6D, Birds in flight fast and close

Sometimes you get lucky with a bird, on Friday I had a Black-headed Gull get very curious about me, and he patrolled right in front of me, wondering if he could eat me.......... either that or there were some nice fish in that patch of water! However close up birds move very fast, so even if the potential is there for some good photos, you need a fast focusing lens and a responsive camera. I know the 400/5.6 is a wonderful lens in this situation, but I think the 6D did a a very good job too. The bird was so close I had to take off the TC, and then even turn off the focus limiter because the bird was closer than 8.5 metres, which slowed down focus a bit, but I'm pretty pleased with the results, I didn't have to crop very much at all.

Hope you like them/Neil

PS. I'll post some more interesting birds soon.


Black-headed gull cropped just a little bit




Black-headed gull, small crop


This ones cropped about half the frame







Uncropped

















About half the frame cropped












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Spad16 said:

Spad16 wrote:

Sometimes you get lucky with a bird, on Friday I had a Black-headed Gull get very curious about me, and he patrolled right in front of me, wondering if he could eat me.......... either that or there were some nice fish in that patch of water! However close up birds move very fast, so even if the potential is there for some good photos, you need a fast focusing lens and a responsive camera. I know the 400/5.6 is a wonderful lens in this situation, but I think the 6D did a a very good job too. The bird was so close I had to take off the TC, and then even turn off the focus limiter because the bird was closer than 8.5 metres, which slowed down focus a bit, but I'm pretty pleased with the results, I didn't have to crop very much at all.

Hope you like them/Neil

PS. I'll post some more interesting birds soon.


Black-headed gull cropped just a little bit

Click to expand...

This shot is gorgeous. I like where the horizons falls and the beautiful BOKEH.

Super photos.

djourisman said:

djourisman wrote:

djourisman said:

Spad16 wrote:

Sometimes you get lucky with a bird, on Friday I had a Black-headed Gull get very curious about me, and he patrolled right in front of me, wondering if he could eat me.......... either that or there were some nice fish in that patch of water! However close up birds move very fast, so even if the potential is there for some good photos, you need a fast focusing lens and a responsive camera. I know the 400/5.6 is a wonderful lens in this situation, but I think the 6D did a a very good job too. The bird was so close I had to take off the TC, and then even turn off the focus limiter because the bird was closer than 8.5 metres, which slowed down focus a bit, but I'm pretty pleased with the results, I didn't have to crop very much at all.

Hope you like them/Neil

PS. I'll post some more interesting birds soon.


Black-headed gull cropped just a little bit

Click to expand...

This shot is gorgeous. I like where the horizons falls and the beautiful BOKEH.

Click to expand...

I agree, this is the shot. Neil, was the 6D able to drive the 400 quickly enough or was the lens slower than your previous camera?

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Great shots.

Lovely set.

Thanks! The important things in bird photography is light, background and getting close enough. The light is up to the photographer (and the weather) , getting close is a disadvantage of the 6D, but at least you have plenty of pixels to play with. But backgrounds are wonderful on this camera, it’s so nice to be able to take photographs against any background, without worrying, something the 40D always struggled with.

/Neil

Thanks, I can’t say I notice any difference in focusing speed between my old 40D and the 6D, they’re about the same. With focusing limit set to 8.5 metres the 400/5.6 is like an eager dog, snapping at everything, great fun actually.

/Neil