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Pied Oystercatchers |
The Canon RF100-500mm f4.5-7.1 L IS USM is one of the best
and sharpest tele zooms we can buy but 500mm on a full frame body is a bit
short for most birds even when they are close.
For a recent trip to Tasmania I mounted the 100-500L onto an
EOS R7 crop sensor body. This has a 1.6x
crop factor giving a full frame equivalent focal length of 800mm which is a
more useful focal length for birds.
Overall I rate the combination very satisfactory and more
versatile than the alternative of a full frame body with the 1.4x extender.
Image quality is good, croppability is good, autofocus with
subject /eye detection is good, handling and ergonomics are good. None of these
performance parameters is perfect but I think the old adage applies here: perfect
is the enemy of good.
I hand hold with this body/lens combination which does not
require a tripod or gimbal.
I use Electronic shutter, Servo Focus and H (not H+) Drive
mode even when the bird is mostly still (not flying). This combination seems to
produce best results from the animal/eye
recognition system.
Some of my photos are made at a considerable distance from
the bird making huge crops necessary. I
rate the results from this satisfactory for bird identification and sharing on
the internet. They won’t win any prizes though.
I use CRAW capture and process in Adobe Camera Raw. Most
images benefit from Adobe Denoise AI via the Enhance tab. I then upsize some of
the smaller files in Photoshop using [Preserve Details 2.0]. This sequence works
decently well although the more extreme crops are something of a rescue
mission.
I do not have Topaz Gigapixel yet. If Adobe does not offer
an equivalent soon, I may have to get it. I have never gotten good results from
Adobe Super-Resolution.
Here are some of the photos:
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Yellow Wattlebird 1 |
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Yellow Wattlebird 2 |
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Tasmanian Native Hen |
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Scrub Wren |
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Scarlet Robin 1 |
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Scarlet Robin 2 |
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Red Capped Plover Original file 32.3 Mpx, Cropped version 0.83 Mpx, Version shown here upsized to 4.2 Mpx from the cropped version. |
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Pacific Gulls |
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New Holland honeyeater |
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Ringed Plovers |
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Green Parrot 1 |
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Green Parrot 2 |
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Starling |
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