Bird Photos from the Island
My father just got the next generation of Canon digital camera from my own. I’ve got a PowerShot S1-IS, a 3.2 MP camera with 10x zoom; my father just got the S2-IS, a 5 MP camera with 12x zoom. He’s getting the Canon tele-converter that goes with it soon, to bring him up to 18x zoom. A strange story with that, too–he called up Canon, and they seemed to claim that the S2 had no tele-converter from Canon. And yet, here it is, made by Canon itself. But try to go to Canon’s web site and find it, and it doesn’t seem to exist. Stranger still, the S2 seems to require a different lens adaptor and uses a different model tele-converter than the S1, despite the near-identical appearance of the two cameras. Why would Canon change that? Or is this just the next generation of tele-converters and adaptor rings? Additionally, the Canon tele-converter for the S2 is a 1.5x converter, as opposed to the 1.6x converter I have. Which means that despite the fact that my camera is 10x and my father’s is 12x, the corresponding converter lenses will bring both to a total of 18x zoom. Why would Canon limit the new camera’s add-on zoom to be the same as the old one? As I said, kinda strange. We should find out if my father could still use the 1.6x converter for a 19.2x total zoom.
In the meantime, he’s taking photos with just the 12x zoom, and is having fun (a feeling I well know). Here are a few shots taken on the island (a place not too far from Seattle), of eagles fairly common in the area right now:
And here’s an immature eagle, taken from about a quarter of a mile off. First, nearly the whole photo, reduced:
And then the eagle only, cropped:
Some nice photos! Coming soon may also be some egrets and kingfishers. I’m looking forward to them.
I love eagles but have never been successful in photographing them well. Beautiful photos!
Is Mr. BlogD’s father able to get photos of furry creatures on the island, and if so, which ones? How close can he get?
hey I took the eagle profile picture not your dad!!!
-randy
Randy: Sorry, Dad didn’t happen to mention that! You gotta take that up with him…
First of all, Randy and I both took pictures of the eagle with my camera, and he claims that the one you have is one he took. I’m not positive. Second, I’m afraid I confused you with the distances. The immature eagle was only about 100 to 150 yards away. The picture of the biker you didn’t use was at a quarter of a mile.
As to the adaptor, I finally spoke to a Canon tech guy who explained (unclearly) that the accessories division doesn’t know about the lens products. He also told me that the lens sizes for the two cameras are different, hence the different products. He couldn’t explain the 1.5 vs. 1.6, though.
Here are some shots that I took w/ my Cannon sd500 (3x zoom, 7M pixel, 6.0oz, $500) the other day of a Muffin and Chincilla:
http://www.ustelephone.com/users/youknowwho/IMG_0382_ggg_Muffin_lessColor.JPG
http://www.ustelephone.com/users/youknowwho/IMG_0407_ggg_Chincilla_sml.JPG
The odds are that the teleconverter for the earlier model would cause too much lens “flare” on the new model, because of the newer one’s different lens style.
So it’s probably because the newer one already has a longer zoom lens that the teleconverter can’t go as far out.
Paul
Seattle, WA
I totally claim I took all the good pictures, and your
dad, the fuzzy and poorly framed ones.
-randy
P.S. ‘Its ROVE, its ROVE!!!!’
Great photos! I love that first one. I also like your blog design.
The limit of 18x is probably due to the IS limits. I have been using an S2 with the converter for about 3 weeks and I am blown away with the performance. The movie feature has been a lot of fun, especially the ability to shoot full size stills while shooting the movie. Have fun and thanks for posting the nice shots. — Robert — Spokane WA