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Pied Oystercatchers |
The Canon RF100-500mm f4.5-7.1 L IS USM is one of the best
and sharpest tele zooms we can buy but 500mm on a full frame body is a bit
short for most birds even when they are close.
For a recent trip to Tasmania I mounted the 100-500L onto an
EOS R7 crop sensor body. This has a 1.6x
crop factor giving a full frame equivalent focal length of 800mm which is a
more useful focal length for birds.
Overall I rate the combination very satisfactory and more
versatile than the alternative of a full frame body with the 1.4x extender.
Image quality is good, croppability is good, autofocus with
subject /eye detection is good, handling and ergonomics are good. None of these
performance parameters is perfect but I think the old adage applies here: perfect
is the enemy of good.
I hand hold with this body/lens combination which does not
require a tripod or gimbal.
I use Electronic shutter, Servo Focus and H (not H+) Drive
mode even when the bird is mostly still (not flying). This combination seems to
produce best results from the animal/eye
recognition system.
Some of my photos are made at a considerable distance from
the bird making huge crops necessary. I
rate the results from this satisfactory for bird identification and sharing on
the internet. They won’t win any prizes though.
I use CRAW capture and process in Adobe Camera Raw. Most
images benefit from Adobe Denoise AI via the Enhance tab. I then upsize some of
the smaller files in Photoshop using [Preserve Details 2.0]. This sequence works
decently well although the more extreme crops are something of a rescue
mission.
I do not have Topaz Gigapixel yet. If Adobe does not offer
an equivalent soon, I may have to get it. I have never gotten good results from
Adobe Super-Resolution.
Here are some of the photos:
Yellow Wattlebird 1
Yellow Wattlebird 2
Tasmanian Native Hen
Scrub Wren
Scarlet Robin 1
Scarlet Robin 2
Red Capped Plover Original file 32.3 Mpx, Cropped version 0.83 Mpx, Version shown here upsized to 4.2 Mpx from the cropped version.
Pacific Gulls
New Holland honeyeater
Ringed Plovers
Green Parrot 1
Green Parrot 2
Starling