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Photos taken between 2/14/2004 and 11/20/2005
Except as otherwise noted, the photos during this time period were taken with a
Panasonic DMC-FZ10
4 megapixel digital camera. It has several features that make it
particularly well suited for wildlife photography, including:
- 12x
optical zoom: This lens is
equivalent to a 35 - 420mm zoom lens on a 35mm camera. This is like
being able to take photos through a quality pair of 8x
binoculars. The lens has an Optical Image Stabilizer to help prevent
"camera shake", which can be a real problem at 12x zoom and slower
shutter speeds.
- Manual
exposure settings: I find
that automatic exposure settings do not work very well for the wildlife
photos I take. Often uneven lighting (say, for example, a brightly lit
background sky) will result in poorly exposed images useing the automatic settings..
- Manual
Focus: Automatic focus just
does not work well for taking wildlife photos. There is usually
something in the foreground or background that throws off the auto
focus. Especially with the maximum zoom and a wide open f-stop, there
is very little depth-of-field. So, if the subject permits, I like to
manually focus and then lean forward a couple of inches for another
shot and back a couple of inches for another. That increase my chances
of getting a good focus, but I still end up with more bad focus than
good. I refocus often to avoid taking a whole series with bad
focus.
- External
Flash Hot Shoe:
It gets
pretty dark in the woods, so I found that I need an external
flash to
get satisfactory results. Most built-in flashes on digital cameras have
a maximum range of 7 - 10 feet. I use a Sunpak 383 external flash that
has a maximum range of 30-60 feet, depending on ISO settings, etc.
Photos taken between 11/20/2005 and 4/6/2006
Except as otherwise noted, the photos during this time period were taken with a Panasonic DMC-FZ30 8 megapixel camera. Very similar to the FZ10 except for 8 mp and several nice improvements, including a tilt LCD screen.
Photos taken after 4/6/2006
Except as
otherwise noted, the photos during this time period were taken with a
Nikon D50 DSLR, with a Nikkor 28-200 f/3.5-5.6 IF-ED zoom lens.
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