First attempt at wildlife photos with sx730 - bald eagle

Chaplain Mark wrote:

These are beautiful captures.

First attempt or not, really nice photos...!!!

Thanks!!

CMCM wrote:

Superb job! I have seen relatively few photos done with the sx730 at full zoom in particular, and it certainly did a great job, I'm impressed. Great detail, too! Post more as you take them! This is an interesting little camera for sure.

Thanks! I sometimes like to shoot compact cameras next to a dslr just for fun. Here is a "non-comparable comparison" ha ha of a sx730 vs. DSLR on a close-by robin.

I say non-comparable because they really aren't comparable. The dslr had a 135mm portrait lens on at the time which is too short for the shot so the resulting image is a big crop. Also it was purposely shot at f/2 for max blur, which makes for a thin DOF vs. f/8 on the sx730 (if I did the same shot again I would shoot it wide open).

The sx730 was able to zoom in so that the bird/nest filled the frame. Also keep in mind that this shot is in pretty good light. But it's still interesting to look at just for fun and my question at the moment was, "what would this shot look like with the dslr and 135mm I happen to have on me, vs a sx730 that is in my pocket". It should be noted that is different question than "sx730 vs DSLR with a 150-600 lens or 400mm prime, etc."

sx730, male robin guarding the nest while the mother is away

Nikon D750 with 135mm portrait lens (note that camera incorrectly reports lens as 16mm on exif)

Here are a couple more from today as requested. I stumbled upon a western screetch owl.  Lots of dragonflies around and some neat colors. Screetch owl was pretty close and dragonfly was extremely close (close to the minimum focusing distance for the 960mm equiv. focal length). I think both of these were full zoom but don't remember for sure (Exif will say). Thanks for looking!

saaber1 wrote:

CMCM wrote:

Superb job! I have seen relatively few photos done with the sx730 at full zoom in particular, and it certainly did a great job, I'm impressed. Great detail, too! Post more as you take them! This is an interesting little camera for sure.

Thanks! I sometimes like to shoot compact cameras next to a dslr just for fun. Here is a "non-comparable comparison" ha ha of a sx730 vs. DSLR on a close-by robin.

I say non-comparable because they really aren't comparable. The dslr had a 135mm portrait lens on at the time which is too short for the shot so the resulting image is a big crop. Also it was purposely shot at f/2 for max blur, which makes for a thin DOF vs. f/8 on the sx730 (if I did the same shot again I would shoot it wide open).

The sx730 was able to zoom in so that the bird/nest filled the frame. Also keep in mind that this shot is in pretty good light. But it's still interesting to look at just for fun and my question at the moment was, "what would this shot look like with the dslr and 135mm I happen to have on me, vs a sx730 that is in my pocket". It should be noted that is different question than "sx730 vs DSLR with a 150-600 lens or 400mm prime, etc."

sx730, male robin guarding the nest while the mother is away

Nikon D750 with 135mm portrait lens (note that camera incorrectly reports lens as 16mm on exif)

They look great.

Got a few more bald eagle shots over the weekend. Crow was dive bombing the Eagle pretty good. Somehow I don't think the eagle was worried about losing the fight ha ha.  These were all very long range and pics are big crops.

CMCM wrote:

What a cool set of photos! I especially like the last one...the eagle looks annoyed as heck at the crow! I've seen lots of eagles where I live, but I can never get a clear view of one like you've got here! Great job!

Thanks! This eagle is the same one I shot before. She seems to hang around protecting her nest nearby. I've seen a baby moving around in the nest but he/she seems to always be down low in the center of the nest. This last time it came up for a couple minutes or so and I got a couple shots in really crappy light which put the face in deep shadow, I tried raising the shadows some but I'm still not happy with the baby pics. Someday I'll have to go to try and get a shot of it eating breakfast. It's just a really hard shot to get. Very far away and one would probably have to be shooting down into the nest to get a good shot (unless your really lucky and it was standing tall testing it's wings or something -even then it's really cluttered with branches).

Really nice shots you are getting from this pocket rocket

Impressive detail at the 960mm end!!

I would suggest you avoid f8...diffraction territory...you will loose some fine detail .

These small sensored cameras excel at wide open apertures...stopping down for more detail doesn't work, as with the larger sensored D-SLR's...plus DOF , as you know, is already very deep, ever at wide end and largest aperture.

Really impressed by the Dragonfly shots...ISO 800..and still showing good detail..and at full telephoto !

I was tempted to buy this model...but chose the Panasonic ZS60 over it. Mainly due to being familiar with the ZS series, and some features...like 4K video, 4K photo...many assignable function buttons, control ring around lens and decent EVF.

Keep them coming.

Would love to see more of your shots with the SX730!!

ANAYV

Just for fun I played around trying to get some swallow BIF shots with the sx730. If anyone has ever tried shooting swallows in flight you'll understand what a challenge shooting such a small, fast bird is even with the best birding equipment. But this was handheld at 960mm, which sort of equals crazy difficult. I got very few acceptable photos but it was fun trying.

IMO it all comes down to the BIF technique (just like any camera, including DSLR plus top quality birding lens) not necessarily the ability of this camera (in terms of AF performance I mean). I was really surprised though at the frames per second and the buffer capacity. What I learned is that if it can be done for this bird at 960mm (at an obviously very low success rate) then using the same techniques for bigger and slower birds should probably work. I'm anxious to try it out on herons, swans, and ducks (or raptors if I'm lucky enough to find them in flight).

One thing I haven't learned yet is which of these two AF modes is better for BIF (these are set via the "func/set" button on the back of the camera):

1) Continuos ("rapid fire" you could call it)

2) Continuos AF (Rapid fire with continuos AF as I understand it)

I couldn't perceive any difference in FPS but I would have to try it out for real on birds of a reasonable size to see what works better.

Swallow handheld at 960mm (cropped). I realize that for those who haven't shot them you are probably saying "what's the big deal?" and that's o.k.

CMCM wrote:

BIFs are incredibly difficult, I've found. I'm struggling with it myself, with very little success yet. It's fun trying, however. I'm not sure which AF mode to use myself, but maybe continuous AF with a multiple shot fast release mode would work best, but I can't yet say for sure as I haven't played with it enough. Mostly I'm using my Nikon P900 and D5600 for BIF practice as I have long zooms on those two. The G7XII has such a short zoom it doesn't really work for BIFs. But your SX730 has a nice long zoom, so you're in a better place to succeed with that one.

I took this photo with a G7XII in horrible, overcast, foggy light conditions, and I'm fairly certain I was well into digital zoom territory, which is one reason the quality is lousy. The detail is horrible and a definitely pixel peeper's nightmare, but this is the only half decent shot I've managed so far.

Not bad at all IMO. It's hard to get pics of any bird at 120mm outside of a zoo or other confined environment. That's at least partially my reasoning for having a g7xII + sx730 as a travel combo. When traveling, I think g7xII will do 90% of the shots as they are of people or are wide/normal focal length for me. But there are times when I want a long zoom like for castles/some distant detail, wildlife, landscape features, or even "what the heck is that over there?/pocket spotting scope" shots.

Also there is the stealth aspect of getting candid/unposed photos when in a new culture or place which I have not tested yet with the sx730 (but I think it would do well in some cases such as sitting outside a cafe and shooting a long ways away). I watched a couple documentaries on Henri Cartier-Breson and was surprised to learn that many shots were extremely stealthy and this was critical to his technique. He was very adept at hiding his little leica and pulling it out at the last moment, taking someones picture, and then off to the next shot. Had those subjects known he was taking the picture many of those shots would not have worked. Speaking only about stealth technique here not about composition or anything else of his amazing technique/skills. It seems to me that sx730 or similar pocketable long zooms allow stealth also, but in a different manner than popping out in front of someone with a 50mm leica. I might try it on some local street scenes to see if it is a viable method.

Cartier-Bresson's technique (one of them anyway) is really shown well at the 30:52 time mark of this video (also at 9:05 mark). https://youtu.be/ei45S87R2dk?t=1852

CMCM wrote:

On the G7XII I also like the tilt screen, which you can tilt out and use by looking down at the screen, and it's not at all obvious that you are shooting a photo because your head is looking downwards.

I agree.  If you have seen "finding Vivian Meyer" movie she always had her rolliecord hanging at near waste level with it's look down viewfinder which seems to me to be both stealthy and non-threatening.  One dpreview poster said it is like interacting with the subject with your arms out more like a servant (less threatening) vs. holding the camera to your face and pointing is kind of like pointing a gun at them.  sx730 also has a tilt screen.  I need to try the look down method with it for long range shots to see how it works.