Birds and small targets with the Century Optics 1.6 TC?

[Tim Cee]

Originally Posted by Pat Reddy

I paid $780 from B&H:

Century Precision Optics | VS-16TC-XL 1.6x | 0HD-16TC-XLH | B&H

Pat

Good price Pat. I was quoted a few buck more than that, $800 to be exact but I can live with it. Thanks again for all the help.

[Rick Llewellyn]

I shoot a fair amount of animals and birds with a XH-A1 and the 1.6 TC, giving you somewhere in the 1000mm focal length equivalent. That works well for big animals and some big birds. But even with birds like eagles and ospreys, you will be doing well to get a half height shot. For smaller birds like flycatchers, forget it.

To do bird video, except in special circumstances, you really need more like 2000-3000mm focal length- or a blind.

The previous suggestion of taking your XH A1 out and shooting some samples will allow you to measure the bird height in the resulting video, so you can easily caliculate the focal length you will need.

Wild birds usually don't let you get close. So you probably need a camera that supports interchangeable lenses and a long 35mm lens.

Rick

[Tim Cee]

Originally Posted by Rick Llewellyn

I shoot a fair amount of animals and birds with a XH-A1 and the 1.6 TC, giving you somewhere in the 1000mm focal length equivalent. That works well for big animals and some big birds. But even with birds like eagles and ospreys, you will be doing well to get a half height shot. For smaller birds like flycatchers, forget it.

To do bird video, except in special circumstances, you really need more like 2000-3000mm focal length- or a blind.

The previous suggestion of taking your XH A1 out and shooting some samples will allow you to measure the bird height in the resulting video, so you can easily caliculate the focal length you will need.

Wild birds usually don't let you get close. So you probably need a camera that supports interchangeable lenses and a long 35mm lens.

Rick

Rick, thanks for the input. I am not sure I agree with you about them not letting you get close. If you check out my Web Site keep in mind these were all shot at 400 mm or less.

[Rick Llewellyn]

Tim-
I checked out your web site- nice pictures!
I presume that many of the pictures were cropped?

Also, I find it very hard to shoot birds in flight and keep it tight, especially with video. Any suggestions?

Rick

[Tim Cee]

Century Optics 1.6 TC Follow up.....
Well, I finally made it over to Sammy's and picked mine up. First impression is Holly Crap! At least I know if I ever needed a boat anchor this will do fine as it has some definite weight to it.
I plan to do some testing with it this afternoon.
I have been testing the XHA1 for the past few weeks so I was in no big hurry to get this TC, I wanted to find the limitations of the stock lens. I will keep this thread updated as to my findings, Thanks again everyone, especially you Pat!
SoCal

[Tim Cee]

Originally Posted by Rick Llewellyn

Tim-
I checked out your web site- nice pictures!
I presume that many of the pictures were cropped?

Also, I find it very hard to shoot birds in flight and keep it tight, especially with video. Any suggestions?

Rick

Hey Rick, sorry about the delay I have not made it back to this therad in a while. Yes, of course many if not all of my BIF images are cropped.
As to keeping it tight with Video, I will let you know how I do as I am still in the early stages of BIF and Birds in general with the XHA1. My initial response to keeping it tight is "Focal Length" go big or go home. The down side to that is target aquisition but you get used to that.
Take Care Rick,
SoCal

[Dale Guthormsen]

Tim,

Shooting flying birds is what I do the most of. I used to use the gl2 with the century 2x.
Seems to me the lens has about the same magnifications.

the More telephoto the morre difficult it is to keep them relatively steady.

A couple things. I used a shoulder mount for the camera, still have it about if you want to try it out for a few weeks. I think the spyder brace with a manfrotto 521 camera control is about the best as the spider prace uses two front hand holds. Some times I wished I had one like it that could manage my xl2 and xlh1!!

Sense you are shooting hd, you could crop the hd images down and then display them in SD. It would give you more latitude.

Of course shooting off a set of sticks is best but much bird footage is needed to be shot off the shoulder in my book!

It takes a huge amount of practice.

[Tim Cee]

Originally Posted by Dale Guthormsen

Tim,

Shooting flying birds is what I do the most of. I used to use the gl2 with the century 2x.
Seems to me the lens has about the same magnifications.

the More telephoto the morre difficult it is to keep them relatively steady.

A couple things. I used a shoulder mount for the camera, still have it about if you want to try it out for a few weeks. I think the spyder brace with a manfrotto 521 camera control is about the best as the spider prace uses two front hand holds. Some times I wished I had one like it that could manage my xl2 and xlh1!!

Sense you are shooting hd, you could crop the hd images down and then display them in SD. It would give you more latitude.

Of course shooting off a set of sticks is best but much bird footage is needed to be shot off the shoulder in my book!

It takes a huge amount of practice.

Hey Dale, Thanks for the offer to use your gear but I think I will stick to the way I have been doing things as it seems to work out well for my style of shooting.
Personally? I would never dream of downgrading HD footage to SD for reasons of gaining a tighter shot. That seems counter productive in my opinion. I realize there may be contradictory opinions on that but again, it is my line of thinking and what works for me to achieve the end result I am after.

[Pat Reddy]

I took the Century TC with me to the Big Island of Hawaii last month. I was initially planning to spend a fair amount of time filming honey creepers at Volcanoes National Park. We ended up having fairly limited time for filming there (a half day), so I didn't get much footage. Honey creepers are small and hyperactive. With the TC, I had to basically target a patch of Ohia Lehua flowers and wait for a bird to show up. Wind and rain were an issue, but I can tell from the clips that the Century TC performs very well. Tim, let us know how your tests go.

Pat

[Tim Cee]

Hey Pat, so far all I can say is I am pleasantly surprised. This TC is a sharp shooter. I was expecting a bit of sacrifce with regards to crispness but found it to be surprisingly sharp on even jittery little birds with no dicsernable issues other than vignetting which comes to play at about 40-45 % but I knew that before buying this TC, it is just the nature of the beast. Besides, I did not buy this TC for pulled back images.
Pushed way out to full FL this thing really delivers!
Well worth the investment and two big thumbs up for sure.
Just like any other long reach optic, target aquisition on fast and small moving subjects will require practice but can be mastered and with very crisp results.

[Mick Haensler]

Thanks for the report back Tim. I am seriously considering getting one for my EX1. I do a lot of BIF photography and would love to start adding video.

Mick Haensler

[Sam Mendolia]

One of my earliest post here, was about TC's.

I have a Raynox and a Canon TC and WC, and was having some chromatic abberation, in certain situations.

One of the many knowledgeable members, had gone through the same thing, and mention that if I take the UV filter off, and just put the TC on, it should clear things up. It did greatly.

I was wondering if the Century TC, had this issue.

[Dale Guthormsen]

The century tc is a nice piece of glass and i would recomend it over any other for cameras that can not change lenses.

when I am shooting volitile birds i do not use the brace: elbows in two handed shoot keeping it pressed against the eye for a third point. some of my stuff people think its shot off a tripod, but then I throw alot of hand held stuff out!!

iT IS ALWAYS A CHALLENGE AND A LOT OF FUN.


I WAS LOOKING AT THE ADD FOR YOUR 1.6. AND MUST HAVE LAUGHED:: THE SIGN IN THE PICTURE SATICOY BLVD IS NOT FAR FROM WHERE I GREW UP!!!!!! I did notice they did not give the lines of horizontal rsolution, probably because it would be mis interpreted.

In my opoinion the 2x does go a bit soft in the far end of its work. However I know a friend of mine can't even see the difference. So that must mean its pretty darn good.

I think the 1.6 is a better lens!

do you have some clips up ypou have shot for us to look at?

[Pat Reddy]

Sam, if I am not mistaken the Century 1.6 will not fit on the Canon XH-A1 if you have a filter on the camera lens. I'm not sure about the Century TCs for other cameras.

Pat

[Tim Cee]

Originally Posted by Pat Reddy

Sam, if I am not mistaken the Century 1.6 will not fit on the Canon XH-A1 if you have a filter on the camera lens. I'm not sure about the Century TCs for other cameras.

Pat

That is correct Pat, no go with a filter using the 1.6
It sure is nice getting so much reach and having it so sharp to boot. I am definitely happy with this tele-converter.
Target aquisition on the fly with small targets, which was my original question here, will require a lot of practice but that is typical with my other long range optics. Kind of like trying to find a flying gnat through a drinking straw.