The Green Hummer..

[Fumesucker]

Finally saw the beautiful little creature while I had my camera out and ready.

These shots were with my old Sears 200mm f3.5 screwmount lens at f5.6, adapted to my Rebel XT.

I wasted a metric gigaboatload of pixels getting these pics. :)

[alfredo]

1. Very good. I haven't caught one of them yet.

A few months ago I took a picture of a gold finch in some black eyed susan. When I got home I had difficulty finding that little bugger. Great camouflage. That hummer blends in well with the foliage.

Who made those Sears lens?

[Fumesucker]

3. Probably a former Japanese manufacturer of battleship binoculars..

Given the build philosophy, it doubles as a short club in a pinch.. You know those crafty Ninjas.. ;)

But then I've heard reviews that basically say that build quality isn't necessarily an indicator of equivalent optics, the Sears is OK but not great, the contrast could be better and it could be a bit sharper.

On the other hand I like the color rendition quite a bit and the bokeh is pleasing if not stellar.

I found the closest spot out of the sun and waited on the hummer, it pays more or less random visits to that bush throughout a lot of the day, the bees like it too but they scrape something off the green part that the flower petal comes out of.. When it showed up I just rock and rolled on the auto shutter at 4fps and then walked the focus back and forth through the bird so I would get at least some sharp shots.

And yeah, there's quite a few shots where I still haven't found the little jewel, if he has his back to you he's all but invisible.

I have a 2x tele extender for the screwmount and a 135 f2.8 that's pretty sharp at f4, put them together and they seem sharper than you'd expect at 135*2*1.6=432mm f8 equivalent on a 35 film camera.

It's been driving me crazy to have all the lenses and no camera to use them on, I'm impressed with the Canon and it's interesting that there are several coming up every day on Craigslist here now.

Here's a full frame resized, the hummer is quite a distance from obvious.

[alfredo]

4. They're fearless little buggers. I guess if you were that

fast, you'd fear no man or beast.

I am thinking of getting the Olympus 40~150mm for my Oly. That will give me 80~300mm, pretty good for wildlife and such. It's pretty good for the price.



I have my first piece of Russian glass on the way. It's an Industar 50mm. I hope it works OK.

[Fumesucker]

6. Yeah, I recall you mentioning the Industar..

Aptly named IMO, it does look a bit industrial.

Olympus makes some top flight equipment and some fine glass, the size factor is nice too..

Oh yeah, I like the slightly updated old school look too, the shape is reminiscent of the old rangefinder cameras.

For ultimate sharpness though you really can't beat a fixed focal length lens, a lens is a compromise anyway and a zoom is a panoply of compromises.

But zooms are so convenient.


:hi:

[alfredo]

7. I have two fixed focal length, one is 50mm Yashinon. It is

sharp as can be, but has a gimpy focus ring. I use it for Macro because I move the camera instead of the focus ring. I have a focal 28mm that is pretty good, a tad bit soft and low contrast, but with a bit of PP, it is nice.

Yeah, the industar is butt ugly, but if the glass is good, it won't matter.

[Bonhomme Richard]

2. Nice work. n/t

[handmade34]

5. great shot

of him attacking that flower :-) Love these little guys



Watched a great show last night about the Spatuletail Hummingbird in Peru.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8338000/8338728.stm

[Fumesucker]

8. It's my lucky day, he came back and I was closer this time..

[rdking647]

9. #1 is amazing

[dixiegrrrrl]

10. I really like the 2nd one, with all the shades of green.

Good capture!

[Mira]

11. A feat! Congratulations. I know how hard this was

because I tried once when I had the opportunity to do this same thing, and ended up with not much when I cropped and zoomed in. These are to be proud of!