My first Osprey dive

[Paul Burdett]

Went to a new location after a photographer friend told me that he saw Ospreys there. Whilst I have photographed them before I spent a few hours there and saw this Osprey dive for a fish...the first time I've ever seen this. Despite not being able to get as close as I'd like I was happy to get a sequence of four shots that I'm happy with. Here's one of them.
I'm still undecided on an upgrade to my gear, but meanwhile my humble 7Dii and 100-400 lens will have to suffice.

7Dii, 100-400@400mm, 1/3200th sec, f5.6, iso800, manual mode HH. Thanks as always for looking and commenting.

[dankearl]

Nice action and these are not that easy to get...
Big crop shows but you do what you can do with the equipment you have..

[Volkan Akgul]

hi Paul, very good ! congratulations

[Paul Burdett]

Thanks Dan & Volkan, much appreciated.

[Brian Sump]

Paul, I know the feeling man. I started shooting in Dec with a D3500 and stock lens. Got a Sigma 500 for Christmas and never felt like I had the gear to shoot the way I want until the D850 and Nikon 600mm. It's not cheap....

Flipside, Artie was telling me stories this week about Dan Cadieux and the crap gear he shot forever and did a bang-up job with it. This is a nice frame; light angle maybe isn't the most flattering but keep crushing what you've got!

[arash_hazeghi]

the pose is dynamic, the blown highlights, noisy BG and lacking IQ hold it back. The gear you have definitely not ideal for this kind of shot. If I were you I would not make it so hard on myself, you can wait and ponder forever, and new and better stuff comes out all the time. even if you got the best today there will be something better in future. Just get yourself a d500 and 500PF and it will nail shots like this. These moments and opportunities may not come back ....

good luck

[Paul Burdett]

Thanks Brian...glad you were able to get some great gear...I'm sure you're happy with that combo.
Arash: All points noted as always...yes...current thinking is Nikon D500...but as I take static birds more than BIF I was also thinking D850 with the 500mm PF. (Thughts?) Also as my 100-400 mainly lives at 400mm I'll probably keep it for static shots where I need a zoom.
Also...you say blown highlights. In post I used luminosity masks to make sure that the highlights were under 255...also no blown highlights according to camera raw's highlight warning. I'll also check the BG noise again. Thanks as always.

[arash_hazeghi]

Hi Paul, the osprey whites have no detail and are flat despite the RGB value being less than 255. this happens when the red channel in the original was blown, you can try to tame it in post but this looks like beyond the point of recovery.

D850 works great too, if you are shooting static subjects more and can get close to them then go for the D850, if you are making big crops then the D500 is a better buy. you will need a grip and high capacity battery + charger for the 850 to get to 9fps which bare minimum for action, this is about $800 extra here in the US....400mm lens is way too short at places I shoot here but maybe it's different where you are. with the PF you can also add a TC, it's tack sharp but the AF will suffer for action with both D850/D500, still perfectly usable for static shots.

Overall for under 5-6K USD I think 500/850 + PF is the best gear money can buy. especially the D500 + PF is just killer light. lighter than what you have now. Even though I converted some of my larger gear to Sony, I am holding on to my PF and D500. i admit I haven't used it much recently but just take a look at Dan's shots, they speak for this combo well


cheers

[dankearl]

Paul.
Do whatever you want.
The D850 is a landscape camera.
This is not that hard a decision if birds and wildlife is what you focus on.
The D500 and 500pf is the best for the money and there is nothing even close.
Sony A9 is a 24mp FF camera. If you are Arash and can shoot at 1200mm you should go for it.
My friends who have the A9 and the 200-600 wish they had the D500 and 500pf.

[arash_hazeghi]

Paul.
Do whatever you want.
The D850 is a landscape camera.
This is not that hard a decision if birds and wildlife is what you focus on.
The D500 and 500pf is the best for the money and there is nothing even close.
Sony A9 is a 24mp FF camera. If you are Arash and can shoot at 1200mm you should go for it.
My friends who have the A9 and the 200-600 wish they had the D500 and 500pf.

It doesn't surprise me, as I mentioned in the other thread if you really want to take advantage of SONY's killer AF technology and better FF IQ you need to buy the 600mm f/4 GM lens which is $13K plus the TC's at $550 each that puts the total cost of the SONY system at $18,500 USD. Only if you are willing to stomach the cost and spend that much go for SONY.

Canon and Sony are not really budget friendly brands, to get the most out of them, especially for action stuff you need to buy the most expensive bodies and lenses. Nikon is the best value for money no doubt about it. I bought my D500 for $1000 (nikon refurb) and $3600 for the PF lens. that is less than $5K. I recommend Nikon to anyone who wants to start bird photography and excel at it until they can step up to a 600 f/4 setup.

best

[Dorian Anderson]

Great action, Paul. But the side lighting was really working against you here as it is impossible to get even lighting across the subject under such circumstances.
We do get sucked right into his eye, so that's good. Image is looking a bit noisy, but that's the 7D2 (I have one which I use for documenting sightings while I
am birding.)

[Paul Burdett]

Thank you all so much...you're making my choice a little easier. Cheers.

[John Mack]

A nice moment captured here.

[Paul Burdett]

Thanks John...appreciated.