And how do I swallow this thing?

fisherheron

Good catch!

 

But, seems a little bit unsharp. Is it magnified? Or handheld?

It is not as sharp as I would like it to be. Not handheld! 500 f4 with TC14 IIE, Wimberly head and Gitzo 1348; 1000mm equivalent. iso 200. 1000th sec which is where the problem is. Tradeoff is low iso & slow shutter speed vs higher iso and more noise. It's not the equipment. I am still learning how to use it. Although there is a possibility that the inability to lock up the mirror is a factor at this focal length. This is originally a 1000 by 750 pixel image or about 25% of the original 6.1 mp image.

Hi David!1/1000s on a tripod can't be a problem! Regarding the mirror lockup, I guess it is out of topic with telephoto in wildlife photo, because you don't tighten the head anyway, just hold the camera during the exposure, keeping the head loose. That's how I expect all wildlife photographers towork, because they have to react to the animals movement quickly. I guess you did it the same way, didn't you?

So if you say 1/1000s I think it's not camera shake. But if it's only 25% of the original image, that could be the explanation! 500mm with 1.4 TC, with 1.5 DSLR factor, and 4x magnified (25% clip), that would be a good explanation.

I guess you were pretty far from the heron! With 1000mm glass, let's say that the heron was 70cm from left to right, so the width of the scene is 1.5m, it gives 1.5/35*1000*4 = 171.4 meters! That's pretty far!

Heron's are very shy but not as much. So best solution is to get closer - you won't need to make clips and maybe you could throw out the teleconverter. If I'm shooting small birds with 500mm.... :-)

So in this case, I was on my deck in my front yard and the heron was probably 75 meters from the lens. I used the remote control to trip the shutter release and was not touching the camera or lens. The heron was rather stationary. Yes, I could have moved a little closer but the heron would probably have left. I do have a small camoflage tent which I could use and just sit there waiting for the right moment. In any case, is the mirror motion alone enough to cause vibration or am I better off using appropriate long lens technique rolling my finger over the shutter release while applying downward pressure on the lens at the Wimberly head? Is a 1000th sec at 1000mm really enough to stop motion of the camera?