Northern Harrier- and some update about the 500 PF

Got to try out the tiny 500 PF and the TC-14E III with my D850 today. This combo performed flawlessly, the AF isn't as snappy as with my D5 as expected but still pretty darn good for BIF with the gripped D850 despite f/8 max aperture. Naturally I would compare this rig with the much more expensive combination of the 400DO II + 2XIII and the 5D4, which IMO was just unusable for flight shots of any kind. no comparison there.

While the northern harrier is not a very fast raptor, it is by far the most erratic. It not only refuses to fly on a straight line, but often flies very low to the ground getting blocked by all kinds of bushes. It suddenly reverses her direction for no reason. It looks only down on the ground refusing any kind of eye contact which makes 9 out of 10 frames a delete even if all are sharp, the frame with the eye contact usually does not have the right wing position...it was a nightmare for the Canon AF system to hold focus on the bird against this kind of BG at this location and when it did, using all the techniques that I teach, one of the earlier two factors was not right making this bird one of the most unproductive shoots for me. In the past decade I have accumulated many harrier frames but I needed literally hundreds of frames to come up with one that's a keeper in my book. Some may not know but coming up with a good NH frame is way more difficult than a peregrine in flight. Today I had only one pass, and the mentioned combo made the most out of it.

Heat shimmers are often a problem on the CA coast and torture the optics, the 500PF + TC held up well, I had tried the 200-500mm (bare) in this location before and everything was a big fat delete unless shot at point blank. This lens is a different story. Hope you like this frame


shot with D850, AF-S 500 f/5.6 PF + TC14-E III ISO 800 f/8 at 1/3200 sec hand held processed with C1P

this is a juvenile female bird BTW

The image is obviously well focused but the plumage looks almost smeared, I assume this is due to heat haze/shimmering effect, it's a real shame because I appreciate how hard come by images like these are.

I love it. SH and pose perfect. It looks way too dark on my somewhat too-dark monitor. But the RGB values for the white tail patch are mostly in the 220s ... You do not need to sell me on the D850 :). I loved the 500 PF but had to return it when I got back. I did not get to do much flight. I am still trying to get one ...

with love, artie

ps: How does the repost look with the curve pulled up just a bit?

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Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton

The image is obviously well focused but the plumage looks almost smeared, I assume this is due to heat haze/shimmering effect, it's a real shame because I appreciate how hard come by images like these are.

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THe plumage looks fine to me :)

am

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jonathan Ashton

The image is obviously well focused but the plumage looks almost smeared, I assume this is due to heat haze/shimmering effect, it's a real shame because I appreciate how hard come by images like these are.

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Sorry but the plumage looks absolutely fine and quite detailed to me, not sure if you have seen this bird, that's how it looks like, adults which are more commonly posted look different compared to the juveniles.

the heat shimmers do not smear the plumage, it causes the whole bird to be soft most visible by the star-liker catch light in the eye. there are some examples in my blog where I explain this effect. This image has no heat shimmer, otherwise you wouldn't see the fine nasal feathers that are distinctly visible here.

Best

Hey Artie the brightness looks good on my 32” calibrated NEC. The juvenile bird had darker plumage as you know.


For a test I went back and adjusted the brightness on my 15.4" Mac Book Pro touch bar, funny that the original does look a bit dark and the image that looks good is the one above (did curves). however this one looks too bright on my big monitor. hence my point about me never using the laptop for processing :) Also the whole image (and many other image on this site) look somewhat coarse and crunchy on safari unless I press CMND plus - a few times at which point the text becomes unreadable! not sure how you do it

Hi Ari, great flight pose with the raised wings, but no head turn towards you as you normally manage. :w3 Always good to nail a subject against a smooth foliage BG. As I dont know this bird, I cant comment on the colours, but I'm sure you have down to the T.

Thanks Stu, I am not Artie BTW :)

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Originally Posted by arash_hazeghi

Thanks Stu, I am not Artie BTW :)

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I renamed Artie as Ari :)

am

Very nice! The warm light does it. I still haven't managed crap of this species. I need to spend more time inland and/or down south! I see the comment on the smeared side, but that's the feathers, not the camera or processing.

Agree with editing on laptop. Have given that up as well.

Nice light, nice pose and a nice background. Is this full frame or cropped and if so how much? I saw one of these on the ground a couple weeks ago the grey ghost one not this one.

Thanks, John this is not full frame, there aren't that many full frame flight shots because you need to track the bird centered which means to achieve a pleasing composition you will need to crop the photo. above is about 50% of the FF

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RP makes it for me. Sweet BG, pose, and I love the clutched claws. I'm still working on getting a flight shot like this at a local park, but as you mention they are tough. The D850 + 500 PF + 1.4 TC looks to be a great combo. I'm definitely tempted by the 500 PF to help me get some more reach and AF capabilities for raptors and shorebirds. TFS

Yes, I agree the repost of yours is killer. Fantastic pose and I really love background. Looks like that PF is doing well for you. Keep them coming buddy.

Hello, a really nice capture of this juvenile bird of prey. great colours and pose

and respect that you catched it with this combo at f:8, because of the few usable af points. Ok you have told us from the problems with this special bird .

i know its european relative (like the same) and the other one the marsh harrier here,
both have the same behavior here: very hard to keep in focus flying low and unpredictable.. even with an combo without an TC attached.
But i think it is also your experience in bif.

You had enough light, i think that was also very important to work with this combination at f:8 and get good results ?

Hi Eric, yes this combo needs a bit more light for flight but because the lens is so small and light and the VR is great it works really well for low light perched shots.