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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

Recent content by BChiker

  1. BChiker

    Travel with camera in USA

    As for a West Coast trip to the USA in 2018 – its completely hypothetical as to what the rules will be at that time. Personally I’d travel with what ever equipment I’d be willing to lose to theft or confiscation. You have to evaluate the cost of your airline tickets against the cost of the...
  2. BChiker

    New Sigma 150/600 contemporary

    Frankly it appears that your technique is fine. However the 4 images posted appear to have low contrast, perhaps an overcast sky. I’d suspect the camera has more influence on the sharpness of the focus than the lens under these conditions.
  3. BChiker

    Which ___ to 300mm zoom?

    I have the Nikkor AF-S FX 70-300mm f/4.5 – 5.6G (product # 2161) and would not recommend it for birding. At 300mm the image is noticeably soft. And every photographer I have met which admitted to owing this lens admitted to moving on to something better. I’d suggest giving the Nikkor AF-P DX...
  4. BChiker

    Nanaimo bird report, Septemberl 25, 2016

    Hi Neil, Looks like your blog address should be updated. Clicking on your signature got me a "Server Not Found" error. Maybe: https://thebirdstore.blogspot.ca/ Perhaps Google made some changes at their end. Best. David.
  5. BChiker

    FOV differences in cameras?

    The advertised so called field of view (FOV) for a telescope eyepiece is the “apparent field of view”. To get the “actual field of view” it is necessary to divide the apparent field of view of the eyepiece, the secondary, by the magnification. This will vary according to the primary focal...
  6. BChiker

    How many bird books have you got?

    Just 15 birding books, and two of those are identical. Received as gifts. My copy of Sibley is from the public library. I keep checking it out, and returning it, every three weeks or so. But sometimes I skip a month. Fortunately they have two copies which are rotated so there is typically a...
  7. BChiker

    Nikon D50 Settings

    Paul – I've never seen much difference in the images shot with my D60 in fine or normal. The file size varies, but it seems that normal is OK for casual photography. However, I'd suggest shooting in RAW and doing some post processing using the Nikon software apps, View NX-2 or Capture NX-D...
  8. BChiker

    Birding in Vancouver?

    Monte – Check out the Vancouver Trails web site. Not a birding site, but the most comprehensive list of parks and trails. http://www.vancouvertrails.com/trails/ Boundary Bay Regional Park is very accessible and offers pretty good opportunities for migrating / resident shorebirds, raptors, etc...
  9. BChiker

    Cropping and zoom/reach

    ChrisKten, I presume what you are looking for is a way to calculate the plate scale of a particular camera lens combination. Basically to calculate the number of pixels which the camera sensor – lens combination will place on a particular target. A compressive explanation can be found at...
  10. BChiker

    Action EX 8x40 new review online

    Thanks for the review. Pretty much confirms my experience with the EX 8x40's. Good binoculars, great price and sharp from edge to edge, insignificant CR - frankly I don't even notice it with birds on tree tops against a cloudy sky. I'd have no problem buying these again. Easily beats roofs...
  11. BChiker

    telphoto-lens

    I presume that you are using the DX version 70-300 mm lens (f/4.0 rather than f/4.5 for the FX version) – known to be soft at 300mm. Moving up to the 300mm f/4 prime would offer quite a bit of improvement especially with the 1.4 teleconverter. A lot of guys find this to be enough. Upgrading...
  12. BChiker

    kenya Bird-photography tour 2012

    I took a few minutes and paged through a few hundred of Sasanuma's images from Kenya. Wow. Truly impressed. I was in Kenya several decades ago but only interested in big game at that time. Now I have a new reason to return. Thanks for posting the link to his photographs.
  13. BChiker

    human gluttony

    I'd have to agree. Here in Canada local politicians are working to ban the sale of shark fin soup. Bans have already been tried in Toronto and Calgary. But they are facing opposition from some in the Chinese communities. So much so that the Toronto ban got tossed when a Superior Court judge...
  14. BChiker

    Nikon 300mm 2.8, VR I vs VR II?

    In a previous comment I suggested that you would normally turn off VR when the Nikon 300mm f/2.8 was mounted on a tripod. And that Thom Hogan's article on VR states that VR II would automatically be disengaged when the lens detected that the camera was mounted on a tripod in any regard. Hogan...
  15. BChiker

    Even more reach

    You could try stacking teleconverters. If you have a 1.4 add it in behind the 2x TC. You may need a short extension tube between the teleconverters. This would extend your reach from 900mm to 1260mm. And of course you will lose 3 stops in the process. Take a look at...
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