We have some odds and ends today, including some photos that have been in the queue too long. The tank of photos is dropping, so do send your good wildlife photos (remember, astronomy and landscape photos also count).
Reader Barn Owl sent some bird photos taken in Japan
I’m pretty sure that the bird in this last photo is a Carrion Crow (Corvus corone): it didn’t have the domed head profile characteristic of the Large-billed Crow (we saw a lot of those too). The crow is perched atop the phoenix roof ornament on the Golden Pavilion at Kinkaku-ji in Kyoto.
Also in the moat at the Imperial Palace was this Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea):
A Tufted Duck (Aythya fuligula) from the Koishikawa Korakuen Garden in central Tokyo:
Reader Randy Schenck in Iowa sent some photos of the black squirrels that frequent his property. And he’s not the only one interested in them:
Stephen Barnard in Idaho is sending us the fruits of his experiments with digiscoping, apparently helped with advice from another reader. So far, so good!
This is a Killdeer, Charadrius vociferus. This is one of the first photos I’ve taken with a new lens I just got for the Panasonic Lumix GH4 that Tara Tanaka recommended for digiscoping. The lens is a just-released Leica 100-400mm zoom (200-800mm equivalent). The shot was hand-held at 800mm (equivalent). Your readers probably aren’t interested in camera and lens details, but I was excited because the shot is so sharp, and the camera/lens is FAR lighter and more compact than my huge DSLR rig. I have a hunch that with a little more improvement in electronic viewfinder (EVF) technology the mirrorless design will replace the SLR design entirely.
Finally, reader Don McCrady sent us another galaxy:
Here’s another astrophoto submission for your consideration. This one is called M51, or the Whirlpool Galaxy. The flickr link is here.
The Whirlpool galaxy is actually a pair of galaxies, the larger one in the slow process of consuming the smaller dwarf galaxy. When galaxies collide, there is no “impact” per-se. There is too much empty space between the stars and objects in each galaxy, so essentially they pass right through each other. Not that there isn’t any damage done, because the gravitational influence of the bigger galaxy tends to fling stars out into tidal tails, such as the one that is barely visible streaming out of the right side of the small dwarf. Our galaxy has done this to several smaller galaxies throughout its own history.
The Whirlpool galaxy is just a few degrees south of Alkaid (the last star in the Big Dipper’s handle), and lies about 23 million light years away.
First time I hear about the whirlpool galaxy. Sounds a little bit like a galaxy Douglas Adams imagined! 😀
Also sounds like an exotic washing machine😊
Regarde des rats noirs ! Mignons non?
Sent from my iPad
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A great lineup today! I can’t help but think that the phoenix ornament looks a bit like a rooster.
Wonderful stuff!
Stephen — I am very interested in your opinion on the lens. It’s on my wish list (though the Lumix 100-300 I have now is also excellent (and tiny)).
Could you give a bit more detail on how you find the lens? Cheers!
I basically agree with this:
“with a little more improvement in electronic viewfinder (EVF) technology the mirrorless design will replace the SLR design entirely”
What body are you using? I have two Olympus OM-E M-10 bodies that I really like. The tilting rear screen is great for ground-level, overhead, and ’round the corner candids. I love the sensor. 16 Mpx seems about right for pixel count vs. file size.
A agree with Stephens’ points as well. I had been looking at that Leica lens before, and it seems completely awesome. And I have come to envy those with mirrorless cameras. It is hard to think of a serious downside to them.
So I don’t agree that we would not be interested in gear.
Having used both, the only down side is (for m 4/3 at least) is the loss of short DOF on wide apertures. Generally not a big concern for me.
Bokeh looks very nice. What aperture?
I think FF will remain for short DOF situations; but really only for those (I think).
Nevermind on the body question, I see it’s: Lumix GH4.
I need more experience with the lens before I can give a strong opinion, but I’m very impressed so far, especially with the sharpness at 800mm. The IS seems to work well. The reviews have been raves. I bought this lens for the GH4 mainly because my DSLR and huge 500mm lens is impractical for travel.
The weakness of the mirrorless system, for my applications, is the electronic viewfinder. Compared to an SLR design it’s far more difficult to capture and focus on a moving subject like a bird in flight. This may be partly due to my lack of experience with the camera, but I think it’s an inherent feature of the design.
Thanks Stephen, I look forward to updates on the lens!
I have moved completely to m 4/3 for the weight, size, and cost saving over traditional DLSR. The Olympus bodies are much like a DSLR, except for, as you noted, the EVF.
At first the EVF put me off; but now I’m used to it and like it really well.
As you note, these systems are not (yet!) good for tracking fast-moving objects. (I’m not a BIF guy, as you are, so this isn’t much of an issue for me. The AF works well on the slower moving things I sometimes shoot.)
I see the makers moving to both methods of AF (contrast based like they have now, for face recognition, etc. AND switchable to phase-detect system, like DSLRs usually use).
My shift came last summer on a trip to England, where I got tired of lugged around the big DSLR rig — and I got tired of being told to be careful with it in stately homes we visited (I’m always careful; but they are used to dealing with all comers, can’t really blame them). The m 4/3 rig is so hugely smaller (if that phrase works!). We plan to visit either Zambia or Botswana sometime in the not-too-distant future, so I’m looking at the 100-400.
For me, the IS is a big plus as well. I love it. I watch as the lens/body AFs and then pops into “steady cam” mode which makes framing the shot much easier for me when using a long tele.
Cheers!
I’m very interested too. I have become a big fan of Lumix cameras with Leica lenses, and the EVF are sooo much better than the optical ones in poor forest light. The ability to zoom the viewfinder image to fine-tune focus is also a big advantage of the EVFs, especially now that nearly all DSLRs use viewing screens that provide minimal focusing aids (since everyone uses autofocus). And the ability to see the viewfinder image (and control the camera and take the picture) in real time on a wireless external device like a smartphone adds another dimension to certain kinds of photography.
I’m *always* interested in camera and lens details.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KH8E8JrZRY Mr. Coyne, Can you please explain what sort of a animal is this. They heard the dogs are fighting with that also kind of a fox howling. And later gave him some milk.
Well, I can speculate. It is some sort of dog, but I am puzzled about the rather long tail. Although there are domesticated dogs with similarly long tails. So maybe one of those, of unknown breed.
As for the hairlessness, well, there are conditions like scabies and some others that can cause that. Poor thing is very ill, and that could be in connection to the hairlessness.
The black squirrels are interesting. When I was growing up in Omaha, Nebraska the black squirrels were assumed to only be in Council Bluffs, Iowa which is separated from Omaha by the Missouri River. About 10 or so years later and the black squirrels were seen 1/2 way through Omaha (out to 72nd street) and spreading further west each year. At least that was my understanding of it, I don’t remember any actual news stories about it. Maybe it was a conversation I had with my father? He was always interested in things like that.
I had been encountering some local populations of these as well, in towns peripheral to where I live. I suspect a case of the founder effect, where a sqrrll population starts from a few individuals, including some with genes for melanism.
Yes, I live only about 70 miles from Council Bluff/Omaha area and that type of spread is likely the normal trend. Moving across 72nd Street was probably dangerous but easier than getting across the Missouri River.
Our experience here where I live just on the edge of town, they always had a number of black or Melanistic Fox Squirrels in town but we had none. One showed up and the others ran it off. Then about 10 years ago a friend trapped one in town and released it here. Later he brought one more. We now have many so they fit in with the others.
Don, I envy that you can take pictures of distant and faint celestial objects. I am toying with the idea of rigging a t-mount for my camera for my Dobsonian mounted reflector telescope, but that rig would only work out for bright objects. Maybe.
On that note, people should be aware that mercury will be eclipsing the sun on May 9!!
Michael 2, I see your comments in my email feed, but I can’t see them in the WEIT comments. WordPress issue, maybe?
OK