Robins Bickering at the Water Cooler

[k-hawinkler]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

 

Olympus OM-D E-M5 + KIPON L/R-m4/3 + Leica Vario-Elmar-R 105-280/4.2

[doppelwurst]

all ar beautiful. And with the first you captured a magnificent spectacle.

[stuny]

K-H -

 

Superb.

[k-hawinkler]

George, doppelwurst, Stuart,

 

Thank you.

[pauledell]

K-H,

 

A hilarious shot with the first. The two robins in the water dish are shouting at each other while the third seems to be watching intently. All are excellent pictures.

 

Paul

[Northwest Wanderer]

Karl,

You truly have a talent for bird photography. This set is just great.

[vdb]

Advertisement (gone after registration)

Absolutely superb.

[allamande]

Fantastic action shots!

The triad in the first one is priceless.

 

Ece

[Iduna]

K.-H,

 

these shots of yours again let me admire your skill and patience. I have never seen such and cannot remember having a look into the beak. Great cinema! Do you use any camouflage or does the focal length of the vario +sensor provide enough distance.?

[k-hawinkler]

Paul, Bill, Virgil, Ece, Iduna, agprkr,

 

Thank you.

 

 

K.-H,

 

these shots of yours again let me admire your skill and patience. I have never seen such and cannot remember having a look into the beak. Great cinema! Do you use any camouflage or does the focal length of the vario +sensor provide enough distance.?

 

 

Hi Iduna,

 

Thanks. It all depends.

 

In this case, my wife and I were having breakfast in the family room when I noticed the bickering less than 10 yards away.

So, these images were shot through the glass of the veranda door. I guess I was using my house as a blind.

However, our double pane windows completely screw up any shots taken through them. I can't even focus through them.

The solid veranda door glass, however, doesn't seem to cause any for me noticeable optical problems.

 

Birds seem very sensitive to movement, especially rapid movements.

Sometimes, all the birds head simultaneously for the trees and bushes because a bird of prey appears in the sky.

We have those hunters as well. Recently I took an image of a Sharpie (Sharp-Shinned Hawk) but no Leica equipment involved.

 

Had I opened the veranda door, I would have scared the Robins away.

However, had I already been standing or sitting quietly outside at the same distance, and not moving rapidly the birds would have been okay with that.

Especially if a tree or bush partially obscures the line of sight. In fact, I have taken many shots that way.

 

When working on a tripod, my APO-Telyt-R 280/4 and Vario-Elmar-R 105-280/4.2 are top notch, in their own league, but very expensive.

In the past I have primarily used Telyt-V, 400/5.6, 560/5.6, 400/6.8, and 560/6.8. All four lenses combined cost less than one of the R lenses above.

However, these older lenses are achromatic and not apochromatic, showing, among other optical imperfections, some veiling glare and sometimes peculiar looking bokehs.

But, I could focus and use all these older lenses on my M9 with Visoflex III. It's a lot of fun to use as well.

 

The appearance of ILMC cameras has changed the game for me.

I am therefore looking forward in getting the M to complement my other cameras.

Then I could use my R lenses on cameras with crop factors of 1x, 1.5x, and 2x.

For example, I would have for the APO-Telyt-R 280/4 these equivalent FOV for 135 film:

 

Leica M ..................: 280/4

Sony NEX ...............: 420/4

Olympus OM-D E-M5: 560/4

 

I prefer this kind of solution over using APO-Extender-R 1.4x or 2x, as they reduce the effective aperture by 1 or 2 f-stops.

The quality of these smaller sensors has gotten amazingly good I find.

 

All the mentioned lenses are too bulky and heavy for me to focus them handheld.

Not having a hard stop at infinity can also be a challenge under certain conditions.

 

For hand held manual focus the LEICA VARIO-ELMAR-R 80-200 mm f/4 on a NEX camera is my preferred tool.

That gives me an equivalent FOV for 135 film of 300 mm. Very nice.

 

Yesterday and today were optimal conditions for the cranes heading north. And many many cranes took advantage of that.

The wind was blowing quite strongly in the right direction and the cranes were traveling with tremendous speed.

The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge About Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico is not that far south from us.

The north heading cranes don't need a full day to pass our location. Here is a snapshot of a few cranes passing by at intermediate hight.

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

This shot from today is taken with the Sony NEX-5N + Novoflex NEX/LER Adapter + Leica Vario-Elmar-R 80-200/4.

The lens seems very well calibrated and the Novoflex adapter is precisely made so that my system has a hard stop at infinity.

Very useful for these kinds of shots.

[Iduna]

K.-H,

 

thank you so much for your effort to write this truly informative and very detailed report about the robin-shooting.. I'll study the lens question carefully. It is helping a lot, because I also have a crop camera (Cnon D30). you are certainly write about the non Apo R lenses. but I hope I'll get the best out of mine. I'll try out a polarizer as well. Probably a Panasonic G3 will be helpful to enhance the focal length and get nice results.

Keep going and so will I inspirited by your exciting

[k-hawinkler]

Iduna,

 

Thanks. No doubt one can get stunning results with the older Telyt-V lenses.

Certainly Douglas Herr of http://wildlightphoto.com/ has demonstrated that amply.

It is just more of a challenge than with the better R lenses.

Success with the older lenses also depends on the specifics of a scene,

for example what the out-of-focus areas look like.

I think in these shots http://www.l-camera-forum.com/leica-forum/nature-wildlife/254577-hummingbirds-galore-nex-7-telyt-1-a.html everything worked out just fine.

 

I wish you good luck with your photography and hope to continue to see your excellent shots on this forum.

Thanks again.

[Iduna]

K.-H.,

 

thanks again for the link to your humming birds: oh fantastic these shots are.

Now I'll explore all the potential of my Telyt R-250/4.0. It will be fun I hope.

[kaethe]

I love this series!!! Thank you for taking the time to describe your set up and pro and cons of some of the lenses.

kaethe

[k-hawinkler]

Iduna, kaethe,

 

Thank you.

[platypus]

K-H,

Of all your bird shots, (and they are all so great!) I think this series is my favourite.

It's impossible to tell that they were taken through glass, (which says a lot for the

cleanliness of your glass!). Somehow you always bring out the character of the birds

in your photographs, that's a real talent.

Dee.

[k-hawinkler]

Hi Dee,

 

Thank you so much for your comment.

I appreciate that very much.