fneil

Mandy,
          I couldn't see the EXIF info on your two photos but I looked at them in Photoshop CS2.
          Due to the low and hazy light at the moment you should increase the Contrast and Sharpening Settings in the Camera . You could do it in your software when you get home.  There is detail in your photos. I just ran Auto Contrast and did an Unsharp Mask pass on them.  I would suggest that you do an Unsharp Mask sharpening as a first step on the original file and then again after downsizing for email.
           Because of the low light at the moment I'm trying to take my photos from close distance (less than 10 metres ) and I haven't been out to Mai Po for 10 days.
If you could let me know your EXIF info I could give some more advice.
I hope this helps, Neil.
ps I would also run a noise filter over the image during processing.
pps the little bird is a Siberian Stonechat

fneil

Mandy,
          The light in the afternoons has been better than the mornings recently and a good place to pratice is kowloon Park duck ponds.  I like it there from 3 - 4 pm. Neil.

fneil

Mandy,
          Yes.  The Eye Relief of the zoom gets worse as you zoom so you would have to zoom the camera lens a lot ( or move the camera closer ) to reduce the vignetting.
     I wonder whether the DCA fixed would work on the zoom as it might allow you to get the lenses closer together.  Maybe Bob could test this out?
The other alternative is to have someone cut down the DCA by about 5 mm. I haven't heard of anyone doing this but it would be interesting to try.
Could you let us know your Exif information and the distance and time of day you are taking your photos? Neil.

fneil

Mandy ,
           Now Bob is putting pressure on all of us with these photos.  He forgot to mention that he gets up at 5.30 am in the middle of summer on the finest days of the year to get to Kowloon Park before anyone else.
Neil.

fneil

Mandy,
          Try it without the rubber eyepiece.  I had the 7070wz out for some exercise this week and I noticed that I was using it at about half zoom on the 45x eyepiece. I suggest that you use it around that and use iso 100. If the light levels are low use the remote or Self Timer.
This is an average image from this week .  Taken about 9.00 am at 25 metres. Neil.

ps I also set the camera with -0.7 exposure compensation normally , but for the mynas around -1.0 as they are darker ( I use Spot Metering )