Juvenile cattle tyrant

[Panama Hat & Camera]

I was looking for kiskadees (my favorite bird) when I saw this juvenile cattle tyrant. Despite the great distance, I think the picture is presentable and I decided to bring it to the CiC.
C&C are welcome, as always.
Antonio.

1/500 - f/5.9 - ISO 200 - 1000 mm FFE - Nikon P510

[Shadowman]

I was looking for kiskadees (my favorite bird) when I saw this juvenile cattle tyrant. Despite the great distance, I think the picture is presentable and I decided to bring it to the CiC.
C&C are welcome, as always.
Antonio.

1/500 - f/5.9 - ISO 200 - 1000 mm FFE - Nikon P510

Very nice, that series of camera is improving from previous versions.

[Panama Hat & Camera]

John,
Really, nowadays the superzoom cameras are an option to take photos of distant subjects.
Thank you very much for seeing and for your comment.
Antonio.

[Shadowman]

John,
Really, nowadays the superzoom cameras are an option to take photos of distant subjects.
Thank you very much for seeing and for your comment.
Antonio.

Antonio,

I have the P90 with max 650mm focal length, sometimes I get good images, sometimes not. It's mostly the autofocus system that prevents me from getting images as sharp as yours at maximum zoom. I have two friends who have the P500 and I noticed the better performance levels on theirs at maximum zoom.

[Panama Hat & Camera]

John,
The P510 autofocus is slow and sometimes it is fooled by the background.
Because this, I'm thinking of buying a DSLR.
Do you have a DSLR? Which brand / model? The autofocus works quickly and well?
Antonio.

[Otavio]

Hi Antônio. Nice shot. You are making great use of your P510. I like that... Cheers,

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Antonio,

Given the P510's lack of RAW, something like this is about as good as I think we can get from the P510 for such a subject and distance. I think this is better than anything I have managed.

Do you have a DSLR? Which brand / model? The autofocus works quickly and well?

Almost any proper DSLR (i.e. with an optical viewfinder and focus system) is going to perform waaaaay better than a bridge camera - just got to any shop and try one, any one - and you'll see what I mean - I was blown away by my D5000 AF after my previous bridge camera (a Fuji S6500). I can't speak for the mirror-less system cameras, I have insufficient experience.

As we have both discovered, getting a 'good' picture (like this) is possible, but you need good light; quantity, quality and sympathetic angle to the subject and the subject against a nothing background in order to successfully, if slowly, achieve AF.

Even then, if you crop in PP, noise and jpg artefacts will begin to be noticeable.

Is this better than a DSLR at say 450mm (i.e. 300mm x 1.5 c/f), then cropped even more in PP, well yes, it certainly can be.

So if you go the DSLR route, you and your subject will need to be a lot closer together.

I am torn between whether the Panasonic FZ200, with a constant f/2.8 aperture, allowing much faster shutter speeds, albeit at 600mm FFE might be better than the Canon SX50HS with 1200mm FFE, but a similarly slow lens as the P510. I think both have the advantage of RAW, which should allow better PP.

However, my next purchases will be the 10-24mm lens and a D7100 body.

Cheers,