The Bohemian Waxwing is a member of the waxwing family of passerines. A sleek bird, 18–21 cm long with a pointed crest, it travels in large, nomadic groups with a strong, direct flight. It breeds in coniferous forests throughout the most northern parts of Europe, Asia and western North America.
Similar species: Perching Birds
By Roeselien Raimond
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Uploaded Jun 14, 2011. Captured Nov 18, 2010 15:32.
comments (6)
The rule of thumb to make sharp pictures when handling a camera hand-held is to keep the shutter speed above 1 / (focal length in mm).
So for example, if you would want to take a shot using 500mm focal length, any shutter speed faster than 1/500 will reasonably suffice to prevent motion blur and get a sharp picture.
In this case, Roeselien used a Canon 7D camera, which has a crop factor of 1.6x. The 35mm equivalent (or "real") focal length of this photo is 672 mm. So in order to get a sharp picture, the shutter speed would have to be 1/672 or faster. Since this photograph was taken at 1/500, it would "in theory" fall short and would have to exhibit motion blur.
As we can all see, this picture is perfectly sharp, so there must be an additional factor. If I'm not mistaken, this shot is taken with a Canon 300mm F/4.0 IS lens, combined with a 1.4x teleconverter. This is where the magic comes in. The 300mm Canon lens is equipped with "IS" (Image Stabilization) and will optionally stabilize the lens mechanically when the camera is used in hand-held position. With IS turned on, it saves you 2 stops on the shutter speed. Instead of the required 1/672 shutter speed, the slowest possible shutter speed becomes 1/168 to achieve the same results. This is a huge difference and really makes an impossible shot possible.
Besides the math I have to say that the Canon 300mm F/4.0 lens is renowned for its sharpness and suitability to shoot wildlife. It is by no means a cheap lens, but it delivers unparalleled results.
I hope this information is helpful :) Posted 14 years ago