Snail Kite a la Jim Neiger...

[Dan O'Leary]

I spent the morning with Jim Neiger photographing Snail Kites in Central Florida and am very happy with the results. This image floated to the top of my processing queue, I hope you enjoy it.

This is with the brand new firmware for the mark3, v 1.2.3.

2008:05:02 091:41
1dm3 @ 700mm (500 + 1.4x)
Manually set 1/1250 sec, f/5.6, 500 iso
Eval metering

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Nice banking pose and the reeds add to it. If the left wing would have been further down, it would have put it over the top but I like it as is.

[Raul Quinones]

Awesome flight shot, nice sharp image and nice colors. The white on the tails maybe too hot.

[Philip Lombard]

Great job,good exposure, sharp and comp bg is good except for the light reeds.

[Freddy Franzella]

Fine image! I like the bird against the background!overall fantastic image!

[Grady Weed]

Tail whites are hot, but a great wing and banking image. Jim is on my list when I go down.

[Doug Brown]

Very nice job Dan! I'm interested in your impressions on the new firmware. I've installed it but haven't had time to put it through its paces yet.

[Dan O'Leary]

Thanks for the feedback, folks - much appreciated. The tail does look a bit hot.

As far as the firmware goes, all is well and AF has not gotten worse. I will leave it to other "internet experts" to tell us all that it is alternatively the best / worst focusing camera ever made ;-). I will say that joystick control of the AF point is a really nice addition!

Stay tuned for more images from my 2 days with Jim...