New camera and alot to learn.

[eddiej35 10]

Got hold of a canon 550 d a few weeks back and i thought i would post a pic of a starling that i have took so far. Still a noob at this so any help will be appreciated. I will add more when i can shrink them enough to fit here .

 

Thanks Eddie.

Edited April 25, 2012 by eddiej35

[MuttleMcTuttle 21]

Good shot Difficult to get it right with a dark bird against the bright sky too, well done!

[j j m 6,525]

very nice bud

[Extremetaz 15]

Well certainly looks like you're not doing too badly.

 

Best advice that can be offered is to leave everything on manual and practice,practice,practice.

 

Then when you're thinking about upgrading, don't!

 

Get better glass instead.

 

The 550 is a fine camera back and will serve you well - well wear!

[eddiej35 10]

Thanks for the replies guys , The trouble i am having is more to do with the zoom , the pictures look great before a crop but look blured once cropped. I think i had just better get closer .

[jsmith 103]

Good shot,what lens did you use? You really need a 200 or 300 zoom to get close-ups of wildlife other then that just check the camera's settings.

Check that the image quality settings are on fine and not on normal and also check what the in camera sharpness is set at.If these are set wrong the image quality will suffer.Other then that it's just a case of playing around with it and learning as you go, don't worry you won't break it.

[eddiej35 10]

Good shot,what lens did you use? You really need a 200 or 300 zoom to get close-ups of wildlife other then that just check the camera's settings.

Check that the image quality settings are on fine and not on normal and also check what the in camera sharpness is set at.If these are set wrong the image quality will suffer.Other then that it's just a case of playing around with it and learning as you go, don't worry you won't break it.

I am using the Canon EF 28-135mm IS USM F3.5 - 5.6 Lens at the minute as it gave me a better lens to learn with than the standard 18-55 one. I will check the settings now you have mentioned it and will get back to you. Thanks for your time . Eddie.

[MuttleMcTuttle 21]

Good advice from the previous posts. The 28-135 is a very good lens, picked up one recently to carry as a back-up and ended up using it for a lot of the time at a recent wedding! But for wildlife you really need something with a bit more range, like a 70-300. Cropping means you will lose much of the image, the secret is to fill the frame with the subject... but often you can still get a good shot showing the creature in its environment with a shorter lens, so take the shot anyway! Go for the best quality you can afford when buying lenses - it pays off in the long run because even if you lose interest they hold their value.

The in-camera sharpening is okay, but photoshop tends to do a better job. Most important when shooting wildlife is to keep the shutter speed as high as possible, with a long lens the speed should be at least equivalent to the focal length to cut out camera shake, plus the critters have a bad habit of moving just as you take the shot and the IS won't help much with that.

[eddiej35 10]

Good advice from the previous posts. The 28-135 is a very good lens, picked up one recently to carry as a back-up and ended up using it for a lot of the time at a recent wedding! But for wildlife you really need something with a bit more range, like a 70-300. Cropping means you will lose much of the image, the secret is to fill the frame with the subject... but often you can still get a good shot showing the creature in its environment with a shorter lens, so take the shot anyway! Go for the best quality you can afford when buying lenses - it pays off in the long run because even if you lose interest they hold their value.

The in-camera sharpening is okay, but photoshop tends to do a better job. Most important when shooting wildlife is to keep the shutter speed as high as possible, with a long lens the speed should be at least equivalent to the focal length to cut out camera shake, plus the critters have a bad habit of moving just as you take the shot and the IS won't help much with that.

You gave me the advice i have ran through my head many times over lol. I know what you mean about the little buggers moving just at the wrong time. As soon as this rain stops i will get out again . What 300mm is lense do you recomend , i must say an L lens is way out of budget at the min.

 

Cheers eddie.

[paulus 26]

i brought a second hand 70 - 300 for my olympus from off ebay, best thing ive brought, pictures are still fuzzy but closer :laugh:

[IanB 0]

The canon 70-300 IS lens is pretty good to be honest, a big improvement over kit lenses.

[eddiej35 10]

i brought a second hand 70 - 300 for my olympus from off ebay, best thing ive brought, pictures are still fuzzy but closer :laugh:

 

LOL , i think you live in an earthquake hot spot bud, its not your fault . Your pics are certainly getting better bud and to be honest i only get 1 good pic out of bloody hundreds at the min.

[eddiej35 10]

The canon 70-300 IS lens is pretty good to be honest, a big improvement over kit lenses.

 

Is that the usm lens like the one i have already but bigger ?

 

cheers Eddie.

[byron 1,159]

eddie..

the canon 70/300mm is lens can be picked up for around £250/300..try ebay/gumtree etc.. its quite a nice bit of kit..got one here..if you had been closer you could have tried it ..but if your serious about lenses ,save up and get a fixed type ,,lot better images,, we all make the same mistake and get into this photo thing and wish we had bought better glass..but there ya go... keep at it ...

[MuttleMcTuttle 21]

The Canon 7-300 IS is a pretty good lens, but not outstanding really. I had an old 70-300 non-IS copy and I thought that was actually a better lens, but I may have just been lucky. Top quality prime lenses will always be better than zooms, but... expensive.

If you want a real man's lens and want to photograph the fleas on a fox's ears I'd seriously consider the Sigma (arrrrgggghhhhh, yes, I did say Sigma) 150-500 lens. Not sure what they are fetching S/H but definitely worth a look at. My hubby has one (Nikon man, unfortunately) and I've been impressed with the results, comparable to my 100-400L and much much cheaper. But it is a bit of a lump of a thing (but no more so than any big lens) and of course he may have been lucky enough to pick up a good copy, but on the whole I've heard nothing really bad about the lens.