Dowitcher landing

[arash_hazeghi]

Landing dowitcher in last light. hope you like it

117453

1D4 840mm f/5.6 1/3200sec ISO 640

large size here (http://ari1982.smugmug.com/Avian/Shorebirds/Shorebirds-and-Egrets/10580713_Z3sQ5c#%21i=2038223942&k=R8rVDkq&lb=1&s=O)

[Frank Schauf]

Super gliding pose, Arash.

[Bill Dix]

Great landing pose, sweet light. I love the in-focus water at the bottom showing his proximity to it.

[David Salem]

Beautiful light last night. Great landing pose and crisp details. GB of the water is a very nice color also. Nice job

[Ofer Levy]

Great pose and light. However, not as sharp and details are not as great as your ususal. Maybe shooting wide open with the converter is not the way to go?

[arash_hazeghi]

Great pose and light. However, not as sharp and details are not as great as your ususal. Maybe shooting wide open with the converter is not the way to go?

The TC is really sharp and makes absolutely no difference with the 600II if it is wide open or not. The image looks sharp to my eyes but maybe I'm too exhausted to tell:) I don't know let see if others also find it unsharp...I should mention the dowitcher's head was wet.

[dankearl]

One of your best images, Arash.
I sometimes wonder how you can out do yourself, but this is just fantastic.
The light and pose and 3d quality is terrific.

[Ofer Levy]

The TC is really sharp and makes absolutely no difference with the 600II if it is wide open or not. The image looks sharp to my eyes but maybe I'm too exhausted to tell:) I don't know let see if others also find it unsharp...I should mention the dowitcher's head was wet.
I am not sure about that. I can see a real difference between images I take with the Canon 800 f5.6 W/O the x1.4 converter and images I take with it. When I stop down to f11 things gets much better. I see no reason to assume the new 600 f4 will behave differently to any other lens.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you are shooting from greater distance with this combo so atmospheric factors get into the equation. I assume this was taken from at least 25 meters away - probably more?

[arash_hazeghi]

I did some careful controlled test with and w/o the TC and there is no difference. There is no difference when stopping down either. These results are published in my review of 600 if you want to look. It is very obvious.

I am not sure about 800 that lens was not really optimized for the MKIII TCs. That said even with my old 500 I always shot wide open. 95% of my portfolio is made at wide open aperture. I think they are sharp ;)

Even if there are subtle differences at pixel level it is impossible to see a difference at this size.

As for the above photo the only thing that I can think about is that dowitcher head and body was wet making the fine detail look coarse but it had nothing to do with wide open TC. All the kite shots I posted previously are wide open and they are the sharpest kite frames I have personally seen to date.

You are of course right about distance but this wasn't that far.

Thanks for comments it's great to get feedback even if it is negative:)

[Melissa Groo]

I think this is stunning, Arash. That golden light is so sweet, and the wing position is killer, and details and IQ are, as always, superb.