A couple of boring eagle BiF's

davev

All taken with a Canon 30D, with a Canon 400 f5.6 lens, with a Kenko 1.5 TC.

kdog

Really fantastic shots!! thumb

Couple of q's. Is that actually the Kenko TC 1.5, or did you mean the much more common TC 1.4?

Does that combo actually autofocus for you? I've tried three different TCs with my 400 F5.6, and none of them will autofocus worth a darn. Wondering what your secret is.

Cheers,
-joel

Andy

Very jealous here!

davev

kdog wrote:

Really fantastic shots!! thumb

Couple of q's. Is that actually the Kenko TC 1.5, or did you mean the much more common TC 1.4?

Does that combo actually autofocus for you? I've tried three different TCs with my 400 F5.6, and none of them will autofocus worth a darn. Wondering what your secret is.

Cheers,
-joel

Thanks guys.

Joel, It's the Kenko 1.5 TC. I bought it used from the For Sale forum here on dgrin.
link

If you have good light, as you can see I had in these shots, blue skies and sunshine, it autofocused pretty well.
Not as well as the lens being on the camera by itself, but out of 250 shots, I'd say that the hunting of the camera only hurt me a couple of times.
I used only the center focal point, and AI Servo.

Here's a 100% crop of the first shot.

kdog

Thanks for the info, Dave. I wonder if the AI Servo makes a difference. I rarely use AI servo, and just tried a few test shots. There appears to be much less hunting than with one-shot, and the sharpness appears promising. So this actually may be the critical difference. Now I just need to get out and find some birds.

Your 100% crop is very impressive. Andy had it right, the word is "jealous".

Cheers,
-joel

JonMikal

what a magnificent creature.
well caught.

Maestro

Not boring at all! Great images.

Maestro

kdog wrote:

Thanks for the info, Dave. I wonder if the AI Servo makes a difference. I rarely use AI servo, and just tried a few test shots. There appears to be much less hunting than with one-shot, and the sharpness appears promising. So this actually may be the critical difference. Now I just need to get out and find some birds.

Your 100% crop is very impressive. Andy had it right, the word is "jealous".

Cheers,
-joel

Joel AI Servo is only used when you are sure the object will be moving, at least that is the way it works with Canon. One Shot is for still subjects and the AI Focus will handle both and is the one most people use; however, if you know you will be shooting bifs and bifs only switch on AI Servo.

Tango

kdog

Maestro wrote:

Joel AI Servo is only used when you are sure the object will be moving, at least that is the way it works with Canon. One Shot is for still subjects and the AI Focus will handle both and is the one most people use; however, if you know you will be shooting bifs and bifs only switch on AI Servo.

Thanks Stephen, but I'm already very aware of that. The question is whether the AF mode has any bearing on the ability to get a focus lock with a non-reporting TC.

Now let's return this thread to Dave and his killer eagle shots.

Maestro

kdog wrote:

Thanks Stephen, but I'm already very aware of that. The question is whether the AF mode has any bearing on the ability to get a focus lock with a non-reporting TC.

Now let's return this thread to Dave and his killer eagle shots.

Sorry my bad. Now back to the regular scheduled program of great baldies in action.

dbaker1221

no Eagle shot is boring..great BIFs:ivar

Giphsub

Great captures! What a magnificent bird!

davev

Thanks again guys.

Phyxius

davev wrote:

Thanks again guys.

You forgot to mention that these shots were all handheld.

Great shots Dave!! While they're all great, I absolutely love the first one!

PrescottPhotog

davev wrote:

All taken with a Canon 30D, with a Canon 400 f5.6 lens, with a Kenko 1.5 TC.

Very nice shots Dave..

Harryb

Excellent Dave. Its alway a rush to view and shoot eagles.

riddim_maker

No Eagle shot is boring in my book
And you did a hell of a job capturing them too

gluwater

Boring! I was expecting at least 2 dozen in the frame at 560mm. Bears rule...just not tonight :cry.