Thanks for posting this. Definitely worth the $10
RedditAteMyBabby
joined 11 months ago
B&H has 50% off a bunch of lens pen products
Going to skip over my actual #1 (100mm macro) to go to #2 because it's more versatile:
Pentax DA* 50-135 f/2.8 on APSC. It's like a (comparatively) tiny 70-200 on FF. Also pretty sure it has a magical gremlin or possibly a gnome living inside who makes my photos look like some more competent photographer took them.
I also do this, and also on Black Friday/Cyber Monday.
I have never used that camera, but maybe use a smaller group of autofocus points? I use a few at the center for birds, which is I guess slightly similar to sports.
If you are asking this because you want to do it, one good budget option is to purchase a chair and a bird feeder. You can usually sit 8-10 feet away from the feeder and they'll still come. It is good practice, and if you are quick or careful with the framing, you won't have the feeder in every shot. For camera settings, google the following and see what other people are doing:
- [your camera model] birding settings
- [your camera model] BIF settings
- [your highest quality telephoto lens model] sweet spot (you are looking for the aperture setting where the lens starts to become very sharp, and the one where it starts to lose sharpness again. If its a zoom, this may vary across the zoom range)
Just as an example, I usually photograph birds with a 300mm f/4 lens that is sharpest from f/5.6-f/8. Settings are - shutter speed a little over 1/1000s, aperture in the sharpest range, and ISO set to auto. High speed burst always.
For lens choice, you are really going to be limited if you don't have anything 200mm+ and good quality. But if all you have is a 50mm lens or something, just move the chair closer. This is for feeder photos - for actual walking around, the longer the better. But try whatever you have. I have photographed hummingbirds with a 70mm lens and a 100mm lens - some animals just don't care what you are doing as long as you aren't moving aggressively towards them.
100mm macro is on my camera 95% of the time.
16-50/2.8 and 50-135/2.8 are my go-to pair for general use
Drugstore 110 film camera, Pentax MX, several digital point and shoots, pentax *ist DL, Pentax K-x, Pentax K-01, Pentax K-3, Pentax K-1ii.
I'm happy with the K-1ii for now, but I imagine that eventually I'll either brand hop for something with better third party lens support or double down and buy a 645Z.
I did that with duck tape and my backpack and discman to keep from getting targeted by the various shenanigans going on at Greyhound stations back in the day (late 90s/early 2000s). It worked pretty well.