get closer to your target, it just doesn't make sense in my head, I am not questioning you at all, so please dont think that, I just dont understand..

Also, how can all that affect focus, sorry for all the questions, I just want to get it right and learn as much as possible.
 
I think you'll find that your body won't focus at f/8.0 with that combo. You'll have focus manually or buy a 1D series which will focus in that scenario. HTH.
 
With a couple of exceptions, the distance you are away from your subject shouldn't affect the accuracy of your AF. There will be times this matters but not for the type of shot you're attempting here.

You say you have grasped the need to keep the lens' maximum aperture no lower than f5.6 with your setup, so no problem there.

What a converter does is magnify your focal length by the amount stated on the converter, so in your case you took a 400mm lens and put on a 1.4x converter, so your new focal length is 560mm (400 x 1.4). However, the downside to converters are basically twofold. Firstly, you lose a stop of maximum aperture, so your f5.6 lens drops to a max of f8 (and the subsequent loss of your AF). You will also take a small loss of image quality (IQ).

To get the best IQ out of your gear, you will want to get as close to your subject as you can. This will avoid the need to crop your shots heavily. Every bit of cropping you do means you have to blow your shot up that little bit more, losing IQ in the process.

Converters are very useful, but need to be used on faster lenses (smaller f number and usally more £££'s!)
 
Ok, makes sense now.....thank you, will try out a few things on my next outing, weather looks pants for tomorrow though!
 
As said already, knowing where to look for a Kingfisher is going to help enormously.

I've had similar problems when trying out my Canon 1.4x III on my Canon 400mm f5.6L and the only way to make the setup usable was to switch to Manual Focus. I was only playing around to see what it was like and so haven't attempted anything properly yet. Quite honestly I doubt very much if I will pop the 1.4x on the 400 and I use it regularly on my Canon 70-200mm f4-5.6L IS and it works extremely well as a combo (as many others have also reported).

I like the shot of the Kingfisher on the bullrushes a lot in spite of it needing to be sharper.
 
New to this Robin, so its a major learning curve for me, good to know that it doesnt suffer on the 70-200mm. I knew it would be a ball ache when I bought the combo really, having to tape down the first three pins to enable auto focus is a bit silly really. However, have seen the light, and decided to sod the lot off and chuck some money at it, now I know I enjoy it
 
Hi Marcus.....The weather conditions are not helping you at all....I too have had lots of trouble getting focus on some shots at the moment,and feel like self harming at times....lol
I also have been advised in the past to stay with single shot as all you want at the moment is a bird on a stick...not flying.
I was testing the focus like you and could not get it to snap on the mark on those Bullrushes and the one with the bird was dodgy as well despite it being so bright against the b/g.
The shots here - even the 1st one are far away - you need to get him closer !
I can't use a convertor on the 400 mm 5.6 unless as you say without taping the pins but as said it would slow things down too much making me up the iso which will affect the IQ.
I know lots who use convertors but you DO need to spend lots of thousands to get the quality to start with.
Even when you get a good focus with some better light etc your troubles will not be over as it will burn out the whites even more so exposure becomes even more critical.
I have seen shots with those mega bucks lenses and even these are not spot on ...I definitely WOULD bin everything if I spent that much and did not get something resembling perfection.
I have been trying for about 7 years to get a perfect Kingy image and not there yet.....and these are just static ones...have to try moving ones next ...wonder how long that will take. ...LOL

Glad you are putting the time in attempting to get your ideal shot.
 
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