ISO Invariance

So this is new to me and I am not sure I fully understand all the physics behind it. All my previous cameras have not been ISO invariant, that is to say to minimise noise you needed to make sure the image was not underexposed by using an appropriately high ISO. Using a lower ISO and underexposing an image and then pushing the shadows in post would create a noiser image than using a higher ISO and “proper” exposure. Pretty standard stuff and well understood.

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Photobombed

I didn’t buy the Sony A7Riv for wildlife but the wildlife at Dove Stone Reservoir didn’t care and this little chap kept photobombing me ! Clearly well used to people he was determined to get in on the show so it would have been rude not to frame up a few shots of him (could be a her of course as no sexual dimorphism in Robins).

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Chuffin Cold !

“It’s a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds’ cries” – The West Wind by John Masefield

Well that’s as maybe but I can tell you an east wind in February on top of Standedge is chuffin cold ! – best suited for winter photography said my new book, true, but it didn’t mention the need for crampons !

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New Year – New Camera

A couple of years ago I switched from a full-frame Canon camera to micro four thirds largely because I had become tired of humping around heavy kit. Lenses like the Canon 500mm f/4 are frankly hard work and increasingly difficult to travel with. In general I am pleased I made the change and for my long focal length wildlife photography the Olympus m43 cameras with the 300mm f/4 (600mm full-frame equivalent) still make alot of sense.

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£6,499 too far

An important aspect of my photographic interest is wildlife, an interest that requires long lenses and good field craft. The field craft I am ok with but my relationship with long lenses is a long story.

Stepping back a few years my go to wildlife kit was the Canon EOS 7d mk ii and the venerable Canon 500mm f4 big white. On the Canon APS C crop body this gave me an effective focal length of 800mm a good focal length for birding and coupled with the Canon 100-400mm zoom on a Canon 5d mk iii a good all around wildlife kit, all be it with one major problem, well actually 2 major problems, size and weight (those 4 items alone weighing in at 6.43kg).

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Year-end Walk

So 2020 comes to an end and many will be wishing good ridance to it. Travel restictions have meant that photographic opportunities have been few and far betwen this year and frankly the weather hasn’t helped either. Who knows what 2021 will bring but one thing is for sure, climate change is having a dramatic impact on the weather, it seams that dry crisp winters are a thing of the past to be replaced with seemingly endless drab grey days and rain. A final year-end walk and a final couple of photographs.

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A Quiet Summer

The Pandemic drags on and opportunities to get out and about to photograph the wildlife have been few and far between. A brief foray to Suffolk & Norfolk yielded little with many of the popular sites overwhelmed with holiday makers that should have been abroad staycationing instead – so just a couple of images – hopefully autumn and winter will bring a little more activity and perhaps a little more enthusiasm on my part.

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Olympus 300 + MC14 or Pana-Leica 100-400 ?

Following on from my post yesterday regarding getting extra reach out the excellent Olympus M Zuiko 300m f/4 Pro lens where I concluded that the MC14 and MC20 teleconverters do produce better image quality than simply cropping the image in post production, I thought it would be useful to look at the fifth option for getting extra reach namely not using the 300mm at all but replacing it with something longer.

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To MC or to Crop ?

As primarily a wildlife photographer my most used lens by some margin is the excellent Olympus M.Zuiko 300mm f/4 Pro.  For a 600mm full frame equivalent lens it is light and compact these being the key reasons why I use m43 cameras.  It is as sharp as any lens I have ever owned, including Canon’s big whites, and the optical image stabilisation combined with the IBIS of my OMD EM1 mkII is nothing short of astonishing.

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Yala Block 5

13 March 2020

This morning we returned to our preferred Yala Block 5.  It was a little quieter today perhaps due to the extreme heat which really does make a large part of the day fairly sterile when it comes to birding and no doubt the Leopards were also avoiding the heat and thus also us unfortunately.

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