Question: 500 mm on pelagics

[Phil Battley]

Hi there,

I'm hopefully going out on a small boat pelagic (~10 people) off the west coast of New Zealand in two days. The likely species we'll encounter will be Fairy Prions (hopefully in their thousands), Sooty Shearwaters, and the odd albatross etc. I'm using a Canon D40, and up until last week my only telephoto option was a 400 f5.6 (so no IS). Now I also have a 500 f4, which I have hardly had an opportunity yet to do anything with other than mount it up in my office... If the forecast is not too bad, would it be wise or foolhardy to try and take the 500 out on the pelagic?

I see that some folk out there manage to use them, even with a 1.4x TC. Does anyone have hints, advice, or warnings to think about the replacement value and leave it safely at home?!

I'd also be keen to hear from those experienced at photography at sea about any rules of thumb about exposure they may use. If there are previous threads on this, just direct me there and I'll leave you alone. :)

Cheers, and fingers crossed for the winds to stay low,

Phil

[John Chardine]

Hi Phil- I'll be in Southern Ocean waters a a couple of weeks and will have the 400/5.6 with me. I would find the 500 too much to hand-hold on a ship but you may be built differently!

Re exposure- standard operating practice pertains:

1. Your backgrounds will be changing from dark to brightly lit water, and to sky of various tones so auto-exposure is not going to work for you.

2. Many seabirds are white somewhere on the bodies so you will have to expose so that you are not blowing these.

3. Set camera to Manual exposure mode and run some test shots on well-lit white objects on the ship or on bird subjects themselves. Use whatever ISO you can get away with to provide a good fast shutter speed- say above 1/1600s with the (non-IS) 400/5.6. 400 800 ISO should do.

4. Set the exposure so that you are just not blowing the highlights. Shoot RAW. The image on the LCD may look washed out but just bring it back with processing. This gives an image with the most information and the least noise possible for the body and ISO setting. Make some initial images of real subjects and check the histogram to make sure all is OK. Adjust exposure as light levels change.

5. I looked up some sample exposures I had on white gulls in bright, partly cloudy conditions, late summer, 45°N:

ISO 640, 1/3200, f8
ISO 400, 1/2000, f6.3
ISO 400, 1/2500, f6.3

Cloudy conditions, late afternoon:

ISO 800, 1/1000s, f6.3

You get the idea. Good luck.

PS prions are very fast and tracking them with the 500 will be a challenge.

[Cliff Beittel]

I'd take the whole range of focal lengths. If you are chumming, a 70-200 might be the best choice--you can have birds almost within arm's reach. If not chumming, then with something as small as a prion even the 500 might not be enough. I find the 500 much harder to hold than the 400 f5.6, and that would be magnified on a small boat if the water isn't glassy, but it can be done; just rest the lens on the deck between bursts. At the high shutter speeds you should be using, lack of IS isn't a problem.

[Dan Brown]

I'd take the 400mm, as it will be much easier to handle/babysit! I recently went out and used my trusty 80-400mm VR Nikon (vr on). It's small and the zoom feature is great for the birds following the chum! I have done numerous pelagic birding trip and it ain't easy! Also, I would take a plastic garbage bag to cover your gear just incase there is spray from the boat or rain.

[Phil Battley]

Thanks guys - much appreciated. I haven't seen the boat we are on, but it's not going to be big (and is called the Fluffy Duck...) so I expect we'll be experiencing every wave roll. I'll have the 400 for sure - just may play it by ear over whether to take the 500 as well. I'll report back on how it went, but maybe don't expect any prion shots posted...

Phil

[Roger Clark]

Phil,
I used my 500 on a boat in Alaska last fall. The seas were rough. It was a challenge for me to track subjects on the rolling ship and small field of view. Not to mention hanging on. I stood at a rail and wrapped one leg around a post so I would not be tossed overboard. It was nice to have the focal length for many subjects, but a 300 f/2.8 would have been easier for me. I did use a 1.4x TC a couple of times. The boat tour was a side trip before going to Katmai for bears, so I wanted the 500 for that. So if you are doing other things before/after your boat trip, where the 500 is needed, then I would not hesitate to bring the 500 on the boat. But you might practice hand holding and tracking with it to be sure you can do it. Some people here on BPN hand hold the 500 a lot, and that really impresses me.

Roger