Birds of Panama - Jan-Feb 2015

[panamaleo]

This is fascinating for me to view your beautiful bird photos and trip report. I have lived in Boquete, Panama for 7 years, and see quite a few of these birds regularly. Of course, the Quetzal is always special, but lives above my c. 2500 ' elevation. Have seen several on the Pipeline Trail just outside Boquete, and in Cerro Punta on the western side of Volcan Baru. Should you return to Boquete, I would be happy to introduce you to our local birders, one of whom is a keen photographer like you.

 

I am so focused on Africa, that sometimes I forget how beautiful my own back yard can be!

[Peter Connan]

@@xelas, thanks for the invite to your TR.

 

I think you both have done exceptionally well under the conditions. For birds in forest, flash is probably almost crucial, but then you are almost forced to use a tripod as well due to the lower sync speed, meaning it is a big step up in "schlep factor".

 

Full-frame will help, but only a little bit, as you lose effective lens length wich has to be made up with a bigger teleconverter, so in the end you probably only gain 1-2stops. So you still probably won't get that fabulous feather detail.

 

For info, I think the D7000 may be a little bit better at pixel-level noise than the D7100, but this is not a fair comparison, and when you have down-sampled the D7100 to 16 Megapixel, the D7100 is definately better. It also has much better AF system which is crucial for BIF. The only real disadvantage is the smaller buffer.

 

I do know a bird photographer here who has replaced his D7000 with a D610 and is very happy, but he has a great lens to make up the reach defecit (400 f2.8 + 2x TCEIII).

[xelas]

@Peter: thanks for your comments! All true. I have miscalculated the max allowed weight on one of our internal flights (14 kg pp instead of 18 kg pp) and 8 kilos would allowed us having a second body, a flash and a tripod. Well, one has to work with the tools at hand :-)). I will use D7100 as a primary wildlife/birding camera also in the future. Specially in Namibia.

[xelas]

@panamaleo: you truly have a gorgeous backyard, So lush, so full of birds. That bajareque surely helps keeping both very active!

As I will have to revisit Bouquete, some time in the not so far future, I will gladly accept your offer. But as of now, also myself I am more focused on Africa.

I wish you some excellent travels, and hopefully one day we could do some birding together, or just enjoyed the views with a cold Balboa in hand.

[Alexander33]

@ xelas

 

I'm continuing to enjoy this very much. I especially love the hummingbird photos. They are such a challenge, but it's so rewarding when you nail a good shot.

[xelas]

@@Alexander33. thanks a lot for your kind words! In fact, I have found hummers to be a great target. They do fly fast but they are usually staying on the sun, so a higher SS helps a lot, and ISO can be lowered within reasonable levels re. noise.

Usually the easiest way is to get them at feeders; yet if they are found in their natural environment (like gardens) the results are so much prettier.