EvilTed

BRRRRRRRD BRRRRRRRRRRRRRD

That just opened up a memory! I have a small print of this at home, just to remind me of that freaky lost hour.

I have had the pleasure....terror...of being in the middle of a fog-filled fen when two bitterns started booming. Even when you know they are there it's pretty freaky.

Cheers! Yes I saw it with something in its talons later in the afternoon. It was hunting moorhen chicks on the water, so that might have been what it was

Thank you, you're very kind.

Yeah, it kniver saw it coming!

I didn't realise the sigma needed an adaptor for cannon, I can understand why you would see that as a potential issue.

When I bought my first digital camera I spent months trying to decide which brand to go for. In the end I picked Nikon because of the backwards and sideways compatibility of the lenses. I'm too heavily invested in it now to change, but in the early days I might have considered it.

I must admit to enjoying the comments section on DPreview when I looked up your new lens. I'd forgotten what an enjoyable shitshow the fanboy posts are like; arguments over mtf charts and youtube reviews, that was 20 mins well spent lol.

That is an interesting lens, 800mm on the long end at f/9 is a pretty reasonable compromise for that extra 200mm over the typical super telephoto zoom lenses at 600mm f/6.3. I will be very interested to see how you get on with it over the next year, especially how much you shoot it at 800mm. Did you consider any other models e.g. The sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 DG OS HSM?

No worries :), I lived in Reading in the mid 90's and never saw one, now I can go to my sister's near Windsor and see multiple kites in her garden. I've now seen them as far east as the north Norfolk coast but I think they have been introduced in that area.

F11 is going to make things trickier for sure. What lens are you looking for?

Thank you.

No method really. I used to take my camera almost everywhere I thought I might see wildlife. Now days I'm a little pickier, especially if the light is poor. Occasionally I'll see something and think "if only I had my camera" but not that often. I've taken 100s of thousands of photos and almost all are garbage as photography goes, but it's nice to have a record of what you've seen. and it's good practice for when the moment arrives.

In this case I was walking the dogs by our local river. It was early evening, the sun was low in the sky and with only a little cloud the light was warm and strong. I was watching the kite skirting over the reeds. They used to be very rare here, so I was pleased to see it. Kites are good to photograph in flight as they are big, contrasty and relatively slow moving, and they like to turn with their primaries well spread. I saw it dive into the reeds and then come out with a big fish carcass that fell apart as it took off. leaving it with the head. The crow came out of the willows on the opposite bank and chased it for a good few minutes before the kite dropped the head in the river, so no one got it in the end. They were at the right height for the sun to be almost level with them, which really helped pick the feathers out on the crow. I'd say they were 50ft away at closest. The difference good light made here was being able to push the shutter speed and aperture. That lens is noticeably sharper at f/7.1 than f/5.6 and 1/1600s was really useful in pinning the shot. I probably took 50 shots and it was just one of those moments where they almost all had something of interest in them. Right place, right time.

Pretty much, if I was shooting this with my D850 and 200-500mm at 500mm and f/7.2 and the owl was 20ft away the total depth of field would be 2.3 inches 5.8cm. That's half that in front of the plane of focus and half behind. That's about as shallow as I would want to go and so looking at that image I think it's shot at maybe 300mm

I did a shoot day with Nikon when it was released, I nearly cried when I had to give it back. I love walking with my gear so the 500 PF would be perfect but you're right it's not a cheap hobby.

That said, If you want to do it, go for second hand. You don't need to spend a fortune to get decent gear. As long as you don't abuse second hand gear you should be able to resell it for about what you paid for it, that's if you want to upgrade or decide you don't get on with it.