Success Shooting Tiny Birds!

Panasonic G3 camera, Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens

As I was writing my previous blog post this morning, I could hear all sorts of birds and squirrels outside for the first time in quite a long time. It was as though they all moved into the area at the same moment!

It has been unusually quiet here for months... no small wildlife at all... no birds, no squirrels... just an odd silence outdoors. All of a sudden, this morning, this all changed.

I grabbed my newest camera purchase... my Panasonic G3 with my old Olympus 70-300mm lens mounted on it. This combo gives me a very long telephoto reach equivalent to a 600mm field of view on a full frame camera. This is a loonnnggg telephoto reach in a rather small package!

When I stepped outdoors, I headed toward the deeper part of the backyard with old, tall trees where I figured most wildlife would be located. As I walked back that way, I listened to hear where the birds were located... "hmmm..." all the noise seemed to be coming from my next door neighbor's yard. "Okay... that will work... I'll just shoot out our kitchen window..." So I just headed back indoors.

Olympus E-500 camera with Kodak sensor, Olympus 70-300mm lens

When I approached the kitchen window, I could clearly see a bunch of little tiny birds feeding on my neighbor's bird feeder... some little sparrows... mostly some American Goldfinches... some Chickadees... some little woodpeckers... "Finally..." 

You see, I have been waiting for some birds and wildlife to return so I could test some camera gear and practice shooting all this gear before we head to the lake house this summer. Today would be day one of this testing and practice.

I carefully opened the window scaring a few few birds away. Then, sure enough, they must have caught a glimpse of my lighter colored clothing and they all flew away. I knew I would need some darker clothes so it was time to go find some darker clothes and a hat. By the time I came back to the kitchen wearing more appropriate clothing, all the birds had returned. 

The moment I started shooting this little camera, I quickly realized that this combination of camera body and lens could be an effective tool in shooting wildlife. I'd need to check out the images on my larger desktop computer but things seemed to be looking great on the little LCD screen. Things felt right. The camera was quick to focus... the lens was responding quickly... and the autofocus was accurate. This was all good news especially since I was using an old lens with an adapter! These older lenses were made for a completely different type of autofocus system so it is amazing that this combo works at all nevermind the fact that it works better than anything I've even owned at these focal lengths.

Sony a7 camera, Sony FE 70-200mm G lens

After shooting about a dozen or so photos, I decided to swap camera bodies. Since the light was good, I wanted to try my oldest camera body that has a Kodak sensor that is sharp with beautiful tonal qualities. Even this older combination worked fairly well. I lost some ability to crop photos because this camera produces much smaller images... I lost some autofocus accuracy... and I lost a significant amount of autofocus speed. I found I was still capturing some really nice crisp images by being methodical and deliberate.

Next, I switched to a completely different camera body and lens combination. I wanted to try my newest camera with the most recent technology. The problem here is that, although the longest lens I have for this camera is physically huge, it only reaches a third of the way that my old Olympus lens reaches. This would be a tremendous disadvantage with these tiny birds but I figured I would give it a shot anyway.

Olympus E-500 camera with Kodak sensor,
Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens

I manged to get a few nice photos of these tiny birds with my newest and favorite gear (Sony full frame) but these shots were not close-ups so they didn't have the wow factor I got with the Micro Four Thirds gear I had just shot previously. However, if I could find a lens in the 400mm range with decent autofocus for this camera body it would be heaven! Come on... someone, anyone... Tamron, Sigma and Sony... make a lens like this!

Anyway, just in the short time I was shooting photos today, I found that my thoughts about trying a camera in the Micro Four Thirds format was definitely the way to go for wildlife photography. These photos look really nice and, to be honest, they were fairly easy to capture with a steady hand! Until I can find a good 400mm lens for my Sony system, this Micro Four Thirds format will do just fine for this task. Besides, this Micro Four Thirds gear is small so it fits more easily in my kayak and is easier on my aching, injured back.

These photos I shot this morning are some of my best bird photos to date! I can't begin to effectively express how much I'm looking forward to trying to capture photos of some larger birds and wildlife at the lake this summer!

Next time, I'll need to try that used Panasonic 45-200mm lens I recently bought paired with this fast little Panasonic G3 body... It doesn't have quite the reach that my Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens does but it should be much faster. Next time...


Edit: You can view my first outing with the Panasonic 45-200mm lens here - Testing the Panasonic Lumix 45-200mm - part II

Olympus E-500 camera with Kodak sensor, Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens

Olympus E-500 camera with Kodak sensor, Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens.  It looks as though
this guy has a set of teeth!  (It is really just some bird feed coming out of his mouth.)

Panasonic G3 camera, Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens

Yes... I do believe I was the one who was spotted here!
The way I was being eye-balled here, I was wondering if
I'd be fighting off an angry bird before long.
Panasonic G3 camera, Olympus Zuiko 70-300mm lens.

Sony a7 camera, Sony FE 70-200mm G lens

Sony a7 camera, Sony FE 70-200mm G lens