Tai Po
January 23, 2010 pm
Swarovski's 80HD ATS and 30x-eyepiece and Nikon's P5100
ISO 64
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3 Author: lwingkay Time: 24/01/2010 19:17
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5 Author: tomatofamily Time: 24/01/2010 20:48
So pretty and sharp! I just wonder how you could achieve such in such a weather yesterday with ISO 64!. What was the light source there? Author: lwingkay Time: 24/01/2010 21:46
Dear Tomatofamily,
The sky was heavily overcast and the light was dull and flat.
The shutter speed was, indeed, very slow for all of the shots, the slowest being 1/4th of a second I think.
The aperture was about one stop bigger than the largest aperture of my camera. I set it so with a view to improving resolution and reducing chromatic aberration. I don't know whether the latter really happens. I take it for grant that it does.
In such a low shutter speed, the only way you can come out of it is to have good stabilization for your equipment. The ways most digiscopers do to achieve stabalization are:
1. to use a heavy and sturdy tripod (mine being a medium-sized classic Gitzo) and a low centre-of-gravity tripod head (mine being a Manfrotto 501) to carry their digiscoping setup;
2. to use a long plate to hold the digiscoping setup so that a good leverage point can be attained, thereby avoiding unnecessary tilting or dropping when manuvering your digiscoping setup on your tripod;
3 to fasten up your digiscoping setup with the long plate so that no part of the former will easily move on its own or during shutter release;
4 to release the camera shutter with a cable or to release it using the self-timer device of your camera if a cable relase is not available;
5 more importantly, to observe the behaviour of the bird you are taking photos for and to make anticipation of its action to enable you to decide when to release the shutter.
Experienced photographers say that sharpness is prime for a shot to be a good one. To obtain pin-point sharpness is difficult in digiscoping. I depend on the flexible focusing spot device in both my P5100 and CP8400 to ensure sharpness for the point I want to focus. My destined sharpness point of a bird is their eyes.
Hope the inforamtion helps.
Pete
[ Last edited by lwingkay at 24/01/2010 22:02 ] Author: tomatofamily Time: 25/01/2010 09:03
Hi, Pete.
Very impressive. You really know your gear as well as the beh. of the birds. I am using DSLR camera; and I always though that to capture birds photos, you have to use high shutter speed. Now, I've learnt that I can use slower shutter speed to those pretty stable birds; then I can compensate if the light is not favorable.
Thanks for the detailed reply.
BTW, I recently bought a cheap China-made telescope (Acuter 80 ED); no serious shots taken yet, but the initial shots were poor (the quality). Have to spend more time to do esp. during the sunshine days.
Best.
Eric Author: lwingkay Time: 25/01/2010 10:47
Sorry to hear that the quality of the telescope is not that good. I have been thinking that on a sunny day, the quality will be even worse.
I do feel that the light on an overcast day is much better than the light from a sunny day as far as avian photography is concerned. This is especially true for digiscoping for the further you are from your object, the more the light in the air will be deflected in the presence of particulate matters.
Probably, on a sunny day, the best time to shoot is between 7am to 10am in the morning and 3pm to 6pm in the afternoon.
Pete
[ Last edited by lwingkay at 25/01/2010 10:54 ] Author: tomatofamily Time: 25/01/2010 13:06
Hi, Pete.
I will bear in mind then. I will post them if I can for your comments. Again, thanks for the input.
Best
Eric
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