Bird footage

[Sassi Haham]

Hi all,
Four month ago I picked a used Canon XL1s and asked some questions on
this thread http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=66301
and this http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=67111
Many of you shared advice and experience , so I had a surprisingly smooth
'start'.
As I am a birder, not a videographer, the footage is fairly simple, something like bringing a taste of the birding day back home.
Lately a fellow birders asked me to post clips to their website,
here is the link http://www.israbirding.com/videos/
more to come soon.
Sassi

[Per Johan Naesje]

Sassi, loved your videoclips, very sturdy and nice framing. Can you tell about equipment used? What kind of lenses and tripod. The footage was rocksteady, I'm very impressed!

[Grant Sherman]

Hi Sassi,

Love the footage. I especially like the shots with the reflections of the waders in the water. Was it difficult to get the exposures right on these shots? What settings did you use?

I'm going to have to have a holiday near an estuary soon - we don't get a lot of waders on this island :-(

Grant

[Sassi Haham]

Thanks Per Johan and Grant,

It is nice to here that you liked the footage, although it is 'flat' (no story telling nor mood building), the clips (those and the other to come), intend to show closer views of the birds, some jizz that is better perceived on video and some behavior.
The birds on the clips Oystercatcher and BB sandpiper are only few records a year over here and the Little stint show some variety of plumage.

I use a wooden (photographic) legs with a tiny levelling ball on top that I would call my lighter setup (the only one), the head is a Bogen 516 that I would call basic for the purpose. (my gut feeling is that the legs don't do justice with the video head).
The lens is a sigma 50-500 f/5.6 (6.3 at the 500 end) very versatile for
nature and birds , it is an alternative for the slightly better Tamron 200-500
and Canon 100-400.
I use the lens almost entirely at the long end (3400 mm).
Grant, for the exposures, most of the time I have exposure problems but not because of the reflections.
Many birds have white on their plumage and in harsh light, 'right' exposure leads to 'blown highlights', so I expose for the highlights and correct in post.
I don't think that this is the right way to go but at 9:00 am at Israel summer
the camera readings are f/11 1/250 with an 0.8 (three f stops eq) ND filter on the lens.

Sassi

[Brendan Marnell]

Originally Posted by Per Johan

Sassi, ...... The footage was rocksteady, I'm very impressed!

It will be a while before anyone will accuse me of having rocksteady footage. After 3 weeks videoing 6 hours of vulture clips it's just dawned on me that I should have let the birds do the hopping around and try to keep myself quiet. Well done Sassi. I envy your skills. Guillenaules are secretive and that was a bittern that passed in front of him at end of clip and they're very secretive.

[Mark Williams]

Very nice video clips. The Whimbrel was my favorite.