Equipment

EQUIPMENT.
As I intimated from the last post, things have moved on!

Main camera: Canon EOS 1D Mk IV: - much improved over the Mk III, which was a bit of a dog that lost Canon a lot of business to Nikon. The auto-focus problems were never solved with long lenses and many of my images were soft. Quality was great on straightforward stuff, but the Mk IV is a different beast altogether - awesome. The higher pixel count, low noise and high ISO range makes life much easier.

Back-up camera: Canon EOS 7D: - very convenient and easy to use - possibly the best combination for "walkabout" bird photography combined with the 100-400mm zoom. A bit on the noisy side, though.

Canon 500mm F4 IS USM: - I've had this for ages, and it's getting a bit long in the tooth, and it gets heavier the older I get. Looking forward to the Mk II version, which is somewhat lighter! (but not on the pocket).

Canon 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 IS USM Zoom : - a surprisingly sharp lens, especially at 400mm. Good for flight photography.

Canon 24-105mm F4 IS Zoom: - have just acquired this, so still evaluating it, but it focuses very close for plants, fungi etc.

Canon 17-40mm F4 Zoom: - an excellent all purpose lens for landscapes, people etc.

Canon Mk III 2X and 1.4X Converters: - both of these new converters are excellent, with imperceptible loss of quality. I use them a lot with the 500mm to really pull things in.

Sigma 150mm F2.8 APO MACRO DG HSM: - very sharp and nice to use, but flimsy. Has been back to Sigma twice after falling apart.

I also have a selection of old lenses acquired from various sources over the years, which occasionally get an airing: Canon 24mm F2.8, Canon 50mm F2.5 and 100mm F2.8 macro, my old Dallmeyer telephoto, and a cupboard full of old Canon and Pentax film stuff which isn't worth a cent to sell, so I'll keep it.

Gitzo GT3541LS carbon fibre tripod with Gitzo GH5380SQR Systematic head : - at last a rigid tripod I can manage to carry. The head is excellent - easy control with one hand and compact for air travel.

iMac: - the best purchase I ever made! Forget Microsoft woes. Stress free computing (well, almost).

Adobe Lightroom V4: - I've just upgraded from V2, so no comments as yet. Virtually all my post processing is done with LR - it's easy to use, and the sharpening module is excellent. I import all my stuff into iPhoto on the iMac, and when I click the edit button it automatically opens LR. Makes workflow relatively easy, but I still need lessons on file management! I don't possess Photoshop CS. I occasionally use Apple Aperture, which came with the iMac - it's almost as good as LR.

Epson PHOTO R2880 inkjet printer: - for the rare occasions that I print. The driver for iMac isn't that great, though.


Setting up the cameras for bird photography can mean a lot of trial and error to get all the various parameters and custom functions to do what you want. If you can't be bothered to struggle with this, I suggest you visit Arthur Morris's "Birds as Art" website (www.birdsasart.com) and fork out $20 for his set up guides for the 1D Mk IV or the 7D. It'll be e-mailed to you, and you can set the camera up straight from the box and get out there shooting. A.M.'s website is my favourite, and his blog is a mine of information for all bird photographers.