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Recent content by plnelson

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    ID - Botswana Okavango River Delta

    I was photographing some impalas in the Okavango River delta of Botswana (southwest Africa) last week and as they ran they flushed a bird which I only discovered as I reviewed the photos back home after my trip! I've a attached a photo showing two images of this bird in flight - sorry for the...
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    Help with Botswana bird ID?

    Thanks!!!
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    Help with Botswana bird ID?

    I just returned from a photo trip to Botswana where I probably took photos of a hundred different bird species. Mr Google has helped me ID most of them but there are a few holdouts . . . This was taken in the Kalahari Plains a few hundred km south of the Okavango River delta, mid February...
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    D700, it's official.

    OK, feel free to elaborate - what are the non-technical advantages for birding of the D3?
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    D700, it's official.

    Considering that this is a birding forum I don't think either one of them is the one to get. The D300 is a better birding camera than the D3 or the D700 for the simple reason that the D3 and D700 have sensor elements with an 8.5 micron pitch and the D300 has the same number of elements but...
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    Sigma & Sirius lenses - advice please?

    They probably won't autofocus, or auto anything else with a modern DSLR, but they should still be usable manually. IQ is a different matter. There have been huge improvements in zoom lens design in recent years, through better use of ED glass, improved coatings, aspherical elements, etc...
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    Some winter-phase gull? in Florida Keys

    Thanks, everyone!:t:
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    Some winter-phase gull? in Florida Keys

    I can see that it could be a Laughing Gull, but how did you determine that it actually is a Laughing Gull? I find gulls, especially in their winter phase, to be very confusing so I'm looking for some tips to distinguish them. Thanks!
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    Some winter-phase gull? in Florida Keys

    These photos were taken from a dive boat just south of the Florida Keys in January. The second photo suggests that the tip of the beak may be orange - of course it could be a trick of the light or a bit of Frito's. http://pnart.com/temp/SomeGull0211.jpg...
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    80-400 VR or 300 f4 with 1.4tc?

    I have no experience with the 80-400 but I do have the 300 f/4 AF-S, and the latter has got to be faster focussing in marginal light because it's a faster lens, especially on the long end. Optically, the 300 f/4 is outstanding, even wide open or with the TC14eII - I'd be very surprised if...
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    300 f4 afs vs 300 f2.8 VR?

    I agree the 300 f/2.8 is too heavy to carry around. But I have the 300 f/4 AF-S and I find that I can only get critically sharp results with the 1.4 TC in bright sunlight, otherwise I have to use too slow a shutter speed or take the TC off. The D300 buys you about 1 stop over the D200...
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    lens advice please

    For birding, that rule is too simple. First of all, birds are often most active at the beginning and end of the day, so light may be poor; also birds have an annoying habit of flying into shadows. For both of these reasons lens speed is very important. Also modern AF cameras focus faster...
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    Nikon D3 v D2Xs v D300

    Not exactly. The D300 is sealed against dirt and moisture; it's rated for 150K shutter actuations, and it has a magnesium alloy body; so it's really in a different league from the D40, D60, etc. For me the D300 is the best birding camera on the market - it's build more rugged than the pure...
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    Another Boynton Beach (Fla) mystery

    Professionally, I work in digital imaging processing (for medical and scientific applications) so the problem from my POV is that ALL images from digital cameras are post-processed, often in ways the nontechnical user has no control over. So to me, announcing that a digital image is...
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    Another Boynton Beach (Fla) mystery

    Yes, these certainly were - they were very soft and dark to start with and cropped from a tiny part of a D100 frame, so they required much post-processing to make reasonably visible. That's why they're not "firsts" and don't appear in my portfolio. It's always an interesting philosophical...
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