Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

The first was an early attempt. He had his Nikon 200~400mm f/4, so I had photograph him with it using my 600mm. (It's a guy thing.)

The next photo is how my lens has an honored spot in the living room looking out and open window at birds and such. The flash is also fireing out a different open window.

The bottom photo was taken today using HSS (High Speed Synchronization) at a shutter speed of 1/2000 second.

I'm learning.............

I used a 1.4X TC on the bird shots, giving me an effective an effective 850mm lens.

My buddy with his new lens.

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Mine is bigger. Note the slave flash in the corner.

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1/250 Seconds

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1/2000 seconds HSS

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J-SPEIGHT Loc: Akron, Ohio

Nice shots Dave. And its definitely a man thing LOL.

WorldTraveler Loc: San Antonio, TX, now in Greenfield IN

Great shot! That thing looks like a crane or at least a block and tackle would be needed to rig it!!!! Lol

Clint

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

Funny story related to that. I'm a cancer survivor and any time I get a pain I worry that my cancer has come back. Shorty after I got that lens I had bad pains in my back and was worried that the cancer had come back and I would need more treatments, so made an appointment with my doctor. The doctor stuck his finger into the small of my back and asked if I recently lifted something heavy. "Just my new lens", I replied. I then showed how big it was via a photo on my iPhone. The doctor said OMG at your age you should not be moving things that big by yourself, hire a young assistant when you need to move that thing. The pain cleared up, I'm fine.

WorldTraveler Loc: San Antonio, TX, now in Greenfield IN

Thanks,

Clint

OneEasyRider Loc: Mount Airy, NC

Bigger is better Dave. Nice work!

RRS Loc: Not sure

Don't you just love that 600mmf/4.0! Did you fine tune it or was it right on out of the box? I like your "blind". I could most likely shoot out of it all day!

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

I had to perform the AF macro adjustment. I found the lens needed a "-4" correction. The depth of field can be very thin! I have been shooting out of my "blind" a lot!

Today I succeed in triggering a flash next to the bird feeder. The remote flash works well in both stranded and HSS mode. This lets me use the full range of shutter speeds available on my A99II in conjunction with flash. I'm able to do this even when the remote is in bright sunlight.

Now I need to learn what kind of feeder attracts birds. They seem to like seed balls but are ignoring a big seed feeder I put out yesterday.

RRS Loc: Not sure

Thanks Dave, mine is a +2 and you are so right DOF is very thin. Very good idea to off-set your flash, that way it won't mess up the eyes of your birds. Have fun. I'm having a great time and I find that I too am using a 1.4 TC with no noticable loss of IC.

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

RRS, I have been using the 1.4X for most of my shots since I got the big lens, but today I decided I was close enough that I wanted a wider field of view no I took the TC off. I then noticed an improvement in the image. I don't know if this will be true of all bodies but it's true with my A99II. I have been getting some good advice from a young man named Brian who takes great wild life photos using the Minolta 600mm f/4 and the A99II together. He tell me that he has never seen a benefit to the TC. I had to find out for myself but I believe him now. He also tells me that he sees no benefit to the 1.5 X magnification of using the A77II. I notce that he has his A77II up for sale. Again he says your are better off using the A99II and cropping. I think he is right about that also.

I have been in my blind for many hours today. I finally got a fairly good one of a woodpecker @1/4000. The sun has finally come out maybe the birds will come to feed. I'm sitting here with my laptop in one hand and my cable shutter release in the other. I see some birds.... gotta go!

Edit==========
Time to call it a day. The birds were too quick, but a squirrel run into a patch of sunlight long enough for me to take his picture at 1/4000. It looks very sharp in screen on the back of the camera. I can see every hair.

RRS Loc: Not sure

Don't feel bad, I was out in my car with the 600mm sitting on a bean bag sitting in the back seat so I could go to either side of the Explorer, My sister called from back East and I talked with her for about 25 minutes when an Owl flew in, I said I have to go and just hung up. I haven't been able to get back to her, hope she's talking to me but I had four hours tied up in that Owl and I didn't want to miss it and I didn't. Post that shot of the squirrel.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Why not use the built in Clear Image Zoom ??

suntouched Loc: Sierra Vista AZ

Isn't there any image degradation shooting through a window? With all the concern about filters and tele converters adversely affecting the end result I would think the last thing you would want would be a window in front of your lens. And then you are restricted to what birds come to you - is this the practice setup until you go into the field?

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Davethehiker Loc: South West Pennsylvania

The widow is open.