Ruby-Throat

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having attempted these pictures in the past, i know how difficult it is to obtain an image of such quality. Very nice job...!

Awesome shot, have been staking out my bird feeder forever and still no luck capturing one of this quality. Rock on!

Great shot scott, how do you like that lens?

I agree, these little guys are not very cooperative. What shutter speed did you use to keep just enough motion blur on the wings?

 

Andre

Thanks everybody. This is the only hummer I have so far and he only comes around about once an hour, so I don't get too many opportunities at flower shots. He just arrived last week, so hopefully within a few more days I'll finally get one that I'm really happy with.

 

Jim - It's ok. I don't like the push-pull for zooming and after doing many tests, it's not a bit sharper than my 70-300 that's much smaller and much cheaper. It has good autofocus and good bokeh as you can tell by my yard in the untouched background of this pic.

 

 

Andre - 1/800 sec.

 

Nice colors.. I just posted a few more...

I got used to the push-pull after a while and now I like it better than a zoom ring. A zoom ring for a movement of that amplitude would make zooming either too slow or not precise enough. What I would like to see on that lens is a large rubbery focus ring: the lens barrel gets pretty cold when you use it on cold days.

 

Andre

 

I know other people that like the push-pull better too. As for me, I know I have missed plenty of shots, due to spooking the birds, because of reaching out and moving the lens in and out 1/2 a mile. I suppose the only other option for a zoom lens 400mm and up with a zoom ring is a Sigma. I haven't ever done any research to see if the sharpness of the Sigmas are comparable to this lens.

Didyaget any wet Hummer shots today? I'm looking at a few to see if they are worth posting...

nope...didn't have time