First RDS Shots

[Richard Scott]

He was orbiting my driveway as I drove up - ran to the house grabbed the Fz20 with RDS which I just installed last night and took a couple of hurry up's. I noticed afterwards my camera was on manual with large apature so the pictures are overexposed. Are there a couple of default setting you might use when shooting into the sky and still be able to get some better resolution than what we are looking at?? Any suggestions at all will be helpful. Also can anyone ID the hawk ??
Thanks
Richard

[mbbin2]

Very good shots. Be proud of any birds caught in flight with good detail. I searched for washington hawks and got a interesting list. (politically speaking). Could not identify your bird.

Now to show my ignorance, what is RDS?
Mary

[mbbin2]

I looked on the web and answered my own question. Obviously I am not a hunter.
I found prices from $8000+ to $50. If you don't mind sharing, please describe your setup.

Thanks, Mary

[genece]

This should explain and I can recommend it as a well made product.


http://www.fz30focus.com/kwikaim/kwikaim.htm



.

[reisende54]

Nice shots Richard!

[Richard Scott]

Until I mounted the Red dot sight on the camera, capturing fast moving objects, let alone centering them in LCD was hit and miss at best. Now it's dead on every time. I looked up in a bird book and it looks to me like a Red tailed Hawk. Still trying to figure out how to capture more detail on subjects sillouetted against a bright background.

[Telecorder]

Until I mounted the Red dot sight on the camera, capturing fast moving objects, let alone centering them in LCD was hit and miss at best. Now it's dead on every time. I looked up in a bird book and it looks to me like a Red tailed Hawk. Still trying to figure out how to capture more detail on subjects sillouetted against a bright background.

Richard-

Great photos of a RTH! They're some of my favorites and, you're right, the RDS is a muct have for AIM (Anything in motion) - especially BIF. You did great on these with good detail.

For back lit subjects, when you can, try setting it for +0.66 or so when attempting backlit subjects. It over rides the camera's assessment of exposure and adds a proportional amount of aperature widening above what it senses to increase the amount of light on the overall photo/subject. The following is an example of the situation last Sunday of, I believe, was a Turkey Vulture...
First was w/ -1.33 EV setting at 12X+4X Digital w/TCON17 (way out there w/sun behind him!)

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/Telecorder/Photoshop%20PSE4-Abstracts/Minus133EV.jpg

Adjusted EV to +1.0 for this one - notice how the body's white feather are showing better exposure?

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/Telecorder/Photoshop%20PSE4-Abstracts/Plus1EV.jpg

Then adjusted EV to +1.66 which helped a lot on the back lighting issues by over exposing the back ground...

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/Telecorder/Photoshop%20PSE4-Abstracts/Plus166EV.jpg

These are good examples of how increasing the EV to + values open up and lighten shadows on a back lit subject works (Not of these being good photos, per se...). No post processing, just resized to 33% of original size.

Keep in mind that you will need to adjust this EV setting when its not needed/wanted as I failed to do on the GHIF (Great Heron in Flight w/Daisy RDS) shot shortly after the above photos. I had it set at +2.0 as I saw this guy winging overhead--- oh what could have been with an EV at 0.0... :(

http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/Telecorder/Photoshop%20PSE4-Abstracts/GBH-Original-Crop.jpg

Going to the opposite settings -- to minus EV would be when the subject is brighter than the background and you want to darken it. I believe the above illustrates the concept of adjusting EV settings for problematic subject lighting, though.

Experience should have told me to do bracketed exposures but...

[dadster]

Nice photos!! Getting detail in backlit subjects is a challenge-- I'm certain that your subject was not a turkey vulture (they're entirely black and have a red, featherless head). Could it have been an osprey?

[Telecorder]

Nice photos!! Getting detail in backlit subjects is a challenge-- I'm certain that your subject was not a turkey vulture (they're entirely black and have a red, featherless head). Could it have been an osprey?

I had photos earlier in the day of Turkey Vultures and had them on my mind. You may be correct about an Osprey... I'm not sure. It may be a Hawk, as well. The following is a somewhat better long distance photo of him/her that others may venture an opinion on... anyone out there have a more informed opinion on ID? :confused:
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/Telecorder/Photoshop%20PSE4-Abstracts/436_filtered.jpg

[Mo Manx]

Even in the first shot, I was pretty sure by silhouette it was an osprey. I'm more certain after seeing the rest.

By the way, this has been a great discussion of how to get good results on BIF and backlit objects. Thanks!

[Telecorder]

Just thought that I'd update that the consensus is growing that it is an Osprey. Some great shots for comparison are at:
http://laree.smugmug.com/gallery/965306/1/21772478

and of a number of various birds at:
http://birdsofsanibel.free.fr/new_page_4.htm

[John_Reed]

This should explain and I can recommend it as a well made product.


http://www.fz30focus.com/kwikaim/kwikaim.htm



.
Looking at your link, it looks like the kwikaim unit is based on a Daisy Max View sight, with its own mounting, as opposed to the Photosolve adapter mount. It looks like the back of the sight protrudes over the back of the camera; do you use this thing, and if so, does it bother you to have it sticking back like that, especially if you're an EVF kinda guy like I am?

[Telecorder]

It looks like the back of the sight protrudes over the back of the camera; do you use this thing, and if so, does it bother you to have it sticking back like that, especially if you're an EVF kinda guy like I am?

Its the way they've mounted the scope to the dovetall bracket. The mount can be moved further out to clear the EVF eyepiece, if desired...

But then, John, I'm sure you were speaking in jest...:p

[John_Reed]

Its the way they've mounted the scope to the dovetall bracket. The mount can be moved further out to clear the EVF eyepiece, if desired...

But then, John, I'm sure you were speaking in jest...:p
If the sight can be slid forward, fine; if it must protrude past the back plane of the camera, that would create a problem for me to use it.

[Richard Scott]

Ok now I have to ask, as I tried just about everything - what steps do you take to post a photo here so it is displayed as you read?? My two photos showed up as an attachemet which had to be clicked on.
Richard

[Telecorder]

Ok now I have to ask, as I tried just about everything - what steps do you take to post a photo here so it is displayed as you read?? My two photos showed up as an attachemet which had to be clicked on.
Richard
Richard-
Good possibility that you're trying to post an image from your PC. It can only be done by an attachment to the post since the forum's server doesn't have full access to your PC's hard drive.

When you are in the window writing your post, there will be a list of icons just above the text area where you can modify the text ...B I U etc. The 5th icon from the right is an icon that is clicked to insert an image. You must have the image posted on a web page such as a hosting site as P-Bucket, smugmug etc.

Post your image on the hosting site, copy the URL link to the image (ends with xxx.jpg). When posting your forum reply, click on the image icon, right-click on the high lighted http in the pop up window and click on paste. Click OK and the URL link to the image's xxx.jpg will be inserted in your post.

Click on preview of your post and you'll see the inserted image. If no image is seen in preview, check the inserted URL and make sure it ends in .jpg... As an example, it should look like the following without the *'s in the []--
[*IMG]http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/Telecorder/Bald%20Eagle%20Tour%20March%205%202005/Branch-UpClose-973-Cropped1.jpg[/IMG*]

[Telecorder]

If the sight can be slid forward, fine; if it must protrude past the back plane of the camera, that would create a problem for me to use it.
The RDS units are typically attached to a dove tail mounting adapter. In my version, this is not an issue...
http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d73/Telecorder/Telecorders-FZ5_RDS-Adapter.jpg

For the one detailed above that has the scope extending behind the EVF, the clamping screws could be loosened and the scope slid forward ~1/2". Of course, this would mean that the scope would only have ~ 1/2 of the grip on the mounting dove tail but should still be fairly secure... Whether the ~1/2" adjustment would be enough to clear the EVF, I'm not sure...

For those interested, I posted a fairly detailed overview of how I used a 2" PVC coupler to make my RDS adapter for my FZ5 at:
http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=78303&forum_id=23

[Richard Scott]

Thanks for the tip telecorder, I'll go out and find one and try it out
Richard