Posted by Larry Roberts on January 14, 2010 at 3:04 PM
Last weekend the Roberts family made a trip over to Holla Bend for a look-see. We were not dissapointed....in total we saw: 20ish Bald Eagles, Deer, 30+ Hawks, Pelicans, Snow Geese, Opossum and an Armadillo. Not to mention the two Owls that were in a verbal confrontation we almost drove right past without noticing. Drew was manning the camera and was able to snap a quik photo of one of the owls sitting on the ground. We think there is a mouse somewhere under those feathers but have no proof. Sorry, the only place I have that shot posted is on the Facebook page for "Lost Valley Photo". I need to update my web-stuff...
If you ever go to Holla Bend wanting to see some of the large quantities of wildlife, remember one thing….slow down! If your car is kicking up dust, you are going too fast! The animals are so well camo'ed most of the time you must pay very close attention to see anything. They can see you long before you see them and hide harder.
Happy shooting!
Posted by Isaac Szabo on January 14, 2010 at 4:56 PM
Thanks for the update, Larry. Sounds like you had a great visit. I'll probably be going back there soon.
Posted by Aaron Szabo on January 14, 2010 at 5:30 PM
Isaac and I will be going soon because I got a big new toy to try out!
Posted by Larry Roberts on January 14, 2010 at 8:25 PM
Posted by Aaron Szabo on January 14, 2010 at 9:33 PM
Ohh Man, I'm glad you asked... You know how some people find deals on Ebay every once in a while? Well, this was too good to pass up at no where even near the BandH price in "like new" condition with 1 year warranty.
Some people think that this is the perfect wildlife/bird lens because you find the subject at 300mm then zoom to compose, and it's known to be sharp wide open at any focal length.
It'll even take a 1.4 or 2x teleconverter and retain autofocus. Which means you could get 2560mm (35mm equivalent) on a APSC sensor.
Posted by Aaron Szabo on January 14, 2010 at 9:34 PM
You can tell I've never held a 13 pound lens before!
Posted by Larry Roberts on January 14, 2010 at 10:12 PM
From what I have the read, but I have no experience in this so take it with a grain of salt The issue with converters is not the lens retaining auto focus but the cameras ability to auto focus. I have heard that a lot of cameras won't auto focus past f/8. Put a 2x on it and you are working with f/11.2. Might be a bit dark for a lot of cameras, but again I don't have any experience with this. 800mm at 5.6 is still really impressive, especially with the ability to compose at 300mm.
Posted by Aaron Szabo on January 14, 2010 at 11:05 PM
Yeah, I don't expect the auto focus to work very well with a 2x @ f/11, but the fact that it is suppose to blew my mind. It's actually very fast at focusing with my 1.4x teleconverter @ f/8.
Posted by John Moore on January 18, 2010 at 4:41 PM
Thanks for the update Larry. I keep telling myself I need to get down there; the drive is all highway from Fort Smith/Van Buren and only takes about an hour and a half.
Discussion
10 repliesIf you ever go to Holla Bend wanting to see some of the large quantities of wildlife, remember one thing….slow down! If your car is kicking up dust, you are going too fast! The animals are so well camo'ed most of the time you must pay very close attention to see anything. They can see you long before you see them and hide harder.
Happy shooting!
Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 throughout
http://www.sigmaphoto.com/lenses/lenses_all_details.asp?id=3308&navigator=3
Some people think that this is the perfect wildlife/bird lens because you find the subject at 300mm then zoom to compose, and it's known to be sharp wide open at any focal length.
It'll even take a 1.4 or 2x teleconverter and retain autofocus. Which means you could get 2560mm (35mm equivalent) on a APSC sensor.
From what I have the read, but I have no experience in this so take it with a grain of salt The issue with converters is not the lens retaining auto focus but the cameras ability to auto focus. I have heard that a lot of cameras won't auto focus past f/8. Put a 2x on it and you are working with f/11.2. Might be a bit dark for a lot of cameras, but again I don't have any experience with this. 800mm at 5.6 is still really impressive, especially with the ability to compose at 300mm.