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Author Topic: Your Thoughts on Equipment Combo for Birding  (Read 1403 times)

AndrewKulin

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Your Thoughts on Equipment Combo for Birding
« on: February 16, 2014, 09:37:43 am »

Planning to go out tomorrow and do some winter bird photography (Toronto area) at a wetland/marsh conservation area by the lake.  I expect lots of smaller birds such as Cardinal, Chickadees, Juncos, the odd woodpecker, plus there are Red-Tailed Hawks around, and occasional sightings of Snowy Owls (though I highly doubt coming across any).  I am principally a landscape guy so I don't have any of the expensive telephoto lenses and so I'd be curious to hear how some of you would combine the gear I do own for this.  I have available the following and will be bringing both cameras and lenses:

  • Canon 5D3
  • Canon 7D
  • Canon 70-200 f/2.8L IS ver. I
  • Canon 300 f/4 IS
  • Canon 1.4 TC ver. II
  • Canon 2.0 TC ver. III
  • Tripod with RRS L-brackets

My plan will be to set up the gear at home, I don't want to be swapping out lenses and/or TC's while outside in the cold and snow as too many things could go wrong (if a Snowy Owl drops by, I might be persuaded to revise my plans ;D).

Thanks
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Rory

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Re: Your Thoughts on Equipment Combo for Birding
« Reply #1 on: February 16, 2014, 10:07:29 am »

Well, birding is all about reach and fast lenses, so I would go with the 7D, 300mm and the 1.4 and leave the rest at home.  You can use the 5D3 with the 70-200 for the wild turkeys and have the 2.0x in reserve just in case you need backup for the 7D.  I've seen some phenomenal shots from Halls Road taken with the 7D, so even if it is not as good as the 5D3, it still has the ability to put more pixels on the subject.

Unless the wind is blowing swirling snow I would not worry about changing lenses.
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Ajoy Roy

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Re: Your Thoughts on Equipment Combo for Birding
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2014, 08:29:36 am »

Have one camera with 300mm + 1.4TC as the primary camera and the other with the 70-200 zoom for use when the birds are very near. The reason for 1.4TC is that the 2.0TC will degrade the image (and at F8 pretty dim), where as the 1.4 hardly makes any difference.
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AndrewKulin

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Re: Your Thoughts on Equipment Combo for Birding
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2014, 08:37:55 am »

Thanks Rory.  I am going to do just that.  7D +300 mm +1.4 TC was what I usually used before getting the 5D3, so I can see I was over-complicating things with all my available choices.

And Cranberry Marsh/Lynde Shores down by Halls Road was one of the areas I was planning on going to today.  Cold morning though at -17C.  Oh well.

Thanks again.
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Lightsmith

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Re: Your Thoughts on Equipment Combo for Birding
« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2014, 05:38:39 pm »

I would worry less about possible image degradation with the 2x teleconverter. Big difference in image magnification between 420mm and 600mm and unless shooting birds in flight, having to manually focus is not a problem. If you have it then take it. What is an extra 8 ounces of weight?
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