Some action shots at 38x (1 Viewer)

Yesterday tried my luck with some moving targets.

Found out something useful. One of the big problems is depth of field.
The Pentax camera has a rapid fire mode where it takes about 5 frames
per second as long as you hold down the shutter release. So I used this
mode and just let the moving targets move through the shallow depth of
field while holding down the shutter letting the camera fire at 5/FPS
thinking that at least a few of the frames will be in focus and it
worked.

Also these shots may be a bit more grainy then they need to be because
it was at the end of the day and my memory card was nearly full so I
had to reduce the file size to get these shots.

It's not great art but it's not a muddy blur either.

SF

Pretty impressive. What are those swans?

John

John Russell said:

Pretty impressive. What are those swans?
John

Click to expand...

Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus)
These were on the upper Mississippi between Iowa and Wisc.

I think they are called Bewick's Swan in England and are seen on the Elbe estuary in Germany.

Cologne- I still have family up river in Mainz and Frankfurt and scattered throughout little villages in the Westerwald. Is birding a big deal in Germany?

SF

Nice Black Duck (3) in with Mallard too.

Hi Sout Fork. I live on the edge of Westerwald when I am away at work.
As I type I am near a village called Uckerath, just off the main Westerwald strasse.
I do not see any other birders when I wander my local patch over here (the fields between Uckerath and Hennef) yet I spend hours watching the Common Buzzards and Red Kites soaring over the fields.
I think I am seen as something of an eccentric novelty!
Quite a contrast to Isle of Skye where several of my neighbours are out most days and the Highlands RSPB rep.(Alison) lives just a hundred yards up the road from me.
What Pentax is it you use? I've just ordered a PF 65 ED as a Christmas present to myself!
I'm not sure what E.P's to buy yet, nor tripod.

Sout Fork said:

Tundra Swan (Cygnus columbianus)
These were on the upper Mississippi between Iowa and Wisc.

I think they are called Bewick's Swan in England and are seen on the Elbe estuary in Germany.

Cologne- I still have family up river in Mainz and Frankfurt and scattered throughout little villages in the Westerwald. Is birding a big deal in Germany?

SF

Click to expand...

Hi Sout Fork,
Thanks for that. Around here we only get Mute Swans plus the very occasional Black Swan escapees. However, I have seen Whooper Swans on the Lower Rhine, near the Dutch border in winter.
As Rich writes, there are not a lot of birders here. Most are organized in NABU (Naturschutzbund - Nature Preservation Society).

John

RichC said:

Hi Sout Fork. I live on the edge of Westerwald when I am away at work.
As I type I am near a village called Uckerath, just off the main Westerwald strasse.
I do not see any other birders when I wander my local patch over here (the fields between Uckerath and Hennef) yet I spend hours watching the Common Buzzards and Red Kites soaring over the fields.
I think I am seen as something of an eccentric novelty!
Quite a contrast to Isle of Skye where several of my neighbours are out most days and the Highlands RSPB rep.(Alison) lives just a hundred yards up the road from me.
What Pentax is it you use? I've just ordered a PF 65 ED as a Christmas present to myself!
I'm not sure what E.P's to buy yet, nor tripod.

Click to expand...

Hi Rich,
I envy you your second (or is it first?) home in Skye. I was there on holiday a few years ago and the countryside is superb.
Allegedly there are more Red Kites in Germany than anywhere else but most of them seem to be south of Cologne. I often see them soaring above the autobahn, when I drive south. Common Buzzards and Kestrels are the most frequently seen raptors here, although Goshawks and Sparrow Hawks regularly breed in some Cologne parks and cemeteries.
The Siebengebirge near you should be a good birding location and then there is the Wahner Heide. I was there last week and saw some Whinchats (very late for them) and a Great Grey Shrike.
As regards tripods, have a look at the wooden ones from Berlebach. They are somewhat heavier than equivalent carbon tripods but are a fraction of the price and are supposed to dampen vibrations better than carbon or aluminium. With your angled scope you should be able to get away with a fairly low maximum height.
The Pentax XW eyepieces have an excellent reputation but are correspondingly expensive. If you are ever down south, Intercon Spacetec in Augsburg or Teleskop-Service in Munich have vast selections of eyepieces and would offer you the opportunity of making comparisons using your own scope.

John

RichC said:

Hi Sout Fork. I live on the edge of Westerwald when I am away at work.
As I type I am near a village called Uckerath, just off the main Westerwald strasse.
I do not see any other birders when I wander my local patch over here (the fields between Uckerath and Hennef) yet I spend hours watching the Common Buzzards and Red Kites soaring over the fields.
I think I am seen as something of an eccentric novelty!
Quite a contrast to Isle of Skye where several of my neighbours are out most days and the Highlands RSPB rep.(Alison) lives just a hundred yards up the road from me.
What Pentax is it you use? I've just ordered a PF 65 ED as a Christmas present to myself!
I'm not sure what E.P's to buy yet, nor tripod.

Click to expand...

Uckerath-just 25 miles from where my Grandfather was born (Daaden).

Birding has become, in the last 20 years or so, a very big deal here in
the States. So much so that a conflict has been developing between
hunters and birders as to just how wildlife areas should be managed. And
if you don't go hard-core with binos and scope it seems like everyone
has, at least, a feeder outside the window. Now if only we could get
rid of those fools in Washington who don't recognize the reality of
global warming...

Been birding down on the Mississippi (otherwise simply called "the river") because
migration is just starting to heat up here. The river is about 3 miles
across. Right now its a solid raft of birds of every kind from shore to
shore-rails, herons, bittern, cormorants, ducks, geese, swans, shorebirds,
hawks, eagles, cranes etc. In one day we counted 114 species of all
kinds including passerine.

We were treated to one of nature's great sights. The whole lot of them
decided to take to the air all at once. It was a maelstrom of birds from
horizon to horizon. Have no idea how many perhaps 100,000s?. Without
exaggeration it sounded like a train coming down the tracks at high speed.
It's at times like this that I forget the binos, scope, field manuals
and just sit and let nature do it's thing.

As far as EPs are concerned... we have the 80 and 100mm Pentax and like
the Stratus line of eps. We use the 17mm and 13mm. The only complaint I
have ever heard is that they are big and those with the 65mm can't zip
up the scope case over it. Strangely Pentax's own XWs won't fit into the
65mm case either. The same line is sold in Europe as Hypernion I think.
1/3 the cost of Pentax's own line of the XW and very comparable in
performance.

Good Birding

SF

Hi John,
How do? Wild weather yeasterday was it not? Lots of smaller trees down over my way. IoSkye is home. I am just here with work at the moment.
My balcony is quite good for raptors. Buzz, Red Kite, Kestrel and Gos I've watched through the Bins whilst having a smoke out there. The Gos being on just a few occasions. The others are daily (provided I am in th flat whilst there is some daylight!).
Red Backed Shrike was often seen through the summer too, sitting on the telephone cables that go over the fields.
I had a walk around Alnner See in Hennef today, Red Kies, Cormies, GC Grebes etc. A nice walk...and 3 x Egyptian Geese too!
I'll look up on the map the places you mention.
IoSkye is a fantastic place to live, if somewhat wet.
My house overlooks Broadford bay. It's a real privelage to be able to watch so many waders, Divers,Gannets,Eiders,Scoters etc from my lounge window If I do not feel like going out.

Hi Sout Fork.....Regarding your Grandad...small world eh?
It's a nice part of the world.Slightly different for me to home mind you!
I look up the EP's you suggest because the reason I went for the Pentax was so I could get 2 x EP's of the generic 1.25" size instead of just 1 x Pentax/Branded EP. Next year I'll treat myself to a really top quality one....and so on, as cash allows.
Sounds like a fantastic time on "the river". I'm just off to look at your pictures again

Cheers to you both
RichC
Industrial Migrant !

Sout Fork said:

As far as EPs are concerned... we have the 80 and 100mm Pentax and like
the Stratus line of eps. We use the 17mm and 13mm. The only complaint I
have ever heard is that they are big and those with the 65mm can't zip
up the scope case over it. Strangely Pentax's own XWs won't fit into the
65mm case either. The same line is sold in Europe as Hypernion I think.
1/3 the cost of Pentax's own line of the XW and very comparable in
performance.

Good Birding

SF

Click to expand...

I have the PF-65, and the case *will* close over both the XL 14 and XL 10.5 ep's, so I assume the same is true for the XW's. The one caveat is that it *doesn't* close when the eyecups are screwed out fully, which extends the barrel length of the XW/XL considerably. Since I don't wear glasses, I screw them all the way out for use, which means I have to screw the eyecup down when I zip the case closed.

Hi RichC:

If you're looking for a low-cost combination, I would recommend getting a cheaper wide-angle for low-power scanning, and mate it to a slightly better quality eyepiece for higher power. Something like the Orion Expanse (or one of it's many clones) at 20mm (which gives 19.5X on the PF-65) will provide beatiful views for scanning, and only cost less than 50 euros. For higher power, many people love the Baader Hyperion (the Euro version of the Orion Stratus, both of which are knock-offs of the Vixen LVW).

You could get a 20mm Expanse (or clone) + 13mm Hyperion for well under $200. The only concern is that the Hyperion/Stratus is heavy, and the case doesn't zip closed with it on. If that is a concern, the 12mm Pentax XF (which is much smaller) might work -- though, from my experience, at that point the price point ($160ish) is too close to the expensive ep's.

Others really like the Knight Owl ep's. The EWA series gets pretty solid reviews considering they are only around $40 each. I have a 20mm wide-angle (my "cheapo" low-power piece, not the EWA but the older WA series) and really like it. In Europe I think there are similar companies which produce cheap knock-off eyepieces -- just check the eye-relief specs on the higher power pieces because some of them get really short, and it becomes a problem for birding use.

You might try looking at the forums at cloudynights.com or even astromart.com. These are astronomy websites, but there are many users discussing eyepieces over there and I'm sure you could find others in Germany who could give you advice. Be warned though, astronomy guys are nuts about their equipment and the amount of info there can be a little overwhelming at first!

That is some pretty good digiscoping of the flying birds and one of the duck pond is a super habitat shot. There are more and more people taking good shots of flyers with digiscoping set ups now. Happy snapping.

eitanaltman said:

You could get a 20mm Expanse (or clone) + 13mm Hyperion for well under $200.

Click to expand...

I have a 20mm Expanse clone (39 bucks including all shipping and tax).
It works fine on my stuff. You don't need hyper-quality eps to get a
nice vivid image at 20x on a 65mm. I also have a Stratus 17mm.
Comparing the two the most obvious difference is the superior field
correction of the Stratus. The Stratus is more or less perfect out to
the edges. In fact it gives the impression of the image just continuing
under the field stop of the ep. But I wouldn't lose sleep over it.

Another thing you might want to consider. As the objective gets smaller
so does the power range. That is you don't want to use any scope much
under 20x regardless of objective size. The purpose of a scope is to provide
magnification you can't get on a pair of binos. So rather than using any
of my scopes at say, 15x, I use my 15x63 binos and have the huge
advantage of two eyes.

On the other hand the upper limits of quality viewing on a 65mm is about 30x-
giving a total range of +10x. My 100mm is decent from 20x to 90x a
range of +70x.

So you might want to consider just one high quality wide field ep that
would put you right in the sweet spot of your narrow power range-25x
(about a 15mm ep).

Would a mediocre 30x really give you that much more over-all visual data
than a first rate 25x?
or,
would a mediocre 20x really give you that much more wider more vivid, a
image than the a high quality 25x?

Also it would simplify your field kit- one good ep that you just leave
on the scope instead of fumbling around with multiple eps out in the
field.

Something to consider,
SF

Paul Jarvis said:

That is some pretty good digiscoping of the flying birds and one of the duck pond is a super habitat shot. There are more and more people taking good shots of flyers with digiscoping set ups now. Happy snapping.

Click to expand...

Thanks,
One of the problems of so many pictures I've seen is that so often they are static still shots that look like they belong in a field manual. While out in the field birds are very active and interacting with the habitat and carrying on with all kinds of interesting behavior that the static shots miss.

A case in Point:
This picture is one of an adult Tundra Swan using an agressive display against another Swan which is not in the FOV. If I had to give the picture a title it would be "don't mess with my family".

Such action makes a picture come alive to my eye.

SF