Stork Billed Kingfisher at Lower Pierce

[trident]

Hi,
The Stork Billed Kingfisher is one of the bigger kingfisher found in Singapore.
Found this fellow at Lower Pierce fishing for dinner.
Canon 40D 400mm f5.6+1.4TC. ISO800 f6.3 1/25

Canon 40D 400mm f5.6+1.4TC. ISO800 f6.3 1/25

Background was PSed to make it blur

[luenny]

Nice shots Richard. Now if only I have a tele lens like you, then I can join you on your birding trip.

[trident]

Luenny,
Thanks. Watch out for 2nd hand ones, a lot cheaper.

[cannon_14595]

Awesome shot!
I find it rather hard to shoot birds with my camera though.

[deathmatch]

Cool!
Nice pic you have there.

[trident]

Hi Canon and Deathmatch,
Thanks, glad you like it. Shooting bird requires long lens and stable tripod and lots of patience. Waiting 4-5 hours for a bird to show up is quite normal.
For this shot, I was actually waiting for another bird, the blue eared kingfisher,
waited for 4 hours and decided to pack up when this Stork Billed showed up.
Just Lucky I guess

[cannon_14595]

Thanks for the advice, Trident.

I really hope to get one of these camera you are using.
How many MP is it anyway?

[trident]

Canon,
I got 2 canon bodies now, the 20D is 8mp and the 40D is 10mp.
Which camera do you own? I know it's Casio brand, which model?
A DSLR is good, but that does not mean the PnS is no good,
in the hands of a good shooter it can turn out wonderful pictures as well.

[cannon_14595]

I use a Casio Exilim 12.1 MagePixel Digital.
Mine has moe MP than your's but I can't take such good pictures!
Its all to do with the camera type I guess.

[cannon_14595]

I'm currently thinking of buying one of those cameras you have.
Could you advice me on which is the best camera to shoot long-distanced
creatures and tiny animals like insects?

[ranmasatome]

OUCH! these guys hurt when they bite..kekeke..

nice shots.

[trident]

cannon,
Buying a DSLR is very costly, especially if you want to buy a long lens.
For small insects you need a macro lens and for birds you need a long tele lens.
As for camera (body) you have a wide range to choose from, the 2 major brand, Nikon and Canon will have all the stuff you need.
Do some reading on DSLR and their lenses before deciding if you need to buy one. Also check out their prices, see if it fit your budget.
There are many sites which provide good information on DSLR. One that I frequently use is, www.clubsnap.com
Happy reading

[luenny]

Cannon,
If you want a cheaper alternative to shooting birds and insects, you can get a compact camera with large zoom like the Panasonic FZ28 with 18x zoom. Then get a Raynox 250 to put in front of the lens when you want to shoot insect. And when you want to shoot birds, get a 2x TC.

[cannon_14595]

Hmmmm...
So it looks like there a many to choose from...
and most of them are rather expensive too...

Maybe I'll think about them later, and for me,
an amatuer, I think maybe a 2nd hand Camera could be good enough.
That will reduce the amount I have to spend too..

Thanks all for your help anyway.

P.S trident, I've also joined the ClubSnap Forums but I'm currently not using it.
My user ID is beware-of-snakes

[Fuzzy]

I use a Casio Exilim 12.1 MagePixel Digital.
Mine has moe MP than your's but I can't take such good pictures!
Its all to do with the camera type I guess.

The problem is the optics.

Even if you have a 20 Megapixel camera, and a cheap china lens you won't be able to take decent pictures.

This is also why cellphones with 10,000,000,000 Megapixel cameras will never take photos even approaching the quality of "antique" 3 Megapixel DSLRs.

[luenny]

Hahaha!! That's very true Fuzzy. Anyway, Cannon, second hand cameras actually makes a lot of sense (provided it's still functioning). Both Richard and myself are using second hand cameras. And if you can find one that have some scratch on the body (not the optics or the LCD) but the rest of the body is ok, you can usually get it for a cheaper price.

[trident]

Cannon,
Since you already own a camera, try to make the best out of it. Read the manual, go help online. Many compact camera can do a lot of stuff, but first you must know the camera well in order to take advantage of all it's features.

[cannon_14595]

Thanks to all, Fuzzy, Luenny & Trident.

Yes, it seems to do all with the lens and camera quality so. Before, I actually thought
that the higher the MP, the better the camera is. But now it has been proved wrong!

Well yes a second hand camera would be the best for me. I wouldn't mind if it has
scratches everywhere, because all I need is a good photograph. A scratched screen
wouln't be too bad either.

My dad says that I have a Casio Camera at my house overseas, not the digital type,
but the big one with extra zoom and stuff. He doesn't know much about Cameras, so
all I can say that it is a Big Camera, with extra-zoom, and maybe not a digital. When
I'm there once again, I'll see if that camera is better or not. I'm planning to attract
some birds but puutting baits on the trees too!

My current camera is not so bad, the only weak points are zooming and macro.

[trident]

Cannon,
What is the model of your camera? Try getting a Raynox for macro. It's an close-up lens there enable a compact camera to shoot macro.

[cannon_14595]

My camera model is
Casio Exilim, 12.1 MegaPixel Digital.