13 January 2009

Eagles day 1

Today the weather had improved, and I got my first experience with the eagles.
I was certain that I would have plenty of time to get bored, sitting inside the hide from 8:00 to 15:00. So I had brought coffee, snacks, food, and even some stuff to read.
I had time for some coffee and a quick bite, but that was it. Even without rattling off frames in long series I collected 400 exposures, with a keeping rate of about 25% after the first weeding tonight. That's better than I expected, but maybe I'm just not critical enough.
The 600mm performed very well, as did the DA* 300/4.
The two guys beside me in the hide used Canon 5D, 500/4 and 70-200 zooms. It struck me that the Image Stabilisation in the Canon lenses was surprisingly audible. The Canon AF was about as Pentax SDM, but with more hunting in low light. :-) The whizz from the Pentax FA* 600/4 however, was by good margin the loudest noise produced inside that hide today. To my relief the the birds didn't mind much. One of the visiting eagles sometimes looked up at the sound and earned me a couple of shots with direct eye contact. I haven't dug deeply enough into the raw file pile to scrutinize that yet, though. The shot above was one of the first this morning, made with K20D, FA* 600/4, f/7.1, and 1/30s at ISO 1600.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Jostein,

That's a great picture. I think you must have the most amount of pictures posted on Pentax Gallery. I would be glad if you would write an article about you and your photo treks, your equipment and anything you would like to add. I would post it on my blog and give you the dredits. On the other hand, if you would prefer, I can write you a series of questions and you could answer them, sort of an interview.