grover_larkins2

I guess I should update this for the Godox-Witsro units. Measured GN (ISO 100) is about 200' with the standard reflector -- I'm currently measuring the Norman 2H with the Norman spacer but the tube socket in the Godox is recessed more deeply on the Godox than on the Lumedyne/Norman units and I need to make a longer spacer (I am going to try the Q-Flash tele flash tube spacer as it is longer and see). With the 2H and Norman spacer I am getting a 1 stop increase but it is clearly NOT optimized!

 

I'll add more later....

<p>Mary, You are correct in that Samburu is worthwhile, the original poster only had 4 days though and I think you could do a week in the Mara and still have things to see. I can at least.... A 2 week Safari and I would add 2 days at Nakuru and 5 days at Samburu, a 3 week Safari and I'd do 10 days in the Mara, 3 in Nakuru, 2 in Amboseli and 6 in Samburu....</p>

<p>In Amboseli I'd do the elephant against Kilimanjaro, birds in the Swamp. In Nakuru I'd do the white rhino,black rhino if possible, flamingos, other birds, leopard and the Rothschild's giraffe. In the Mara I'd do a day at the crossing, leopard, cheetah and lions as opportunity knocks, the eagle owls, large birds of prey, black rhino, the bats (gotta know how to find them!), the eland on the rocky slopes and the various herbivores, all the apes (Baboon, Vervet, Blue, and Colubus Monkeys). In Samburu Gerenuck, reticulated giraffe, grevey's zebra, oryx, genet, leopard, pygmy falcon, buffalo weaver, vulturine guinea fowl, somali ostrich etc....</p>

<p>I've been to Amboseli and I do NOT recommend it over the Masai Mara. There are few lion in Amboseli, NO cheetah, NO rhino, NO wildebeest and very few leopard. Amboseli has good bird life but the large mammal population is not as good in Amboseli as it is in even Lake Nakuru. Go to the Mara, or the Mara and Lake Nakuru!<strong> </strong></p>

You have only 4 days. Go to the Masai Mara. Use Origins Safaris and Intrepids camp. Best location - migration

cheetah, lions, leopards and all the rest are near by. Fly in - it takes a day to drive in!

 

Grover Larkins

<p>Birds in particular are fairly insensitive to flash other than when it is a startling impulse. As an example birds can actually look directly into the sun and focus on it. Mammals are unable to do this.</p>

<p>Mammals on the other hand can be harmed by very high intensity flash -- power of greater than about 10 mJ in a 2mm diameter beam (3mm square) for 1 ms can be problematic (read laser exposure guides for exact numbers for humans). On the plus side a normal 50J shoe mount flash unit firing into a 75x100mm aperture (about the intensity at the fresnel in a Better Beamer) is about 6 mJ/square mm or about double this number. This means that at distances of a couple of feet or greater there is little liklihood of permanent one-shot damage to most mammals. Given that I would not advocate the use of a flash extender at a distance of under 10m there is no chance of damage, even from repeated exposures, at that distance.</p>

<p>Reptiles do not seem to be too disturbed by a flash but I have seen pit vipers get really interested in that nice warm flash head after it has popped off a few times. ;)</p>

<p>Frightening an animal is possible with a flash, a camera, a poorly placed foot or (most often this is true) with a tripod or monopod. To some species these just seem to scream "GUN!" and they take off like scared birds....</p>

<p>Disturbing others in a vehicle with you by using a flash is a concern ONLY when there is a videographer along with. The chances of cross-flash illumination is just too small for most situations using still cameras. On the other hand there is certainly NO need to be polite and deprive yourself for an idiot that wants to take long segments of video during the action of a kill. I once saw a vehicle in the Masai Mara where one of the people was bitterly complaining about the noise of the clicking cameras on his video... all 3 hours of it that he shot that morning! Since the vehicles had only been out for three hours he must have started filming at the time he got on board.... Must have been an absolute joy to be with that jerk!</p>

<p>Finally, properly used, a flash from off the axis of a mammal's eyes is pretty much a non issue -- and it is generally the best shot. No red eye, even illumination with the shadow behind the animal and so on.... Are you thinking "bounce?"</p>

<p>Point-n-shoot cameras though have their flashes so close to the lens and they are so inflexibly placed that I would avoid them on mammals whenever possible.....</p>

<p>Once had an Antiflash Nazi give me grief for photographing a bushbaby in the dining area of a camp in the Mara. Point-n-shoot was OK but a Canon 580 bounced off the ceiling flipped him out! Ignorance is rampant and sometimes you just cannot educate the jerks and just have to ignore them!</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Hi Shun,</p>

<p>Darned right, in Africa the Big 5 are BIG.... A tiny adult Elephant is the size of a Bison..... We tend to think of things as being "hawk" sized or "Deer" sized... a costal Grizz is a tad shorter than an adult Lion (Tail INCLUDED!). </p>

<p>A real risk in Africa is transportation -- vibration and dust. I bungee my gear to seats and keep it in cases with a towel over the case to keep dust down. Pelican cases are clumsy but they work pretty good.....</p>

<p>Final word about the Mara in Kenya for those that have never been there: until late September the grass will likely be 2-3' tall in much of the Mara. You will want to be in close to the animals to get decent shots. In October, January, February the grass is MUCH shorter and longer lenses are OK from windows. You want to shoot from windows if at all possible due to the angles involved.... Get 2 Bean Bags -- one for the window and one for the roof... that way all you have to do is move the camera once your vehicle is positioned....</p>

<p>Once again, nice to "see" you here Shun!</p>

<p>All teh Best,</p>

<p>Grover</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Reduction in size has really hurt the image quality -- in the original every whisker and hair is sharp.....</p>

<p>Grover</p>

<p>Guys,<br>

Nice to see you are still active Shun!</p>

<p>As for some lens choices here goes:<br>

<strong>300-800mm </strong>-- this is purely insane unless you are trying for a shot at 40m or some such nonsense. A lion will more than fill the frame at 20m with a 400mm lens on a full format camera. A Jackal will be about full frame at 30m, Bat Eared Fox at 20m. What in the world requires an 800mm lens?</p>

<p><strong>200-400mm f4</strong> on a crop camera is equivalent to a 300-600 f4 -- plenty w/out teleconverter! If you want it sharper stop down to f8 -- you will want the dof anyhow. Depth of Field is tiny at f4 even at 1/20 lifesize when you are looking to pull a lion sharp from nose to ears -- stop down for DOF!!!</p>

<p><strong>600mm f4</strong> -- great lens. Are you all alone in your vehicle? If yes then OK!! If not, does everyone else have a fixed 600mm or equivalent? If so great -- tell your driver to back up so that the minivan can get between you and the Leopard (trust me they are gonna try to!). If not then either get used to head and shoulders shots or loads of complaints from the folks with 300mm-400mm lenses -- they are gonna outnumber you pretty handily. For birds smaller than the bustards the 600mm is great as long as they are sitting. In flights -- that is a fantasy unless you have a Wimberley set up through the roof hatch. Shooting through the hatch = bad angle compared to through a window.</p>

<p><strong>500mm f4</strong> -- Great Lens. Even if everyone else has a 400mm you can shoot from the far end of the vehicle and get pretty similar framing to the folks with 400mm lenses (easier compromise = happier times). Weight is doable for in-flights. Can shoot through windows easily.</p>

<p><strong>Recommendations:</strong><br>

<strong>Bring 2 or 3 cameras and sensor cleaning kit! </strong>Dust and vibration are rampant and you will have a far better trip knowing that if one camera or lens dies you are still "in the game."<br>

<strong>Crop camera (APS-C):</strong> 100-400mm or 200-400mm "L" or "ED" as prime with 1.4X and 2X TC, and a 70-200mm high quality zoom on the second body with a 18-XXmm zoom in the bag for scenics and "macro" stuff.</p>

<p><strong>Full Frame Camera:</strong> 500mm f4 "L" or "ED" plus 1.4 and 2X TC, 70-200mm zoom on APS-C camera as a backup and a 28-1XXmm zoom in the bag for scenics and "macro" stuff.</p><div></div>

<p>Hi Nick,</p>

<p>I am just about ready to post some fairly up-to-date info about Kenyan and East African Safaris. Botswana is not a list topper for me, sorry to say, typical sight distances are not good and animal density is relatively low. Wild dogs are still found there so that may be a reason to go....<br>

Grover Larkins</p>

Here is the one with flash....<div></div>

Here is an identical male quetzal shot -- one with flash at 1/250 sec and one w/o at 1/10 sec, both are at f4 and both are within seconds of one another. Took 4 frames w/flash and 50 w/o -- got 5 sharp shots (4 w/flash and this one w/o). BTW -- they are constructing a nest, not on eggs or with chicks yet, and within 7 meters of the Sendero Chomogo at the entrance. Worked on the nest for about 20 minutes -- we left first.... Loud noise disturbed them more than the flash... they stopped all action when the over officious guy came up and proclaimed that flash photography was "forbidden" (I got aggravated later when I most carefully checked all the rules and determined that it was "unpublished in any manner" rules or signage etc...).<div></div>

Here is a Quetzal taken outside the reserve with fill flash.... Lots of digimatics taking pics from 10 feet below him -- I was 40-50 feet away with a 500 f4 EF-L IS and a 580 + Fresnel -- exposure about f8 at 1/250 sec. for a -1 stop at ISO 400 fill exposure.<div></div>

Folks,

 

If the rules were there to "protect" I'd be really happy to oblige. Unfortunately, the use of flash on birds has just about zero impact on birds... particularly when it is being done in a parking lot filled with tourists all "flashing madly away" with point and shoot cameras and trying to get as close as possible to the animal with a digimatic camera.... What really rubbed me th wrong way was that there was zero effort put in to keep the digimatic crowd from flashing the birds and that there were no published rules, not even a hand lettered sign!

 

Greg S -- I also use a cable release, IS and all of that.... Try photographing a Quetzal under the canopy against a cloudy-bright sky 5-6 f stops brighter than the bird.... Blow out the background and hope for a miracle! As for the Quetzal (and many other birds) -- their colors are often not solely pigment related but are also diffraction based, hence they require directed lighting on them from the same side as being photographed. This is also true of hummingbirds, funny that there are no ill effects of flash photogrpahy in the hummingbird gallery where the flash intinsities are 4 times greater than you can hope to achieve at 25 meters in the reserve..... Perhaps I'll upload some example shots....

 

Finally, Matt, I've been doing wildlife and bird photography for well in excess of 20 years both as a hobby and professionally. I did a study on the effects of flash photography on birds back about 15 years ago and put it out on the web. Remember -- birds can and often do look directly at the sun with no ill effects and that the flash's illumination is typically well below that of a sunny f16 exposure. At ISO 200 and f16 the shutter is going to be 1/200 sec and a typical flash's duration at FULL power on a handle mount unit is between 1/500 and 1/1000 of a sec. and the exposure is about f5.6 to f8 at the distances we use. Basically peak illumination is about 1/4 to 1/2 that of if the bird was standing in the midday sun on a cloudless day....

 

The bottom line is that flash photography really does not bother the birds -- getting right up on top of them with a P&S does, however tend to disturb them significantly.

More important than the lens is the tripod -- you will need to use one to get the most out of any of the lenses discussed here... I strongly urge you to try out the 300 f4 EF-L non-IS -- it is sharper than the IS lens and a bit less expensive used...

 

Grover Larkins

This lens should definitely NOT exhibit this degree of CA -- return for refund and get a new one! My guess is that one of the elements is in bass-ackwards. Centration should not be an issue in this lens... element separation or inverted assembly would be though!..

 

Grover Larkins

Hi folks,

 

Just returned from Costa Rica and was very disappointed by the new, un-

published, un-printed rule that flash photography is no longer permitted inside

the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Enforcement on point and shoot cameras was

as good as nil, on pro-level shoe mount flashes they were very insistent. When

I checked the printed rules I was informed that the rules had just changed and

that they were still using the old rule sheets and maps. There were no signs,

and nothing but an overofficious office manager at the entrance station to give

you the rules, but only after you had purchased entry and started to use a

flash....

 

Since the elimination of flash photography in the reserve limits you to

exposures using a calendar (1/4 sec at ISO 400 is not unusual) the reserve is

no longer a destination for wildlife photography of any kind. Macro photography

using a flash is likewise prohibited as was flash photography in the parking

lot....

 

If you want to see & photograph a Resplendent Quetzal I strongly urge you to

alter your plans AWAY from the double-secret-probation unpublished flash rules

at Monteverde and head on south of San Jose to San Gerado de Dota off of route

2 in the Cerro del Muerte mountains. San Greado de Dota is about 70 km or 2

hours south of San Jose....

 

This was my 3rd trip to Monteverde and I'll not be back until this stupid rule

is changed. Perhaps if no one goes there there will be change....

 

Grover Larkins

Given that I have measured this with a meter -- outdoors at night -- not with a camera during the day I'll stand by my numbers. Generally a 1/2 stop underexposure will be "visually ok" and from that you get about a 1.6-1.7 X light gain. I have also run calculations on the "Better Beamer" and, given overspill and imaging of the flash aperture at infinity, the absolute maximum gain available with the Better Beamer on a 580 EX set at 105mm is around 2X (check it out -- it illuminates roughly 25% of the area or a region corresponding to about a 200mm lens with the better beamer in use than the raw head set at 105mm does at 100'). The backscatter and overspill -- fresnel backscatter is somewhere between 1/2 and 1 full f stop (measured) and overspill is probably about 1/2 stop (guesstimated).

 

This puts you right at the measured gain of 1.4X or + one stop.

 

I did make a larger unit myself with the same focal length fresnel (but MUCH larger -- 8x10") and tested it and got nearly 1.75 stops of improvement (GN ~ 350) but there was ZERO overspill.

 

A longer fresnel (focal length of 12") and 8x10" dimension got me 3 stops but the image was a very hot spot and not useful for a lens w/fl less than 600mm -- and absolutely impossible to align and use!

 

Bottom line -- 1 f stop is what you get but it is convenient and useful....

 

Grover Larkins

Problem is that the camera "synch" speed is the maximum shutter speed where the entire shutter is out of the way in front of the sensor. The shutter is a variable width scanning slit that travels vertically. Hence at 1/500 sec the slit width is less than the full frame in size and some of your film/sensor will be obstructed by the shutter blades.

 

If you really want to do this you will need a between the lens shutter and X-Synchronization with some fairly fast Elinchrom flashes to get a synch speed/flash duration of 1/1000 sec. The 580 and 800 series flashes have a full power duration of ~ 1/500 sec. set by a series inductance between the flash capacitor and the tube.... This allows the mfgr to use a thyristor to control light output by chopping the duration as light requirements are reduced either thru TTL signalling, a photosensor on the unit or by a manual power setting.

 

Doing hummingbirds and stopping their wings has similar problems -- somewhere I posted an article about that.... Probably here on photo.net....

 

 

Grover Larkins

Folks, it seems like time to put the inevitable Better Beamer type flash

extender claims to bed again here.... About a decade ago I tested all the then

available flash telephoto extenders out there -- Tory Lepp's Tele-flash,

Walt's Better Beamer and the no longer available Metz Televorsatz for the Metz

60 and the Sunpack extender for the old 611 all against the Norman 2H

reflector.

 

The bottom line was that the 2H gave an honest 2 F stop improvement over the

standard Norman/Lumedyne/Quantum reflector and all the others gave you a 1

stop improvement over the flash's best effort at all zoom lengths.

 

I recently re-tested the Better Beamer on a Canon 580 EX -- at 100' and ISO

100 using a Sekonic flashmeter (718). Here are the results:

 

With the 580EX at 105mm of reflector zoom the Guide Number was 200 (F 2.0).

 

With the Better Beamer on the flash and the flash zoom set at 50mm the GN was

171 (F 1.7) at its best (I checked all extensions as there is about 1/2 an

inch of "adjustability" in the positioning of the fresnel supports on the

flash....).

 

With the Better Beamer on the flash and the flash zoom set at 105mm the GN was

280 (F 2.8) at its best (I checked all extensions as there is about 1/2 an

inch of "adjustability" in the positioning of the fresnel supports on the

flash....).

 

"Best" position in all cases was with the ears of the flash bracket even with

the flash's aperture.

 

Bottom line -- you can expect a 1 F stop advantage when using the Better

Beamer over the best your flash can do without it. The claimed 2-3 stop

improvement is misleading, it improves the situation, but not by the stated

amount.

 

Grover Larkins

Fritz Poelking, a master wildlife photographer, friend and one of the greatest

human beings I have ever met died of sudden heart failure this past Monday

night at home in Greven, Germany. He is survived by his wife, Gisela and his

daughter, Petra.

 

Please join me in offering heartfelt condolences to them both.

 

Grover Larkins

The numbers that were posted are valid for 550nm -- yellow light. At 400nm they are about 25% higher. For white light you can basically divide them by about 1.5.

 

Typically spherical aberation is the number one problem followed by astigmatism and chromatic aberation (long teles esp.).

 

Now in photography the mirror slap and focussing errors tend to swamp out anything upwards of 80-120 lp/mm... so who cares? ;)

 

Grover

A favorite of mine is Pine Glades Lake -- Everglades National Park -- big enough to give a nice reflection and small enough to be pretty still. I've attached a tiny piece of a 14 section panorama....<div></div>

I loved my 400mm f3.5 EDIF -- it was literally the last long Nikkor I sold when I changed to Canon. I have the 500mm f4.5 EF-L up for sale currently as it was either sell it and get the 500mm f4 EF-L IS or keep it and get the EOS 1D MKII and sell the EOS 20D.... I like the 1.6 crop factor enough to keep the 20D over the 1D MKII sooooo.... I know you are shooting Nikon but the cost of the 500mm f4 EDIF AFS (AFI is NOT fast enough in my opinion for birds) convinced me to switch to the Great White Lens Camp.... ;)

 

Grover Larkins

The Nikon 400mm f3.5 EDIF is a classic lens and one of the sharpest teles ever made. I had one for many many years and loved it -- it was the LAST lens I sold when moving to AF -- even the 600mm f4 went before it did.

 

The Tamron is so-so -- not as good as the Nikkor in terms of contrast and resolution -- I would not use it wide open with teleconverters.

Leave the 100-400 f5.6 at home -- both of them -- go with the Canon 300 f4 EF-L non IS and a 1.4X teleconverter instead. Neither of the XX-400 zooms you mention are suitable for critical work at 400mm. A Sigma 500mm f4.5 APO HSM is a good choice though. Use beanbags to stabilize the lens on the vehicle.

 

Been over there 3 times with a 500mm f4.5 EF-L Canon and a 70-200 f2.8 EF-L and a 28-105 USM II (all 35mm full format) with converters (1.4 and 2x).

 

I have also heard nice things about the 120-300mm f2.8 Sigma -- but you want a longer lens... 400mm f5.6 Canon EF-L is good but no AF with converter on 20D.

 

Remember a 300 f4 on a 20D = 480mm f4 equivalent on 35mm.

 

Sample Pix of predators:

 

http://www.fiu.edu/~larkinsg/nature_gallery_29.htm

 

Enjoy,

 

Grover Larkins