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Topic: How to beat my point-and-shoot for bird photography? (Read 6666 times)
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Mongoose
Newbie
Posts: 7
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Hello all,
I currently have a PowerShot S5 IS and I'm looking to upgrade to the EOS side of things. The S5 has an equivalent focal length of 36 - 432 mm and I'm constantly maxed out on the zoom, because I do bird photography. In fact, I'm usually shooting with the digital zoom as well (and I do get good results, if I don't get greedy), so most of the time I'm somewhere between 500 and 1100 equivalent focal length. And I still need MORE zoom.
So... How do I do that with EOS lenses without getting a second mortgage? I see the EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM is reasonably priced, and with the 2X extender, would give me 800 mm focal length. Anything beyond that would be getting into the five-figure price range as far as I can tell.
Is there any way I can push it further without getting over $3,000? Do any of the EOS cameras have digital zoom? I can't seem to find that information.
What's everyone here using to shoot birds?
Thanks,
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Elise
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Bob Atkins
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You can't really beat a P&S with a wide range telephoto zoom lens in terms of size, weight and cost! However there are two factors to consider. First, the P&S doesn't actually have a 432mm focal length. The true focal length is probably around 70mm, but the small P&S sensor makes it act like a 432mm lens would on a full frame 35mm camera. Similarly with any crop sensor camera you get a 1.6x "multiplier effect", so that a 400mm lens would act like a 640mm lens in terms of the image magnification you get, so the 100-400 zoom would act like a 160-640mm zoom, i.e. you'd get 50% more magnification than you do with your P&S camera. I just reviewed the Sigma 50-500 zoom ( http://www.bobatkins.com/photography/reviews/sigma_50-500_os_hsm_review.html) which on a crop sensor DSLR like the Digital Rebel T2i, EOS 5D or EOS 7D would give you an effective zoom range of 80-800mm, almost twice your current maximum magnification. "Digital zoom"worthless I'm afraid. You can do exactly the same thing by cropping your image in an image editor, Digital zoom just does that in the camera for you. However if you do it yourself in an image editor you have more control over the process and may well get even better results. If you're only making small prints, cropping (="digital zoom") can give you good results, but all you are doing is simply enlarging your original digital image more. A longer zoom gives you greater resolution (more image detail) then just enlarging ("digital zooming") a smaller image. |
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Mongoose
Newbie
Posts: 7
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Thanks for the info. I've never found that cropping a low-zoom image turns out better than using the digital zoom, but maybe because I can see if the photo is gonna be crap before I shoot it. I don't get a lot of crap out of my digital zoom and I don't have to do any cropping. Also I find there's a big advantage in seeing the subject in the viewfinder so I know what I'm shooting. I suppose I could take a ton of shorter-zoom photos and then try to find the bird on the screen and crop around it... but I'm not that dedicated. Now off to read your review.  - Elise |
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Mongoose
Newbie
Posts: 7
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Wait, one more thing - I thought the 5D was a full-frame camera? That's the one I'm thinking of buying. There just doesn't seem much point in going from a top Point-and-Shoot to a low-end DSLR, except the urge to spend money.
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Elise
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Mongoose
Newbie
Posts: 7
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Awesome! I'll move the 7D to the top of my list. How is it for macro? I do a lot of macro as well and I was thinking a EF 100mm f/2.8L IS USM.
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Elise
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KeithB
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For an SLR, Macro is all in the lens. The new 100mm macro with IS sounds like it will be perfect.
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Mongoose
Newbie
Posts: 7
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Excellent. Thanks both for your help. - Elise |
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