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one of God's creatures...

topic posted Tue, May 17, 2005 - 11:57 PM by  Unsubscribed
from egg to flight.

community-2.webtv.net/hotmail...BirdNest

a woman in california took these amazing pictures. enjoy!
:)
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  • Unsu...
     

    Re: one of God's creatures...

    Thu, May 19, 2005 - 2:32 PM
    what about four-pods? the kind with fur? it has worked well enough when caught off guard without a tripod while hiking...that is until a squirrel or some other varmit comes along to distract the scene. then all hell breaks loose! thus, i am a fan of the tripod, steady and less apt to run off, but recognize the usefulness of a fourpod now and again! most the time, i "wing it" anyway, not using a tripod and shooting with a higher ISO (which is why my shots are not nearly as good as tom's and many of the other's in the album!) anyhow...
    any suggestions for super lightweight and compact tripod for hiking/backpacking/kayaking etc? thanks.
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    • Tom
      Tom
      offline 24

      Re: one of God's creatures...

      Thu, May 19, 2005 - 3:12 PM
      The sad thing about tripods is that "super lightweight and compact" always works against you. Your best bet is to weld your camera to a piano crate full of rocks :^)

      But kidding aside, there are some lightweight tripods that work better than others, and the Gitzo carbon-fiber tripods work relatively very well, but cost an arm and a leg.

      An option that vastly improves even a bad tripod is to have a shutter-release cable so you don't have to touch the camera to trip the shutter. Pushing the shutter-release shakes the camera, especially if it's on a shaky tripod, but the cable vastly reduces this. If your subject isn't moving (pretty unlikely with birds) you can use the time-delay feature that most cameras have for group shots. Then it trips the shutter a few seconds later without your having to touch it.
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      • Govega
        Govega
        offline 18

        Tripods and Giant Binocs

        Sat, May 21, 2005 - 5:50 AM
        I think you hit the nail on the head with the shutter release cable idea. I also sell polymer clay sculpts on eBay and they are usually miniature and I find it hard to take a steady pic. I think the shutter release will work with that.

        YES, our tripod IS lightweight. Mainly because we do astronomy and birding so you can't always have that ton of bricks to lug around.

        Talking about heavy things, about a year ago I bought a pair of Oberwerks Giant binocs 11x70. they are really cheap and are VERY good for the price www.bigbinoculars.com/1570.htm

        You do usually need a tripod mount or even a paralellgram mount for most viewing. But has anyone here used giant binocs for birding? The resolution is really great and the field of view is wonderful.

        Penny
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        • Tom
          Tom
          offline 24

          Re: Tripods and Giant Binocs

          Sat, May 21, 2005 - 6:45 AM
          Wow! 11x70s must be blindingly bright. I've never used anything larger than 10x50 (which are heavy enough, IMHO). I think if I wanted to go larger I'd just get a spotting scope, since you're pretty much committed to a tripod at that size anyway. The spotting scopes usually have about a 70mm objective lens, so the 11x70s must be about the size of two spotting scopes, right?

          What's the advantage of the huge binos over a spotting scope? Is it that much more useful to get the image in both eyes at once?

          I've used the Canon 12x36 image-stabilized 'nocs, and they're great if there's plenty of light, but if you're under the canopy or near sunrise or sunset I much prefer my 10x50s (or even better, my wife's 7x42s).
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    Re: one of God's creatures...

    Thu, May 19, 2005 - 7:56 PM
    hmmm...i have a problem paying an arm and a leg in order to aquire and object that would then have more limbs, not to mentin balance, than me and would force me to seriously consider changing my name to ilene.
    as for the piano crate full of rocks...i think that would defiinitely cause a kayak/canoe to sink rather rapidly even if i were to feverishly bail water with spare film canisters.
    i'll look into the shutter release cable.
    thanks :)


    The sad thing about tripods is that "super lightweight and compact" always works against you. Your best bet is to weld your camera to a piano crate full of rocks :^)

    But kidding aside, there are some lightweight tripods that work better than others, and the Gitzo carbon-fiber tripods work relatively very well, but cost an arm and a leg.

    An option that vastly improves even a bad tripod is to have a shutter-release cable so you don't have to touch the camera to trip the shutter. Pushing the shutter-release shakes the camera, especially if it's on a shaky tripod, but the cable vastly reduces this. If your subject isn't moving (pretty unlikely with birds) you can use the time-delay feature that most cameras have for group shots. Then it trips the shutter a few seconds later without your having to touch it.
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