More Fairy Wrens (Female)

[GBO25]

Just got myself a Tamron 150-600 so I've tried it out on my local family of wrens. Haven't been able to capture a blue male yet.

Yippee....



Standin' Tall

[Stagecoach]

Good series Graham, looks like you are pleased with that lens.

[GBO25]

Thanks Grahame. It's the first non Canon lens I've bought and is actually better than I expected. I'm very pleased.

[Benjy]

Well caught Graham,been trying for ages to get wrens here,they are always on the move.....

[bnnrcn]

Very nice captures, they all look so cute.

[John 2]

Nice series Graham. Choice would be "Standin' Tall", perhaps with a slightly tighter crop from the RHS. Glad you like the Tamron. Gets a bit heavy after a while if you hand hold most of the time like me though.

[Krawuntzel]

Just got myself a Tamron 150-600 so I've tried it out on my local family of wrens.
Yippee....

Hello Graham
Good shots at the longest. I like Nr. 1 and especially Nr. 2. I own the same lens (on another brand of camera): I still struggle to master it in pictures of moving small birds at 600mm, because AF is too slow for my skills.
May I ask the percentage of "throwers" in a shooting like this with your camera/lens combination?
Erwin

[NorthernFocus]

Pretty impressive stuff. From both the glass and the handler

[Brownbear]

Indeed, very nice captures. I especially like the 1st for the moment captured (truly resembles a fairy) and the 2nd for the same reason (dreamy gaze) but also because of the position/display of the tail feathers.

Have you encountered any chromatic aberration challenges when shooting wide open with that lens?

[Barbara Ponder]

Wonderful shots Graham. Shooting the small birds is so much more difficult than the big ones i gravitate towards. I have been thinking about that lens, so any thoughts you would care to share would be greatly appreciated.

[Shadowman]

Those are some nice captures.

[GBO25]

Thanks everyone for the encouraging comments.

....Glad you like the Tamron. Gets a bit heavy after a while if you hand hold most of the time like me though.

Yes it does a little but at least it's not as heavy as the newer Sigma which is a kilo heavier

Hello Graham
May I ask the percentage of "throwers" in a shooting like this with your camera/lens combination?
Erwin

I'm using an EOS 70D and finding the auto focus and servo tracking is very fast and accurate but yes, with little targets like these birds there are a lot of blurred images -about 40%-50% are rejected. I also set aperture and shutter speed in manual mode then use auto ISO for correct exposure. For these birds the setting was f8 and 1/800. With auto ISO the camera set the ISO at 500 for #1, 400 for #2 and 320 for #3

........Have you encountered any chromatic aberration challenges when shooting wide open with that lens?

Very little CA Christina, in fact almost none. I have an image on Flickr here that has had no editing other than sharpening. The RAW image also shows no CA. There is also a shot of the moon here which does show a little greenish CA around the edges but nothing that couldn't be easily edited out.

. I have been thinking about that lens, so any thoughts you would care to share would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Barbara. I really like this lens, it's much better than I thought it would be. It's reasonably heavy but is hand holdable although I do often use a monopod or a tripod. On a Canon crop frame it's 240 - 960mm in 35mm equivalent. On a Nikon it'd be 225 - 900mm I think. Starting at 150 at the wide end means there are times when I need to move further away because 150 (240) is already considerably zoomed but I have a 70-200 if I need it. The stabilisation seems very good (Tamron call it VC for Vibration Control) but it needs to be switched off for long exposures on a tripod. Take a look at this image and you'll see what I mean. The blurry side is the shot with the VC switched on, the sharp side it was switched off.
The lens doesn't come with a case so unless you have a large camera bag you'll have to buy one. I bought a Lowepro Toploader Zoom 55 AW II camera case and it does the job nicely although I can't completely zip it closed if it's mounted on the 70D body but can if it's just the lens in it.
I guess because of the size and weight the twisting zoom action is a little tight but if it wasn't it'd tend to move by itself. As it is and while it's still new it's quite steady and doesn't creep. Also depending on what brand camera you have the zoom action might be backwards because it twists in the opposite direction to Canon lenses but I think the same way as backward Nikons
Finally and because of its size, this is the first lens I've owned where the camera body is mounted to the lens rather than mounting the lens onto the body.

[Barbara Ponder]

Graham, thanks so much for the information! Sounds like i should really take a closer look!

[Brownbear]

Hi Graham,

Thank you for sharing. Truly appreciated. Indeed I see no CA in that image.

[IzzieK]

If I were to choose between all of these beautiful shots, I like #1 best...I think the bird was trying a quick tippy toe or something. Makes me smile at the pose...

[Rebel]

Awesome shots, very cute little fellows!