Early days with the Canon 300mm L IS USM.

A few days of sunshine and the Easter snow retreating has allowed me the chance to get out into the countryside. I wanted to test the new lens as much as I could and gather a whole heap of images to download, study and compare when I returned home.
Leighton Moss was my first day out, and the first proper sign that this lens was going to work for me, but you decide. Click on the image to enlarge and look at the detail in these Gadwall.

The Gadwall is often overlooked but there is no question about its beauty when you study it closely. The male is to the left the female to the right.
A good test of quality is the sharpness around the eye, if you can nail this area everything else will also be sharp.

 A Coot and a Little Egret share the same pond.This image was taken from quite a distance, but turned out well.

I love this image, birds in flight are a utter nightmare to get right. Notice the eye is sharp and the motion has been frozen using a fast shutter speed, also there is little contrast with the background making this shot even harder to capture correctly. I doubt my old lens would of been as clear as this.

Whilst walking to get a better vantage point on a Great crested grebe that I had spied in my scope this male Goosander flew overhead. I raised the camera and only managed to get 2 shots at this bird, this image is slightly better than the other one.

The autofocus of the 300mm F2.8 is quick, probably 3 times quicker than the 100-400mm F4.5. Again I doubt this image would of been captured with the older lens.

A few minutes later i caught up with the Great crested grebe.It had drifted away slightly, but it did allow me several shots before diving and reappearing some distance away.

The last image that  I have added was not a intentional shot, it was taken as a test when I saw these Mallard ducks flying low over the water. I rattled off half a dozen frames purely to test if I had my camera set up correctly.When I downloaded them later at home I thought this one looked quite good and a little artistic.

It just goes to show that sometimes luck is with you and sometimes it aint . So far I am really pleased with this lens and feel that it has more to deliver yet, but obviously more practice will bring more rewards.None of these images have been enhanced in anyway, just cropped to size.

 

 

 

 

 







 

Test of Quality. Canon 300mm L IS USM F2.8

Two weeks ago I purchaced the much sought after and highly rated Canon 300mm L IS USM F2.8.I had become more and more frustrated with the Canon 100-400mm L IS USM F4.5. It had served me well for three years but I had noticed the autofocus struggling far too often especially in low light and at distance.

All the reviews I read placed the 300mm F2.8 amongst the best Canon lenses ever made, but with a 5k price tag it was out of my range.Pristine second hand ones on ebay can sell for around 3.5k. Luckily one evening I noticed one for sale on a birding blog site and struck a deal for less than 2k by swaping two lenses I no longer used into the bargain.
My first outing with the new lens immediatly told me that this was a piece of quality glass. Quite heavy but not clumbersome . The large objective lens allows tons of light to flood in and the autofocus works faster than a pissed off woman texting.
So far everything was looking good. The ergonomics of the lens and camera together work well allowing my right hand to work the camera and my left hand to cup and support the lens comfortably.
Though it is still early days for me using this lens iI am very impressed with it's performance. The first thing that hits you is that at close quaters its fantastic....as the photos below shows...please click to enlarge and notice the subtle tones of the feathering on this Lapwing, taken out of the car window under a pale grey sky.

Take a minute to look at the detail in the feathering and also the sharp edges along with the very subtle tones and colours.
The Lapwing is part of the Plover family, it has been called Northern Lapwing, Lapwing, Green plover and also Peewit.

Goshawks .. The phantom of the forest !

Amidst the beautiful rolling countryside somewhere in Lancashire stands a large mature conifer plantation.
Planted over 20 years ago these Sitka spruce, Norway spruce, European larch and Scots pine trees stand twice as tall as a house.

Surrounded by farmland and open countryside the wildlife of this area is outstanding.My first visit was mid February and the weather was mild for the time of year. Still very cold but dry with clear skies.
Arriving around 8.30am we stood in a felled part of the forest where new saplings had been planted between the old stumps and disguarded logs.
Siskins and Chaffinch flitted between the trees in front of us and two Song thrush showed just to right for a brief few moments.

Two skylark flew over us and out of view whilst Curlew called from fields behind us. Around 10.30am we moved into a secluded corner of the lower woodland that gave us open views of the farm and a good view of the main part of forest. The only drawback was the limited views to our left. We didn't have to wait long until a raptor rose from the large conifers just to the right hand side of the area we were watching.
Similar to a Sparrowhawk but as large as a buzzard this raptor was huge and powerful. A female Goshawk was soaring higher and higher and slowly out of our view. We waited fourty minutes or so and from the same place another similar but smaller raptor appeared circling  over the trees climbing in height but staying in view. This was the smaller male he climbed and climbed until he became a dot even in my binoculars......suddenly he plumeted like a Peregrine, faster than anything i have ever wittnessed. He dived towards the tree tops pulling back upwards a few feet above the canopy, climbing again he was half the height again in a instance before diving again towards the same spot.Rising again he climbed less and flew above the forest giving us views of his pale underside.

At the same time the female rose from the exact same lacation flying upwards for a brief few moments before descending back into the same trees.
Over the next few visits I was lucky enough to have views of Green woodpecker ,Grey partridge, Bullfinch, Raven, Snipe,Lapwing, Woodcock,Fieldfare, Blue tit, Great tit, Coal tit, and Goldcrest also a white cock pheasant was unusal.