Eagle Hunting: I want to do some eagle hunting. I will be using a 35mm SLR film camera. Film speed 400 or 800. Camera: Canon AE-1 Program or Kodak Retina IV. Lenses for the Canon:...

Quinn 4

I want to do some eagle hunting. I will be using a 35mm SLR film camera. Film speed 400 or 800. Camera: Canon AE-1 Program or Kodak Retina IV. Lenses for the Canon: 200mm lens up to 500mm lens. For the Kodak Retina: 135mm or 200mm lens. I known will have to have a tripod, which is great if the eagle is not moving. What about when the eagle is moving. When I was a kid I hunt ducks and other birds using a shotgun, so I known about movement of a camera(shotgun). Am I forgetting anything?

Rongnongno Loc: FL

Quinn 4 wrote:

.../...Am I forgetting anything?

Yes. When you hunt you need to aim ahead of the moving target. With a camera, you aim AT the target. Big difference.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Quinn 4 wrote:

I want to do some eagle hunting. I will be using a 35mm SLR film camera. Film speed 400 or 800. Camera: Canon AE-1 Program or Kodak Retina IV. Lenses for the Canon: 200mm lens up to 500mm lens. For the Kodak Retina: 135mm or 200mm lens. I known will have to have a tripod, which is great if the eagle is not moving. What about when the eagle is moving. When I was a kid I hunt ducks and other birds using a shotgun, so I known about movement of a camera(shotgun). Am I forgetting anything?

For any bird in flight, and hand held a minimum of 1/2000 shutter speed should be used.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Quinn 4 wrote:

I want to do some eagle hunting. I will be using a 35mm SLR film camera. Film speed 400 or 800. Camera: Canon AE-1 Program or Kodak Retina IV. Lenses for the Canon: 200mm lens up to 500mm lens. For the Kodak Retina: 135mm or 200mm lens. I known will have to have a tripod, which is great if the eagle is not moving. What about when the eagle is moving. When I was a kid I hunt ducks and other birds using a shotgun, so I known about movement of a camera(shotgun). Am I forgetting anything?

Boy, that's an awful title!

Good luck, though.

d2b2 Loc: Catonsville, Maryland, USA

Quinn 4 wrote:

I want to do some eagle hunting. I will be using a 35mm SLR film camera. Film speed 400 or 800. Camera: Canon AE-1 Program or Kodak Retina IV. Lenses for the Canon: 200mm lens up to 500mm lens. For the Kodak Retina: 135mm or 200mm lens. I known will have to have a tripod, which is great if the eagle is not moving. What about when the eagle is moving. When I was a kid I hunt ducks and other birds using a shotgun, so I known about movement of a camera(shotgun). Am I forgetting anything?

I frequently shoot eagles at the Conowingo Dam in Maryland, every December. Using a tripod - whether they are in flight or not - is the norm for literally hundreds of us that go there every year, as seen below. The shutter speed is reduced if you use a tripod, but a lot of the rest depends on the angle of the eagle's flight, distance, sunlight and other variables. The trickiest part is getting the lighting to show the detail of the white head, if you are shooting a bald eagle. I use manual exposure settings, because the meter will never give you the correct exposure for that reason. The second photo was taken with a zoom set at 400mm at f7.1, with an ISO of 250 and a shutter speed of 1/1000.

TomV Loc: Annapolis, Maryland

Quinn 4 wrote:

I want to do some eagle hunting. I will be using a 35mm SLR film camera. Film speed 400 or 800. Camera: Canon AE-1 Program or Kodak Retina IV. Lenses for the Canon: 200mm lens up to 500mm lens. For the Kodak Retina: 135mm or 200mm lens. I known will have to have a tripod, which is great if the eagle is not moving. What about when the eagle is moving. When I was a kid I hunt ducks and other birds using a shotgun, so I known about movement of a camera(shotgun). Am I forgetting anything?

I do not know if the 135/200 will buy you much for eagles. I use a 400 hand-held and pop my 500 (recently had a 600) on the tripod because of the weight. As stated before, at least 1/1000 if moving, I prefer 1/2000.

Quinn 4

d2b2: Nice picture of the eagle, I should be so luck.
jerryc41: Yes, it is a bad title, not thinking.

Tikva Loc: Waukesha, WI

Nice shots, particularly the one of the eagle with lunch/dinner firmly grasped in his talons.

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

Quinn 4 wrote:

I want to do some eagle hunting. I will be using a 35mm SLR film camera. Film speed 400 or 800. Camera: Canon AE-1 Program or Kodak Retina IV. Lenses for the Canon: 200mm lens up to 500mm lens. For the Kodak Retina: 135mm or 200mm lens. I known will have to have a tripod, which is great if the eagle is not moving. What about when the eagle is moving. When I was a kid I hunt ducks and other birds using a shotgun, so I known about movement of a camera(shotgun). Am I forgetting anything?

I imagine that exposure will be a big challenge for you with a film camera, eagles in flight are one of my favorite subjects and with the digital camera I can quickly review my settings after the first few exposures. As far as equipment goes, you will probably need the longest lens you can get your hands on, I don't imagine that you will find much use for anything shorter than 300mm in in many instances the 500mm will seem a bit short. f/7.1 seems to be a favorite for most birders, it allows them to shoot at higher speeds to stop motion, of course with digital cameras most of us shoot at ISO's of 800 or higher. Personally I purchased a gimble head for my tripod and it is a wonderful tool for birds in flight.

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Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

billnikon wrote:

For any bird in flight, and hand held a minimum of 1/2000 shutter speed should be used.

Canon AE-1 shutter max is 1/1000s. A quick web search indicates the Kodak has a top shutter speed of 1/500. On that basis, I would use the Canon. Nice camera, more lenses available, still have one! Still going to be challenging for the subject choice. Hand held, manual focus, will be interesting, even with a light weight lens such as the FDn 500mm reflex, and reflex lenses have their own specific issues.

Good luck, and even though I have an AE-1, and a T90, and the FDn 500mm reflex, I wouldn't choose any of those combinations for eagles in flight.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Blurryeyed wrote:

I imagine that exposure will be a big challenge fo... (show quote)

Nice shot. My old T90 would do 1/4000, but hard to do with film and manual focus.

Leopardo

Agree with 1/2000 shutter speed. If you have patience, stay with a perched eagle. Before it takes off it will crouch a little. Rapid fire as it does and you should get some great in-flight images.

Peterff Loc: O'er The Hills and Far Away, in Themyscira.

Leopardo wrote:

Agree with 1/2000 shutter speed. If you have patience, stay with a perched eagle. Before it takes off it will crouch a little. Rapid fire as it does and you should get some great in-flight images.

All good advice, but it doesn't address the OP's question, given his equipment specifications.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Quinn 4 wrote:

I want to do some eagle hunting. I will be using a 35mm SLR film camera. Film speed 400 or 800. Camera: Canon AE-1 Program or Kodak Retina IV. Lenses for the Canon: 200mm lens up to 500mm lens. For the Kodak Retina: 135mm or 200mm lens. I known will have to have a tripod, which is great if the eagle is not moving. What about when the eagle is moving. When I was a kid I hunt ducks and other birds using a shotgun, so I known about movement of a camera(shotgun). Am I forgetting anything?

Do a google search for Novoflex Follow Focus. It took many forms over the years, but essentially it was a long lens (Novoflex lens) mounted in a gunstock looking mount, using a trigger mechanism to focus. It worked ok, and certainly faster than any manual focus lens, but it took some practice to learn how to use effectively.

If the eagle is perched or feeding on the ice or whatever, the tripod is a good way to go. For flight, a tripod is cumbersome but still helpful, as long as you use a gimbal. I don't think that 500mm is going to be enough. Depending on where you are, eagles will bolt when you get closer than 300 yards or so. But in some locations they will fly around and land right in front of you.

That being said I would never want to go back to using film to shoot subjects like these. The high ISO capabilities of cameras, in color, and the advances made in autofocus performance, both in the camera and in the lenses, makes digital so much more preferable to film.

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topshot Loc: Originaly Long Island, N.Y, now live in FL.

Awsome shots.. Love it. Well done.