Bird Shots with Dimage 7Hi +1.5X Teleconverter

Hi Everyone,
Today I got a chance to check out the 7Hi that I got from Ebay this week.

I used the Minolta 1.5X teleconverter. I went down to the local big pond and was quite happy with how it worked on the bird life - ducks, coots, baby coots and water hens.

The critters were swimming around very quickly, and while I got a few blurry shots, I was surprised I didn't get more.

Of course, 2000 MAh Eneloop batteries are essential with this camera. A set of full charged standard 2500MAh batteries died pretty quickly after just a few tests in the backyard.

The images are out of the camera Jpegs without any post processing, other than shrinking with Irfanview.
Regards,
Renato

Good to see you getting out with the new purchase. I like the composition of the first shot and the pattern of the water in the second. The ducklings and baby coots are always nice to see. The grass must have made focussing a bit of a challenge.

Karel

Nice to see those shots. It makes me wonder however: did you ever compare the 200 mm tele setting without teleconverter, and croping it to frame the 200mm+1,5 teleconverter, and than resampling the image to get the same number of pixels?

Would the lens + teleconverter be sharper than the lens only, using a cropped part of the image?

(i hope i express myself clearly...)

Reg

Very clear considering the glass on glass. I have had several 1.5x teleconverters for the A200, including the Oly a200, some cheap ones, and an Oly B300 which is 1.7X. Although they bring you closer, I find cropping is almost as good, with less distortion in general.

We need to face the fact that a 1.5 or 1.7x on our cameras will not give us the money shots of the eagles with the fish in their talons. They are useful to get closer to many things that don't require the pure clear catch light in the bird's eye. I carry my 1.7x with me 100% of the time and use it about 5%.

Hi Karel,

Thanks, I wasn't all that sure what to make of the pattern of the water in the second shot. It just came out that way, but it almost doesn't look real.

The birds in the water would stand still so I used spot focus on one one as he went through, held the button half way down, but took a shot of the second or third which ran through the EVF.

The 7Hi is certainly more responsive in such situation than my Coolpix 4500 from almost the same vintage. When I tried using it with its teleconverter at the same pond, I got a lot more missed and blurry shots.
Renato

Karel Osten said:

Good to see you getting out with the new purchase. I like the composition of the first shot and the pattern of the water in the second. The ducklings and baby coots are always nice to see. The grass must have made focussing a bit of a challenge.

Karel

Click to expand...

Hi Reg,

I was wondering the same thing myself. I'll be on vacation at Christmas and am curious to test this out using pictures of newsprint.

Renato

Reg Ister said:

Nice to see those shots. It makes me wonder however: did you ever compare the 200 mm tele setting without teleconverter, and croping it to frame the 200mm+1,5 teleconverter, and than resampling the image to get the same number of pixels?

Would the lens + teleconverter be sharper than the lens only, using a cropped part of the image?

(i hope i express myself clearly...)

Reg

Click to expand...

I was reading a review that came up on Google comparing the Minolta 1.5X teleconverter, an Olympus one and another one.

He'd posted his sample test pictures and concluded that the Olympus was the sharper at the centre, but that the Minolta was the best across the entire picture frame.

Renato