The Sunday BIRD Volume 8, Issue 21. November 11, 2012



Good Morning All,

Hope you all have had a good week.

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Cheers and Chirps,

Richard Pavek

SHENmaker@MSN.com

My photo/essay blog is at: www.RichardsBirdBlog.com

Gallery at www.pbase.com/shenmaker

Last week the question came up about the comparative sharpness of these two extenders. In my comment, I stated that my EC20 was made in Japan. When I checked I found that it was made in China. Evidently there was no EC20 production in Japan at all.

With that in mind I will restate my original findings.  First, the color of the glass is different. The EC14 has the same color (when viewed looking through the barrel) as all other Oly 4/3 lenses. The EC20 has a distinctly yellowish cast. Not only can you see the difference looking through the lenses, you can see it in prints.

When the EC20 became available I was truly excited and ran a series of field tests just as soon as I got it. Tony Spore, whom some of you will remember, ran similar tests. Mine were made with the ZD300, which is a truly sharp lens, as most of you know.

I was very disappointed with what I found. Images taken with the EC14 when cropped to produce an image the same size as the EC20 produced were at least equal in quality.  (By quality I mean sharpness, color tint and contrast.)  Also, the narrower field of view makes it harder to track birds with the EC20.

It is worth noting that Oly rates the EC 14 as Super High Grade and the EC20 as High Grade.

Richard

Note how the throat wraps around the spine in the neck

female Northern Harrier checking me out.

Thanks for looking, comments welcome,

Richard

Great shots--the Northern Harrier shot-superb.

Dharma

reef egret at dusk

magpie goose

mistletoe bird

rainbow pitta

black winged stilts

long tail finch

E5 and 50-200 ISO 400--1/1600--F4

Cheers, Dharma

I posted this sequence in the main forum a week or so ago before realising there was a better place for it - so, apologies to anyone who's seen it already.

Great Billed Heron stalking bait fish in the mangroves, Darwin Harbour.

All birds love to bathe – in a bird bath, in a stream or in a puddle.... These pictures are from a couple of the several bird baths we provide to them in the yard. The Robin among all comers clearly get's into it and enjoys it the most.

300mm f/7.1@1/640 ISO 800



A Start

263mm f/6.3@1/400 ISO 800



277mm f/8@1/600 ISO 1250



277mm f/8@1/800 ISO 1250



All taken with the E-30. I believe that I had the monopod with me but I don't remember exactly. All taken in shade with some struggles that keeps me thinking about those 16 MP sensors and gives me more GAS to suppress.....

BTW all birds like and need to bathe. I recently included a picture in one of these threads of our Cooper's hawk taking advantage of the bath but my wife just pointed out that the Nov. issue of Birds and Blooms contains a picture of an eagle using one as for foot bath (unlike the hawk there is no room to sit.) !!

Cute bird!

Richard

Good all around,

like the last best

Richard

Great series!

Richard

Your Robin is a ham!!!

Good series

Richard

Still working through last winter's sessions. These are from 2/17 taken at my usual spot of the Riparian Preserve in Gilbert, AZ. All with the E-30 and Bigma. I'll have a few more posts to follow but I'll take care to limit it as the Sunday Bird has gotten popular again and gets close to the 150 limit.

This stilt was taken at the end of the day, I kind of liked the lighting.

More to follow.





All with Pana G5 + Oly 75-300. Eagle - Semiahmoo, WA, kingfisher - Drayton Harbor, WA, owl - Edison, WA.

--
Steve Barnett

That last eagle shot is a real stunner.

Still more from the 2/17 batch. I've always wanted to get some shots of the Avocets in their breeding plumage. With my work schedule it's tough as that is my busiest time of year. Here in Az they are just starting to turn in February.

Still with with the E30 and Bigma.

We all end up with rear end shots of birds. They just aren't very cooperative models. This one wasn't so bad though as I still got the eye, albiet between the legs.

I've also always wanted to get an in flight shot but have not been able to do so yet. In the mean time I'm content with photographing them feeding.

Just a couple more to follow now.

A few more backyard shots this week from E-coast Australia.
All E-5  ZD300 hand held, raw PP in LR4

Peter

Here is an Australian Raven on the neighbours rooftop. This fellow readily comes into my backyard but he has no tolerance for humans and immediately moves off the moment he sees me. 
I used M exposure mode for this black bird against the bright sky.  This is a 30% crop



Next is a pair of Little Wattlebirds, parent and young, shot a few weeks ago down the cost at my parents house.  They get their name from fleshy wattles that hang from their face - most pronounced in the male. This  is a 30% crop



And finally a set of shots of a young Noisy Miner in my backyard yesterday.  This bird is still being fed by its parents and (true to its name) was making an  incessant  "cheep-chip-cheep" call as the parents waited on it, handing over small insects and grubs.  I followed them for a while trying to catch the feeding moment - no luck.    The 2 close shots are of the bird in my lemon tree, the others are high overhead in a eucalyptus tree

Nice diverse series.  Like the mistletoe bird.

Good Morning,

Richard first of all I would like to thank you and all the members on this thread and forum who took out the time to read my thread,see my snaps and comment on them and their subsequent replies to my query regarding the two teleconverters.I am especially grateful to you and Peter who have given me in detail analysis of the snaps as well as the information regarding the teleconverters.Last week I was without any internet connection after posting my snaps here so I could not reply to your threads sooner.

Today I am posting some more photos taken with the same combo on my E-620.All shots are hand held,with minimal post processing ( i did take some RAW shots but I am yet to process them).



I had posted a snap of this Pied Kingfisher last week -it was at first alone on this wire and then the Black Drongo came in and started to argue with him for no apparent reason-maybe for space on the wire.Then he took up a space on the wire outside the comfort zone of the Kingfisher.



This Pelican was  on the shores with a few other waterbirds when we were shooting the Kingfisher.We were shooting from quite a distance away.As soon as we started approaching him to lessen the gap between the Pelican and us he took off........ thankfully I had focused on him.



Ashy Crowned Sparrow Lark

Black Winged Stilts

Sandpiper

Searching for Food

Common Coot

Indian Courser-Cropped about 50%. No PP

Cormorant Basking

Black Ibis shot against the morning sunlight

Thanks for watching.

--
Makarand Saraf.

Really like the kestrel images.  We use to get a lot of them around our area but the numbers have dropped considerably.  Can't remember when I last saw one, possibly not this year.