Mainly Gulls in flight at local pond

GardenersHelper

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I don't have the patience, knowledge or skills for bird photography. But as part of some comparison testing I have been doing for a friend who has been having trouble with her kit, I went down to the local pond with a couple of bridge cameras and my 70D with 55-250 STM. For my usual photography (close-ups) I use live view, and I have never used the viewfinder on any of my cameras, but my friend always uses the viewfinder and so I used all three cameras' viewfinders for the comparison shots. I was astonished at how responsive the 70D was using the OVF and when I had finished gathering the comparison shots (with relatively static subjects) I had a go with the 70D at photographing some birds using the OVF, concentrating on in-flight shots.

There were plentiful, large targets, and the ambient light was strong so I could use fast shutter speeds and fairly small apertures, so I can't pretend that there was much skill needed (which is just as well!), but I was intrigued that even I was able to (by my standards at least) nail some shots of subjects in motion. I'm very impressed with how the phase detect focusing performed.

Here are some of the photos (1300 pixel high versions over at Flickr). The shutter speeds and ISO are a bit whacky for some of them, and I blew some highlights; I wasn't really thinking much about exposure, my concentration (and fascination) being on the focusing. The post processing (from raw) was pretty quick and light weight as this was only a side issue while I was busy grappling with a huge pile of comparison images for my friend, so there are some noisy backgrounds, some blown areas I couldn't recover, possibly some oversharpening and, looking at them again now, some compositions that are a bit iffy. So, all very much FWIW.


0748 01 2015_07_19 70D 079 IMG_6474 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 06 2015_07_19 70D 241 IMG_6636 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 07 2015_07_19 70D 246 IMG_6641 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 08 2015_07_19 70D 247 IMG_6642 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 09 2015_07_19 70D 249 IMG_6644 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 11 2015_07_19 70D 252 IMG_6647 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 12 2015_07_19 70D 254 IMG_6649 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 10 2015_07_19 70D 251 IMG_6646 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
And some more.


0748 21 2015_07_19 70D 350 IMG_6745 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 23 2015_07_19 70D 392 IMG_6787 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 29 2015_07_19 70D 558 IMG_6953 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 30 2015_07_19 70D 561 IMG_6956 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr

I know the subject is "wrong-sided" (or at the very least overly central) in the next three, but FWIW these were deliberate decisions to do with the backgrounds. And the backgrounds may seem a bit intrusive/muddling in the next four, but actually I quite like having at least some shots of the birds flying around in their context, which was a sunny weekend day with lots of people out enjoying the sunshine and warmth around a pond and recreation area in a built up area. (In fact my favourite shot is one of this sort, but I haven't posted it here because the subject is not properly in focus, but it's still my favourite despite that.) My apologies if this is the wrong sort of shot for this forum.


0748 26 2015_07_19 70D 427 IMG_6822 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 27 2015_07_19 70D 453 IMG_6848 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr


0748 20 2015_07_19 70D 316 IMG_6711 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr



0748 35 2015_07_19 70D 685 IMG_7080 LR 1300H
by gardenersassistant, on Flickr
 
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Some very nice sharp shots there for a beginner in the field of wildlife photography

And yes, phase detect AF is the main reason why people who think that Mirrorless cameras will be the downfall of the DSLR are wrong

For wildlife shooting it is an absolute necessity to have an optical viewfinder
 
Some very nice sharp shots there for a beginner in the field of wildlife photography

Thank you! :)

And yes, phase detect AF is the main reason why people who think that Mirrorless cameras will be the downfall of the DSLR are wrong

For wildlife shooting it is an absolute necessity to have an optical viewfinder

Another thing that struck me was how clearly I could see things in the viewfinder, and with absolutely no lag of course. As to the focusing, I wonder if on-sensor phase detect might equalise things a bit speed-wise (no front/back focusing issue either). Perhaps in due course that might work well enough with an EVF for mirrorless to catch up in this area.
 
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