Kingfisher again - Otterbourne, nr Winchester, 20 November 2024

Being keen to explore further the capabilities of my new toy - the Canon R5 Mark II, I booked another session at Pete Whieldon's excellent Kingfisher hide at Otterbourne, near Winchester. 

I was lucky with the weather this time, which was bright and sunny for the few hours of available daylight at this time of year. Just what was needed for action shots, and quite unlike my previous visit last January, which was on a very dull day.

To start with, there was no sign of the bird, and I began to fear that the trip had been in vain. However eventually the bird appeared at 11:00, whereupon it was very active for the remainder of the day.

My highest priority for this session was to try out again the pre-capture facility on the R5 Mark II. Perhaps I was being overly ambitious but I was also trying to get diving shots using my original R5, simply pre-focussed on the diving spot. So for every dive, I was trying to simultaneously press the cable release for the R5 and fully press the shutter button on the R5 Mark II! 

What I found was the pre-capture worked fine in itself, but the AF seldom if ever followed the bird down beyond the perch. It worked much better however when the bird flew off - as there was nothing else along the bird's trajectory for the AF to get confused by.

Here is a selection of photos I took through the day. Click on any of the captions to go to my website and see larger images. 

Also, see my Kingfisher gallery for more high res. versions of all the photos from this and other occasions. 

Kingfisher flying off, almost directly towards me (R5 Mk II, pre-capture) © Stephen Burch

Kingfisher flying off more sideways  (R5 Mk II, pre-capture) © Stephen Burch

Kingfisher flying off from a closer perch (R5 Mk II, pre-capture) © Stephen Burch

Diving shot (R5, pre-focussed)  © Stephen Burch

Diving shot (R5, pre-focussed)   © Stephen Burch

Stunning the fish before consuming it!  © Stephen Burch

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS again 19 October

Another attempt at the comet, this time from the westerly edge of Wantage. For a more "environmental" shot, I tried using my Canon RF 16mm f2.8 wide-angle lens.

The conditions were probably even worse than on 17th, with thin cloud, murk and the near full moon again prominent in the east. Also, stacking was ineffective for these image, so instead here is a single image after some processing. This image shows the comet just before it went behind the upper layer of thin cloud. Thereafter the cloud quickly moved in and the comet disappeared behind it.

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS © Stephen Burch

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, Berkshire Downs, 17 October

The brilliant full moon and murky skies did their best to obscure views of the much-hyped comet last night, 17 October. 

In the circumstances I was pleased to be able to get a sequence of 60 shots that after a fair amount of processing (stacking etc), gave the image below.

Taken with the Canon R5 & EF 100mm f2.8 macro, 5 sec exposure, ISO 1600, f2.8.

Note the faint reverse tail can just be seen below and to the right of comet nucleus. Best viewed large by clicking on the image. 

Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS © Stephen Burch

The Canon R5 Mk II - initial impressions

As some of you may know, the much anticipated successor to the Canon R5, the R5 Mk II, was announced in July and pre-orders started to be satisfied in late August, which is when mine arrived.

I thought others might be tempted by this new camera, and I am hence sharing my initial impressions of it, from only a couple of weeks of use. 

Put simply my first impressions are very favourable, as are those many who post YouTube videos. 

It is clear that this camera is a major advance on the original R5, not just a minor, incremental upgrade. All my frustrations with the R5 have been addressed and this new camera is a wonderful new toy to play with! 

The pre-capture (absent on the R5) is an amazing new feature, giving you 0.5 sec of images before you fully press the shutter button (i.e. 15 shots at 30 frames per second!). This is amazing for getting shots of birds that are either taking off or have just taken off, as had this Kingfisher. With luck the AF area will even follow the bird - but this doesn't always happen. Maybe I need to tweak the AF settings. 

Kingfisher in flight obtained using pre-capture on the Canon R5 Mk II © Stephen Burch

The R5 Mk II also shows a significant improvement in the already very good autofocus on the R5. This really helps for challenging subjects such as dragonflies in flight. 

Another notable feature is the inclusion of a stacked sensor, so that the weird rolling shutter effects that could sometimes be seen on the R5's images, should be a thing of the past. This allows use of the much higher frame rate possible with the electronic shutter for nearly all wildlife photography.

Of particular interest to me is one of the most challenging cases for rolling shutter effects - dragonflies in flight, due to the very fast speed of their wings.

I think both the improved AF and shooting at 30 fps with the electronic shutter helped for this image of a brief encounter with a Southern Hawker in flight:

Southern Hawker in flight © Stephen Burch

However for subsequent dragonfly in flight photos, I believe I am seeing some unwanted effects in the fast moving wings and so will probably revert to the mechanical shutter with it's slower frame rate in future.

Lastly (for the time being!), the lack of rolling shutter effects also helps with focus-stacking - something I regularly tried with the R5 for settled dragonflies, with varying success. 

For this focus-stacked R5 Mk II image of a Willow Emerald Damselfly, I wasn't able to fully support my arms given where the damselfly was located. With the R5 the series of images needed for focus stacking would have suffered from weird warping and wobbling effects caused by the interaction betweem the image stabilisation and shutter readout. Happily on the R5 Mk II, these effects have gone, and the image sequence was much more stable giving a greater chance of the focus stacking software working effectively.

Focus stacked image of a Willow Emerald Damselfly © Stephen Burch

For more on my initial thoughts on this new camera, see a page I have just uploaded to my website.

PS This post was not sponsored by Canon in any way! It was my unassisted purchase! 

Kingfisher - Otterbourne, nr Winchester - 15 January 2024

It was as long ago as summer 2021 that I last visited Pete Whieldon's Kingfisher hide at Otterbourne, near Winchester, so another session was long overdue. Despite the bird being present since last summer, the hide was still quite popular, so I needed to book well in advance. Hence  I had no control of the weather on the day.

This proved be very dull with low light levels more or less all day. It did brighten up around midday but at that time the bird was on an extended (4hr) lunch break! Hence most of the visits were relatively early morning and late afternoon when it was very dull indeed. 

This turned out to be a mixed blessing as the dull conditions from this hide produced nice soft lighting conditions for photos of the perched bird. Action shots were however challenging and, to freeze the bird's motion, I had to use up to ISO 25,600 on both the Canon R5 and R7. As the photographers among you will know, such a high ISO generates very high noise levels, especially on images from the cropped sensor on the R7. 

But it is amazing what the latest AI noise reduction software can do with these types of image. My preferred combination for such photos is to use DxO Pure Raw 3, followed, if necessary, by Topaz AI noise reduction.

I was also keen to try out to the pre-capture option on the R7 - which allows collection of images taken before the shutter button is pressed - potentially useful for Kingfishers diving in a fixed direction off a perch.  

Here is a selection of photos I took through the day. Click on any of the captions to go to my website and see larger images. 

Also, go to my Kingfisher gallery for more high res. versions of all the photos from this and other occasions. 

Kingfisher just of the perch, taken with the R7's pre-capture  © Stephen Burch

A couple of frames later by which time it had drifted slightly out of focus © Stephen Burch

Contact! Taken with the R5 by pre-focussing and blasting away at 20 fps! © Stephen Burch

Just about to return to the perch with a fish (R5) © Stephen Burch! 

Early morning perched. © Stephen Burch

Early morning with a fish. © Stephen Burch

Later on in the day. © Stephen Burch