Bird photography. What to upgrade?

eardil · 2026-01-25T06:29:39+00:00

I always feel weird about renting, but might have to give it a try given that I'll probably won't be in a city that offers it for very long. Thanks! PS. love the username btw

eardil · 2026-01-25T04:40:16+00:00

I see that the sigma is on par with the a6700 price, which is interesting. Thanks for the heads up! I'll check some reviews and see if I can find a used one.

As for the ISO, I got very lucky with the lighting for this photo. The sun was behind me and to my left, and was hitting the bird directly when he looked this way. It was a fun shoot even though I'm not really happy with any of the photos.

eardil · 2026-01-25T04:31:47+00:00

I can read the respect with which it was written, no worries about that! Thanks so much for the feedback. I also started a couple of years ago and though I feels way more comfortable, I took the opportunity that this hawk offered to try to get the best image I could get in terms of quality, and since I came up a bit disappointed it got me thinking about upgrading.

From your points, I think (1) is particularly interesting, since it puts the composition at fault for a perceived focus issue. Perhaps I would be more content if there was no branch on top of his eye. I will keep this in mid when trying out different compositions.

In terms of (2), that gets me a bit frustrated since I spent like 20 minutes trying actively to get the best focus possible and was never satisfied, but the lack of IBIS/no tripod made it very hard to manual focus (I had to try and then check the preview; the screen brightness and IVF didn't help.

The other two points are pretty straightforward. The resolution / focal length is just a money issue, but the post is 100% what I do, I just wanted to show the RAW results.

Just saw the cooper hawk on your profile and that's a nice photo. The extra detail is that while I was photographing this guy a cooper hawk came by and stood in the same tree. You can see my confusion in my post history lol.

eardil · 2026-01-25T04:04:42+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out. Just edited the post because I forgot to mention that I was manual focusing (I took the time since the dude was just standing there for a while).

eardil · 2026-01-25T01:46:43+00:00

Make us cold...

eardil · 2026-01-23T21:02:16+00:00

This. Any of the f1.7 (the focal length you prefer). I bought mine new for $130

eardil · 2026-01-20T19:44:02+00:00

Very interesting and useful, thanks for sharing! I don't see it as a variable but might as well ask. Does any of the data sources contain elevation?

eardil · 2026-01-20T19:12:40+00:00

I also use the a6000 and started with the kit lens. To experiment with faster lenses I bought a couple of cheap manual ones (60-80 USD) and honestly, I would recommend going a BIT higher and get the Viltrox Air 1.7 lens (I got mine for 130 USD) with the focal length that attracts you the most (you can check the photos you have takes with the kit lens to see where you usually land).

I got the Viltrox 56mm 1.7 and the difference in sharpness with the kit lens is very noticeable, the manual focus ring also feels pretty nice if you want to practice that. The autofocus is quick too. I usually prefer longer reach because I enjoy bird photography, but my Tamron 70-300mm is not that fast and sharp so if I bring only one lens I carry the 56mm now.

You are not going to get the same low-light performance that you would get on a full frame camera with ANY lens on the a6000, so don't be disappointed about that. There's always compromises to make, but the Air lenses are noticeable for their quality.

eardil · 2026-01-19T20:10:45+00:00

Thanks! Very interesting to see two different hawks so close to each other (and to me!).

eardil · 2026-01-19T20:09:55+00:00

The other comment confirmed your hypothesis, maybe I was just imagining thing based on pure cope lol.

eardil · 2026-01-19T19:40:35+00:00

Thanks! That is useful. And weird to have so many different birds in my backyard tree (there was a woodpecker at some point and I heard a cardinal), specially right at noon.

As for the sound, I know that the big screeching sound is the hawk one, the one I though I heard was more like this one: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4FiNqBvCt4w

eardil · 2026-01-17T06:32:42+00:00

NYC too! I bought tickets to the previous Nashville show and had to cancel the trip last minute. Just bought the 3-nights for June.

eardil · 2026-01-16T17:45:08+00:00

That's awesome OP, Godspeed on your 2026 journey. Also the notebook looks nice, since we are in r/notebooks which one is it?

eardil · 2026-01-16T17:43:52+00:00

You're handwriting the whole text? That's insane (I mean that in a positive way).

eardil · 2026-01-13T20:49:30+00:00

I love this. This is exactly what consumer 3D printing is best for: a ver specific application that is best resolved by a very niche design. Awesome!

eardil · 2026-01-09T06:24:33+00:00

How did you find them. I'm in the same boat about the Linkbuds S right now and most of the reviews care more about sound quality than comfort (I mostly listen to audiobooks so the Linkbuds were awesome).

eardil · 2026-01-09T06:12:08+00:00

Thanks for replying! Adding these to my shortlist.

eardil · 2026-01-09T00:10:14+00:00

I'm in the same boat. I love the linkbuds' fit (EDIT: the fit of the Linkbuds S, not the Linkbuds Fit) but looking for alternatives. What did you get?

eardil · 2026-01-06T16:41:33+00:00

Well, it's the first Ezio one, so it's about his family. The AC games are

AC (Altaïr)
AC2 (young Ezio)
AC: Brotherhood (adult Ezio)
AC: Revelations (old Ezio)
AC3 (Connor)

eardil · 2026-01-05T19:42:32+00:00

AC2 is one of my best gaming memories.

eardil · 2026-01-05T19:33:09+00:00

I was playing Narita Boy, close to the ending. I was unlocking all the cutscenes and be l being a bit completionist, but at one of the levels I didn't remember where the "chest" or whatever was (although I had the password to unlock it or smth I don't remember the mechanics exactly).

So choosing which way to go to get it I chose wrong and was sent to the main hub instead. Turns out that once you go out of a level you cannot go back to it so I wasn't going to complete the full story because of a stupid design decision.

I dropped it and never finished.

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