What's new

What is your favorite setup for bird photography?

Like the title asks, what are you guys and gals shooting? I fairly recently decided to get serious about wildlife photography, namely bird photography. My main camera is a Pentax K-1II but with a fps of 4.4 that wasn't going to cut it. The new K-3III was about to come out, but delayed again and fairly more expensive than I was expecting, so I looked at specs and eBay prices and settled on a relatively unused K-5II. It had about 6800 on the shutter count. I was using my 70-200 f2.8 for a bit but needed to get closer so I again hit up eBay and found a Tamron 1.4 teleconverter. I got the 2x also but its no where near as clear as the 1.4. I was enjoying that setup for a while. I didn't really get out terribly much because of the pandemic situation and my sister has celiac disease so i tend to be extra cautious because of her immune system. About a two months ago a buddy of mine told me he was going on a trip that stopped in Page Az to photograph the California Condors and asked if I wanted to go. Well of course I did, but I knew I'd need a longer lens than the 70-200. I was looking at renting the 150-450, but for 11 days it was going to cost around $360. So I went back to eBay and luckily a copy of the Sigma 150-500 f/5-6.3 was up for grabs and grab it I did. It took some focus adjusting and is still a bit soft with the 1.4 but overall I'm usually happy with the images I'm getting from it. It may as well be glued to the K-5, I don't use that lens or body for anything other than wildlife. So now that my boring story is out of the way, what do you shoot, and how did you settle on it?

P.S. I am a gear junkie, get technical.
 
Congrats, Sir PCFiend138, on your new endeavor!
Indeed, you're about to run headlong down a really, really deep rabbit hole!!
What you might consider, just for giggles, is to check out your local wetland and wildlife refuges.
Nothing beats getting close to where the birds are.
Or even putting up a few bird feeders in your backyard.
And if your profile info is correct, there are lots of bird hotspots in the Texas hill country.
While you're at it, you might spend some time learning about the birds, their behavior and how to recognize them.
Sorry if this didn't give you lots of techie info, but you'll get plenty of that in due course!
 
I have a very basic set up. 13 year old Canon Rebel XS, 75-300mm kit lens and the Canon 55-250mm. Most of the time I have no where near enough reach but I really enjoy the challenge of trying to get decent shots with what I have. Fixed income retiree so there is not much chance of major upgrades in the near future. Maybe if I win the lotto!! I would really like to try something like your 150-500mm Sigma.
 
So I feel I should apologize, I forgot I made this post. I still haven't visited any refuges yet, now that things have calmed down significantly since last year I will make my way out to them. I have had feeders in the yard though. I recently added 5 more and set up a blind. Hopefully I'll be able to get closer. In the meantime here are a few of what I've gotten with the lens/body combo mentioned in the first post.



_IGP0049.jpg


_IGP8765.jpg


_IGP8940.jpg
_IGP9284.jpg
_IGP9330.jpg
_IGP9335.jpg
 
A bit of a late response, but here goes.

For quite a while, I was using the same Sigma 150-500 lens you mentioned with my Nikon D300S DSLR. A couple of years ago, I finally realized I wasn't getting any younger, and lugging around that big hunk of glass along with an already heavy camera body was no longer fun. I sold off all my Nikon gear and the lenses and purchased a Panasonic FZ300 "superzoom/bridge" camera. It has a non-interchangeable 24X (25-600mm) F2.8 aperture Leica Lens and a 12.1 Megapixel sensor. Since 600mm is never enough for birds(!), I also purchased a mounting tube and an Olympus B-300 1.7X teleconverter. That combination takes the zoom equivalent out to 1020mm. The whole setup is half the weight of my old Nikon rig and although I've lost a little bit of resolution, I'm only shooting for my own and friend's pleasure and am unlikely to be making large format prints.

P1020375.jpg


P1020447.jpg


P1020481.jpg
 
Back in the film days, I had Olympus equipment. Lugging it around Europe (along with an 8-lb Gitzo tripod) convinced me to go mirrorless when I got in to bird photography. I sold three camera bodies and a way too many lenses, and went to an Olympus OMD-EM5. The rabbit hole is real for photography--a decent lens costs way more than any razor. Anyway, my main birding lens is an Olympus 75-300 zoom (1:4.8-6.7, equivalent to a 150-600 zoom in an SLR). The nice thing about mirrorless cameras and lenses is that they are very light. I often carry two camera bodies and three lens (and no tripod...image stabilization is a miracle). All of that is easy to fit in a relatively small bag.

(There are more photos here:
Let's see your bird pictures! - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/lets-see-your-bird-pictures.476649/page-72#post-11359626
Let's see your bird pictures! - https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/threads/lets-see-your-bird-pictures.476649/page-72#post-11359626
--see post 1418, 1419, 1420, and 1422)





 
Last edited:
I have a very basic set up. 13 year old Canon Rebel XS, 75-300mm kit lens and the Canon 55-250mm. Most of the time I have no where near enough reach but I really enjoy the challenge of trying to get decent shots with what I have. Fixed income retiree so there is not much chance of major upgrades in the near future. Maybe if I win the lotto!! I would really like to try something like your 150-500mm Sigma.
The Sigma was a last minute purchase and I definitely felt the financial squeeze of it. Before that all I had was my 70-200 but I managed to get decent images with it. Don't be shy though, I'd love to see what you have gotten with your setup.
 
Awesome images posted by everyone. I don't want to compete with the "show your bird shots" thread but I would like to keep this one going as a gear and technique discussion, so please continue to talk about your gear or what techniques or feeding stations have worked for you. Edit, I use the same lens/body for all wildlife so this doesn't necessarily have to be limited to bird photography.
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
Nice pics guys!
I’m using a canon 400mm. I’ve been doing a little birding and have had trouble getting tack sharp and or blurry pics in motion. I’ve switched to manual mode to experiment with faster shutter speeds.
 
Nice pics guys!
I’m using a canon 400mm. I’ve been doing a little birding and have had trouble getting tack sharp and or blurry pics in motion. I’ve switched to manual mode to experiment with faster shutter speeds.

I shoot in manual, I like to set the ISO, typically 3200, then set the aperture at 8 and later adjust it accordingly to getting as close to 1/2000 shutter speed. I try to prefocus where I'm anticipating the birds landing, and when they do I autofocus on them, do a quick exposure check and adjust shutter speed, then "spray and pray" and keep doing it until the bird quits coming back or I decide I've been there long enough or my dog decides its time to go in.
 

Rhody

I'm a Lumberjack.
I shoot in manual, I like to set the ISO, typically 3200, then set the aperture at 8 and later adjust it accordingly to getting as close to 1/2000 shutter speed. I try to prefocus where I'm anticipating the birds landing, and when they do I autofocus on them, do a quick exposure check and adjust shutter speed, then "spray and pray" and keep doing it until the bird quits coming back or I decide I've been there long enough or my dog decides its time to go in.
Great info thx
I figured our shutter priority on my camera. A big step right lol. I had much better success boosting my shutter speeds up.
 
Here's my gear, from back in the "Olden Times" of film, when Kodachrome ruled....

DSCN1246.JPG


I just can't see as well as I used to, and I'm getting too old to be hauling this stuff around in marshes and fields and forests. The time commitment and work involved was substantial. Had big dreams back then!
 
Here's my gear, from back in the "Olden Times" of film, when Kodachrome ruled....

View attachment 1306791

I just can't see as well as I used to, and I'm getting too old to be hauling this stuff around in marshes and fields and forests. The time commitment and work involved was substantial. Had big dreams back then!
now that's impressive. do you still have any of your slides you care to share?
 
Thank you. You can find a couple on page 21 of the thread "show us your bird pictures." I'll be cleaning out my gallery soon, so don't delay if you want a look.

The problem with my film collection is conversion to digital. I have a Nikon Coolscan V scanner that does slides and negatives, but film is such "ancient" history that getting appropriate drivers to keep these scanners running is getting more difficult. I found one source that gives me lifetime driver updates, but if you're using old laptops and computers it's kind of tough to keep up. Seems like something is always tripping you up.

I was getting into photography just around the time digital was in its infancy. I remember myself, and A LOT of professional photographers at the time thinking that there was NO WAY you could get pixel resolution that would match slow speed transparency film in terms of final results. It's amazing what can be achieved now. In my metropolitan community, there used to be hundreds of commercial photographers listed in the Yellow Pages... not any more.
 
I have my Nikon d750 that I use to shoot birds I have a 70-200 that’s pretty good but I need a tele converter if I want to get really close.
I used a Nikon f5 for a while too and that was my favourite ever for birds.
 
Here's my gear, from back in the "Olden Times" of film, when Kodachrome ruled....

View attachment 1306791

I just can't see as well as I used to, and I'm getting too old to be hauling this stuff around in marshes and fields and forests. The time commitment and work involved was substantial. Had big dreams back then!
Beautiful set up there. I still love shooting film.
 
it really depends for me. Sometimes I am too close to the bird to use my favorite zoom (50-500mm Sigma) so I drop to a 50mm Pentax.

Here is a Hummingbird shot at about 15 feet with my Pentax K-1 set on Full Frame with the Sigma lens

proxy.php
 
Top Bottom