SL and wildlife ?

[meerec]

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This morning with the SL and 90-280 APO SL:

[=http://www.wildlightphoto.com/temp/L1000046.jpg]

 

This is my second go-round with a loaner SL. The first was a year ago with adapters for my R and other lenses. At that time my biggest complaints were the automatic viewfinder brightness and the lack of sensor stabilization. This time the loaner includes the 90-280 APO so at least in the 90-280mm range, stabilization is a non-issue. I'm still struggling wth the automatic viewfinder brightness.I spent an hour or so this morning in my backyard blind with some obliging sparrows and warblers as subjects. The things I like about the SL are fabulous: the uncluttered buttons that can be operated with gloves on, the almost-real shutter speed dial than can be configured to turn the direction my muscles remember from the Leica-R cameras, the quiet responsive shutter, and apart from the automatic brightness thing, the viewfinder.Regarding the lens, optically it's quite good and if I'd never used the 280/4 APO R I'd be completely delighted with it. It's not quite as crisp as the 280/4 APO.There's still a learning curve ahead of me w.r.t. the AF. I've set it up for back button focus. Face recognition isn't up to the task when the bird's head doesn't fill the AF point, often locking onto the background; if the background is distant the AF system has a hard time re-focussing on the bird, so I've turned face recognition off. Basically I have to keep reminding myself "learning curve, learning curve, learning curve" otherwise I'd be blurting out things like "why do people put up with this AF bullsh!t?" When the SL's AF locks onto the right point it's quick, quiet and accurate but fiddling with the joystick to move the AF point, or point-focus-recompose while the optical stabilization is making the viewfinder image swim around and the bird is dancing on its perch is going to take some practice. Why do people put up with this AF bullsh!t?

I agree about learning. I've decided to spend more time experimenting myself. Got some good results on wife swimming in the home lap pool // not as wild I'd like to see but was a promising start.

 

This sparrow, or warble, was very close to you (I assume no cropping) ... so the hide works magic unless there's also a feeder nearby.

Nice image, very nice.

 

I've looked up prices for the 280/4 APO R on eBay recently and they were not much less than the 90-280 APO SL, which gives me AF to learn about ;-) and weather sealing. The R lens advantage would be the APO extenders, however they would render the lens a lot slower, even too slow, so I'm not that keen on that old sharp antique LOL

[wildlightphoto]

This lens would do well with a higher-resolution sensor.

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[meerec]

This lens would do well with a higher-resolution sensor.

 

 

 

 

nice burd

bravo!

[meerec]

Some wildlife turned up at the backyard today

SL+90-280

 

 

N1270881.jpg by Mirek Rzadkowski, on Flickr

[MT0227]

SL+90mm APO

 

My little friend let me take his portrait at Marriott's Ocean Club -  Aruba 

 

 2016-12-24_021-099 by Marc Tauber, on Flickr

[wildlightphoto]

Coyote in my neighbor's field a few days ago (extreme crop)

[thighslapper]

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this was a few months ago when a pigeon in the garden met an untimely end ....... 90/280 ....

 

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[turbonetics]

this was a few months ago when a pigeon in the garden met an untimely end ....... 90/280 ....

 

L1304166-2.jpg

 

is this Eurasian Sparrowhawk??

[helged]

Adult Northern Goshawk - accipiter gentilis.

Edited January 14, 2017 by helged

[thighslapper]

i'm afraid it's the common or garden sparrowhawk .....

[Suteetat]

SL with 90-280 is perfectly fine with more stationary or slow moving animal. 90-280 is quite a bit better than the older Nikon 70-200/2.8 VR but the new Nikon 70-200/e FL is no slouch and will give 90-280 the run for the money. Couple it to higher resolution body such as D810 will make it a difficult choice to pick. D810 has slower FPS but has better continuous AF and better slow light AF performance for sure. I just came back from Antarctica trip where I really wished I could bring SL with 90-280 but because of limited weight allowance on our chartered flight to King George's Island, I ended up bringing D810 with 70-200/e FL instead as it would  be a better back up to my D500 with 500/4e FL. AF wise, D500 is significantly better than SL in every way but if you are not shooting a lot of bif or a lot of low light scenario and if 280mm reach is adequate, SL would still be a fine choice.

[wildlightphoto]

Black-tailed Hare a.k.a. Jackrabbit

 

Leica SL, 90-280mm APO

[SrMi]

This morning with the SL and 90-280 APO SL:

 

This is my second go-round with a loaner SL. The first was a year ago with adapters for my R and other lenses. At that time my biggest complaints were the automatic viewfinder brightness and the lack of sensor stabilization. This time the loaner includes the 90-280 APO so at least in the 90-280mm range, stabilization is a non-issue. I'm still struggling wth the automatic viewfinder brightness.

 

I spent an hour or so this morning in my backyard blind with some obliging sparrows and warblers as subjects. The things I like about the SL are fabulous: the uncluttered buttons that can be operated with gloves on, the almost-real shutter speed dial than can be configured to turn the direction my muscles remember from the Leica-R cameras, the quiet responsive shutter, and apart from the automatic brightness thing, the viewfinder.

 

Regarding the lens, optically it's quite good and if I'd never used the 280/4 APO R I'd be completely delighted with it. It's not quite as crisp as the 280/4 APO.

 

There's still a learning curve ahead of me w.r.t. the AF. I've set it up for back button focus. Face recognition isn't up to the task when the bird's head doesn't fill the AF point, often locking onto the background; if the background is distant the AF system has a hard time re-focussing on the bird, so I've turned face recognition off. Basically I have to keep reminding myself "learning curve, learning curve, learning curve" otherwise I'd be blurting out things like "why do people put up with this AF bullsh!t?" When the SL's AF locks onto the right point it's quick, quiet and accurate but fiddling with the joystick to move the AF point, or point-focus-recompose while the optical stabilization is making the viewfinder image swim around and the bird is dancing on its perch is going to take some practice. Why do people put up with this AF bullsh!t?

 

Speaking from my own experience, YMMV. Using AF on moving objects, especially birds in flight is not easy. It takes a while to master, but at the end you'll be able to get more birds in focus than with MF. On the other hand, I would not try it with a mirrorless camera (e.g., SL or A7rII) but would instead use a DSLR, something like D500 or D5. Mirrorless shine with MF. The setup of AF is also crucial, although it has become quite complicated on DSLRs (but very powerful, and works very well). For me, the highest success rate is using AFc, back button focus, single point that I move with joystick to the appropriate location. The key is to tell the camera where to focus, not to let camera decide by itself. On SL, I find the AF Field size options not optimal: 1Point is too small, Field is too imprecise (for wildlife).

[wildlightphoto]

Speaking from my own experience, YMMV. Using AF on moving objects, especially birds in flight is not easy. It takes a while to master, but at the end you'll be able to get more birds in focus than with MF. On the other hand, I would not try it with a mirrorless camera (e.g., SL or A7rII) but would instead use a DSLR, something like D500 or D5. Mirrorless shine with MF. The setup of AF is also crucial, although it has become quite complicated on DSLRs (but very powerful, and works very well). For me, the highest success rate is using AFc, back button focus, single point that I move with joystick to the appropriate location. The key is to tell the camera where to focus, not to let camera decide by itself. On SL, I find the AF Field size options not optimal: 1Point is too small, Field is too imprecise (for wildlife).

 

 

I'm finding the single point is often too big and it focusses on foreground vegetation.  I'm not going back to an SLR, exposure control via exposure simulation mode is more important to me than AF of any kind.

 

I'm comfortable with manual focus.

Edited January 15, 2017 by wildlightphoto

[steppenw0lf]

I find single point very usable and do almost everything with it. I "hate" field, as I have no control what is selected.

I use manual focus only rarely (rather back button AF, which is actually MF on the 90-280, so I told a lie, sorry).   

And I often use the lens at f/7.1 or 8, so there is more in focus. (OIS allows me to do it.)

Edited January 15, 2017 by steppenw0lf

[turbonetics]

Adult Northern Goshawk - accipiter gentilis.

 

 

Interesting species...we have the Crested Goshawk here.

[Likaleica]

I think that small animals that move quickly, unpredictably, and 3-dimensionally (i.e. birds in flight) are a huge challenge to AF or MF, and it takes years of practice and mastery, like Doug, to get great images.  I have found the autofocus on the SL to be great for photographing slow, lumbering, critters or perched birds.  Would love to see a 400 f/2.8 with apo-extender.

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[Likaleica]

Heck, just a couple more.

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[John Z. Goriup]

Found myself near the Oakland Zoo area yesterday, the only nice day we've had in over a month, and since I had the SL and both native lenses with me I decided to take a quick detour in order to get some examples of images I could use to reply to this specific thread.

 

No, these were not taken on the Serengeti, nor are conditions and lighting in Oakland anything like Krueger or Amboseli, but I think even these photos and a little imagination adequately demonstrate the inherent qualities and characteristics the SL with the remarkable 90-280 possesses.

 

As I've stated before, the only thing I wish for to make this great combo even more widely suitable for game / bird / wildlife and sport photography in my view would be an APO quality 2x extender which retains all the auto featurtes of the SL / 90-280. I submit that if LEICA wish the SL to be a complete viable system, they must offer optics to shoot in the 280 -600mm region...............yes,  know all about the roadmap and the plan for the next couple of years, but I feel this is an issue that will eventually have to be addressed.

 

With the moderators indulgence, a series of images from yesterday's outing - all with SL / 90-280 @ ISO 800 on a RRS monopod with RRS monopod head and pp'd in LR5.

 

Constructive critique and comments welcome.

 

JZG 

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Hallo,

Look here: Leica L-Mount

[John Z. Goriup]

..............and another. Please note the branch on his back, which he carefully balanced there with his trunk and then kept it there for the whole time I was at the zoo.

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