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

Panasonic FZ150 (3 Viewers)

Hi Lyman, A red dot sight is an LED powered device that fits into the hot shoe of a camera, or gun. A small bright red dot is projected onto a small screen on the top of the sight. Every time you fit the sight to the camera you need to line it up with the focus square on the camera. Once that's done you can quickly track fast flying birds, without trying to find them in the viewfinder. Its particularly useful when using long zooms, as your field of view is very small. Its main disadvantage is that as you aren't using the viewfinder, you don't really know what you have shot until you do a playback of what you've taken. Its very good for birds in flight, or any fast action. It also reguires a 2032 battery. Here's a link to a sight that sells one similar to the one I have. Note that it has 7 brightness settings, that's important, as I had an earlier one that only had 3 brightness settings and you couldn't see the dot in sunlight. Basically it was useless in bright conditions.

http://sacheto.com/2119301/?utm_source=froogle_au&utm_medium=free&utm_campaign=product&lang=au

I forgot to mention, you will also need a "hot shoe sliding plate" for it to fit on to the camera. Its not included in this site, but some red dot sights do include that fitting.
 
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Hi Lyman, A red dot sight is an LED powered device that fits into the hot shoe of a camera, or gun. A small bright red dot is projected onto a small screen on the top of the sight.......Here's a link to a sight that sells one similar to the one I have. Note that it has 7 brightness settings, that's important, .....I forgot to mention, you will also need a "hot shoe sliding plate" for it to fit on to the camera. Its not included in this site, but some red dot sights do include that fitting.

Thanks for this info, I had also been wondering about such a device. I had never heared or read of it. So do I understand it correctly that this is NOT a laser pointer? But that one aims through that frame on top of the device?

Also, could you provide a link to a "hot shoe sliding plate" please? That would give me a better idea what to look for here. Thanks.
 
Also, could you provide a link to a "hot shoe sliding plate" please? That would give me a better idea what to look for here. Thanks.

http://www.photosolve.com/main/product/xtendasight/index.html

This is one way to mount the red dot sight to the hot shoe of the camera.

I tried one of these but found that it was too loose in the hot shoe of my camera.

I modified it with:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-Type-1-...=WDVW&rd=1&ih=001&category=27432&cmd=ViewItem

to get a more consistent alignment between camera and sight.
 
......Here's a link to the hot shoe sliding plate or platform.

http://gadget.brando.com/hot-shoe-sliding-platform_p01351c073d003.html

http://www.photosolve.com/main/product/xtendasight/index.html

This is one way to mount the red dot sight to the hot shoe of the camera.

I tried one of these but found that it was too loose in the hot shoe of my camera.

I modified it with:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Pro-Type-1-...=WDVW&rd=1&ih=001&category=27432&cmd=ViewItem

to get a more consistent alignment between camera and sight.

Thank you both for your helpful information. I'll most likely get something along these lines, though not right now. First need a new tripod for my scope.
 
Been using the FZ150 with 1.7 teleconverter for a few weeks now. Very impressed with the stabilisation. The attached shot (cropped for composition and reduced in resolution for uploading) was taken on the 5MP setting, intelligent zoom, and with the 1.7 teleconverter attached. So, basically shooting, hand-held at 1500mm focal length! Not bad, I thought. (Oh, I have applied selective noise reduction)
Hobbes
 

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....5MP setting, intelligent zoom, and with the 1.7 teleconverter attached. So, basically shooting, hand-held at 1500mm focal length! Not bad, I thought. (Oh, I have applied selective noise reduction)
Hobbes

Very nice picture. And I'm impressed of the result. Did you take several pictures with many worse ones, or is this the one you took and it turned out this well?
 
Very nice picture. And I'm impressed of the result. Did you take several pictures with many worse ones, or is this the one you took and it turned out this well?

I shoot on the 5fps burst mode so I fire off a load of shots and keep the one which is sharpest. However, I imagine that it wouldn't be impossible to simply take one photo and get this result. My feeling is that at that focal length, shooting hand-held, my odds of getting the shot I want are greatly increased by firing at 5fps. The fail rate definitely increases towards the exteme end of the longest focal lengths.
Hobbes
 
Hi Hobbes, that shot came out really well. I tried using my old 2x teleconverter, but its not of good quality and have abandoned using it any more. The tc you are using seems to give excellent results.
 
Hi Swissboy, I already have something like that on my hotshoe connection. I still have to line up the sight every time I fit it to the camera. Another problem I have is that the rotating switch on the sight is very stiff and almost impossible to turn on and off without affecting the sight's alignment.
 
Hi Hobbes, that shot came out really well. I tried using my old 2x teleconverter, but its not of good quality and have abandoned using it any more. The tc you are using seems to give excellent results.

Hi Roger
Thank you, yes, I used to use the Panasonic 1.7 teleconverter (DMW-LT55E) on my old FZ8 and always thought it gave very good results. I was pleased to be able to transfer it onto the FZ150.
All the best
Hobbes
 
Cracking Whinchat shot, Hobbes (only just seen it!), I've now got an FZ150 for offshore and UK work (the Nikon DSLR now lives permanently in Spain) and the results are much better than I expected. I'm toying with the idea of the converter, but I can't justify it for offshore work - do you use it for all your shots now or only put it on when the bird is at distance?

(Missing you in "the other place", BTW ;) )
 
Cracking Whinchat shot, Hobbes (only just seen it!), I've now got an FZ150 for offshore and UK work (the Nikon DSLR now lives permanently in Spain) and the results are much better than I expected. I'm toying with the idea of the converter, but I can't justify it for offshore work - do you use it for all your shots now or only put it on when the bird is at distance?

(Missing you in "the other place", BTW ;) )

Hi Mark
Really nice to 'see' you. I'm glad you're getting on well with the FZ150. I too have been very impressed with its capabilities even in low light. The stabilisation is extremely robust. Yes, I leave the 1.7 teleconverter on all the time. I bought the camera specifically to use as a 'long lens' and have my G3 with 100-300mm lens for closer shots. However, I do find I'm actually going to the FZ150 more often than not.

I was asked the other day what the downsides were to the FZ150. The main ones I could come up with were the slow start up speed (you can't just flick a switch and shoot) and the fact that every time you swtich on/off you have to reset the focus square back to the smallest size. I guess the bokeh isn't that nice but no-one expects small sensor cameras to produce images with tiny depths of field and attractive blur. All in all, the FZ150 has impressed me more than the G3 set up!

All the best
Hobbes
 
Focus issues in low light.

Hi, I have just come back from a trip to north Queensland (Australia), where I stayed at a lodge in a rainforest area. The forest was quite dark and the camera really struggled with focus. There were birds I couldn't shoot, as their period of movement from one spot to another was quicker than the camera's ability to focus on them. I even tried manual focus, but that didn't work either, as I couldn't do it much quicker than than the slow auto focus. In good light the results were excellent, but much of the time I was after birds that were at best in marginal light. I also think my particular camera does have an issue with auto focus and I'm going to have it looked at at some stage, probably this week. Here's a couple of shots from the trip. One was in low light and was one of the best I got in those conditions, the other was in full sun.
 

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Hi, I have just come back from a trip to north Queensland (Australia), where I stayed at a lodge in a rainforest area. The forest was quite dark and the camera really struggled with focus. There were birds I couldn't shoot, as their period of movement from one spot to another was quicker than the camera's ability to focus on them. I even tried manual focus, but that didn't work either, as I couldn't do it much quicker than than the slow auto focus. In good light the results were excellent, but much of the time I was after birds that were at best in marginal light. I also think my particular camera does have an issue with auto focus and I'm going to have it looked at at some stage, probably this week. Here's a couple of shots from the trip. One was in low light and was one of the best I got in those conditions, the other was in full sun.

If you were at Kingfisher Lodge I understand the difficulties. I was there for a few hours trying to digiscope a few years ago and it was very "hit and miss" due to slow AF and fast birds.
Not much you can do about this with digicams which is why DSLRs are still much the preferred instrument for bird photography.
Neil.
 
Interesting to hear your experiences, Roger. I've not tried the camera in a forest setting but it's a shame that it struggles. I guess where contrast is low, the auto focus will find it difficult. I hope perhaps it is a fault which you can get fixed, if you see what I mean!
Hobbes
 
Hi Mark
All in all, the FZ150 has impressed me more than the G3 set up!

All the best
Hobbes

Me too. I have sold my G3. Incidentally I have an Olympus TCON 1.7 (the original one) which I will be putting up for sale soon. If anyone here would like to get in first pm me.

Sean
 
Hi, I have just come back from a trip to north Queensland (Australia), where I stayed at a lodge in a rainforest area. The forest was quite dark and the camera really struggled with focus. There were birds I couldn't shoot, as their period of movement from one spot to another was quicker than the camera's ability to focus on them. I even tried manual focus, but that didn't work either, as I couldn't do it much quicker than than the slow auto focus. In good light the results were excellent, but much of the time I was after birds that were at best in marginal light. I also think my particular camera does have an issue with auto focus and I'm going to have it looked at at some stage, probably this week. Here's a couple of shots from the trip. One was in low light and was one of the best I got in those conditions, the other was in full sun.

Hello,
Just waiting for mine to arrive. Thanks to all the people I contacted, who gave me great advice, before I (eventually) made my decision! One simple point. I've looked at examples of images from all the other rival bridge cameras posted on Birdforum and to my eyes this camera gives the best images, these 2 are stunning! Coupled with the speed it has to be the best for photographing birds IMHO. Yes, not as good as DSLR but I like to walk a lot when I'm birding!
 
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First Bird Shot with FZ150

My wife couldn't decide between the Canon and the Panasonic, in the end she went with the FZ150. No regrets so far. Here is one taken at x 24 zoom of a heron.
 

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