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Inspiring and Supporting Photographers of Australian Birds

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Discussions about cameras, lenses, accessories, and image-processing.

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Lightest Weight Camera & Lens Setup for quality bird photography 6 years 4 weeks ago #1608

  • Andrew Browne
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Thanks Byron and Glen
Yes Byron, I found I already had the firmware upgrade and the 5dIII does now work with the x1.4 extender and 400mm/f5.6 lens. It was probably 2 years ago when I was unsuccessful in trying the combination....obviously before the upgrade. The speed on the autofocus is quite reasonable too. Unfortunately at present my hands are not progressed enough to comfortably handle this combination, so more time and rehab are required. Yes i've heard lots of good reports about the 100-400mm II. A few years ago I tried the 100-400mm 1 but did not see much difference or advantage between it and the 400mm/f5.6 esp as most of the time I was shooting it at 400mm. The series II is obviously a great improvement on the series I.
Glen, I was of the view that once shutter speed was greater than 1/500th second that IS was of no extra value. Would be interested to hear opinions on this.
Cheers AB

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Lightest Weight Camera & Lens Setup for quality bird photography 6 years 4 weeks ago #1609

  • Bryon Samuels
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Hi Andrew, If you look at your 600mm f4 you will see 3 different modes of image stabilization mode 3 is for birds in flight it stabilizes the image only when the shutter button is pressed to take the image. Normally you are trying to use the fastest speed you can get out of your camera to freeze the subject in flight. You are moving your camera and the bird is moving which equates to lots of movement when taking the picture in mode 3 it turns on the image stablizer the instant you take the picture, quite impressive. If you leave the stablizer on in mode 1 when trying to take BIf the stablizer fights you as you try to move the camera not good so image stabilization is still very important at very hi camera speeds over 500
hope this might clarify the importance of image stabilization
Cheers Bryon
Ps is your firmware 1.3.3 as the 400 f5.6 works on one I tried from my mate Tom
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Last edit: by Bryon Samuels.

Lightest Weight Camera & Lens Setup for quality bird photography 6 years 4 weeks ago #1610

  • Glenn Pure
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Andrew Browne wrote: Glen, I was of the view that once shutter speed was greater than 1/500th second that IS was of no extra value. Would be interested to hear opinions on this.


Andrew, I'm not sure on that... but I think you have the 400 f5.6 already (I had forgotten that detail). So give it a go when you are able to hold that rig and see what results you get. I find myself using slower shutter speeds much of the time (except BIF, of course). So even if that rule holds which I have doubts about, then you may find yourself limited to photography only in good light conditions or suffering the effects of high ISO needed in poorer light.
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