Options when a bird is too far.

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Best option is to develop skills to get closer......

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Use A Teleconverter Or Crop The Image? - Backcountry Gallery

Think fast! You’re out searching for wildlife – your camera in hand – when you spot some critter you’ve always wanted to bag off in the distance. Sadly, you know that your lens is just not going to be quite long enough to get the shot you want on its own. So, here’s the question – […]
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Although a TC and / or a crop can sometimes help, there are times where we just have to admit to ourselves that the conditions (distance in this case, but this applies to light, background etc.) are not going to work for a photo. Sometimes, the best approach is to recognize when there's not a photo opportunity there and to just enjoy the animal - or move on in an attempt to find a better target.
 
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Unless it's a rare bird or other subject you'll likely never see again, why take the photo? If it's borderline, take the photo and see if you get an useable image that suits your desired usage of it. And besides, it doesn't cost you anything to take the shot, does it?

Reason I'd use full frame and crop - Bird is in flight and moving quickly/erratically...easier to track, though AF likely less accurate.

Reason I'd use a TC - Bird is static or flying slowly and I can easily frame in the VF...and AF could be more accurate.

Reason I'd use crop mode - Bird is static, I want to frame more accurately and AF could be more accurate.

Cheers!
 
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It depends on the bird. If I can get a shot of the (now extinct) dodo bird, I want it.

In general, however, I do OK for web presentation when my 2:1 cropped image had the subject covering about 1/10 of the image @ 800MM (ff equivalent) (2MP size) and about 1/5 of the frame @ 1200mm (ff equivalent) (4mp) but unless the image is something unusual these shots wine up in the trash bin.

For printing and display on the wall I am usually more than 1/3 the image (7MP) @ 600mm (ff equ).
 
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Just to clarify. When I said full frame and crop I meant to crop in post processing.
As far as too far. I meant if I still get a beautiful picture after cropping. In other words, if I fill let's say half of the frame.
 
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Milos said:
Just to clarify. When I said full frame and crop I meant to crop in post processing.
As far as too far. I meant if I still get a beautiful picture after cropping. In other words, if I fill let's say half of the frame.
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let me return the question, are you happy with cropping in post per today? If so, question answered, if not, equally answered :)
 
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I am just trying to see what gets you the best result. Obviously if I crop in post processing and I am happy it is fine, but if I would have used TC and I would not need to crop. Would it get me better result? The same goes for a crop sensor.
 
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Milos said:
I am just trying to see what gets you the best result. Obviously if I crop in post processing and I am happy it is fine, but if I would have used TC and I would not need to crop. Would it get me better result? The same goes for a crop sensor.
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cropping in post and Dx mode will give you very similar results. Dx mode may be better AF

For difference between TC and cropping, Steve had an excellent video on this
 
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Milos said:
I am just trying to see what gets you the best result. Obviously if I crop in post processing and I am happy it is fine, but if I would have used TC and I would not need to crop. Would it get me better result? The same goes for a crop sensor.
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Starting with the basics, cropping in-camera and cropping the same amount in post is the same from an image quality standpoint. Though there’s more compositional flexibility and less risk of things like clipping wingtips when cropping in post. So there’s no quality difference between in-camera vs cropping in post if the amount you crop is the same.

In terms of cropping vs similar TC it’s pretty close though in my experience a good TC is a bit better and that’s with older Nikon F mount TCs and the Z mount TCs are a bit better. Steve did some reviews on this a while back using F mount TCs and found the TC marginally better than equivalent cropping though the differences in image quality were very small. Again, the newer Z mount TCs should give a bit more edge to using a TC.

There are some depth of field changes between using say a 1.4x TC from a given distance vs cropping to the same field of view from the same distance that may or may not matter for the specific image.

Personally I tend to use a 1.4x TC for lenses up to 600mm but if action is happening fast or for some reason I don’t have the TC handy I’ll rely on cropping as needed and don’t stress over one approach vs the other.

And of course as others have posted, sometimes the subject is just too far away.
 
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I generally shoot with the 800mm pf when trying to reach distant birds. I find 800mm to be close to the practical limit for shooting distant subjects in atmosphere. The longer the focal length the more I amvulnerable to atmospheric diffraction.

I generally have found that if I shoot with the 800 I prefer to keep the wider aperture and tend not to use a TC. Under those conditions the subject ID system on the Z9 works well. I shoot bursts at 20 fps. When I follow that approach I find a lot of good keepers when I go in post and I use cropping to frame the composition.

I like cropping in post. It is much easier to evaluate composition on a calibrated 5k screen than in a camera viewfinder.

At the same time I find my cards are full of a lot of shots involving subjects that are just too small in the frame for cropping to do anything worth keeping. I spend a lot of wasted time culling those images when I probably should have exercised better judgment on when to pull the trigger.

Bottom line I agree with Steve that there are some subjects that are just too far away.

It would be nice to get closer but sometimes that is not possible. My favorite local place for birds is the Skagit Valley in winter in Washington State. There is a particular spot that has been ideal, but you can't get into the fields where the action is happening, you have to shoot from the shoulder of the road.

Sometimes you have to just let it go and wait for something closer to show up.
 
With a high resolution camera cropping to aps-s size or crop mode in camera is still a good choice. On the one hand there is more noise but modern ai nr helps. But you don't lose the 1 stop the way you do with a tc. How about a tc and cropping, probably a throw away.
 
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Here's a simple answer -- it depends. If the light's not great a TC is out for me, then I'd prefer to crop on post-processing. If it's a small subject (dragonfly, butterfly, etc.) in good light I usually use a 1.4x TC on my Olympus 100-400mm, if there's time to put it on. Out of desperation I've used the Olympus 100-400mm plus the 1.4x TC and the 2x in-camera TC for a FF equivalent of 2240mm which in really good light and on a sturdy tripod might produce a usable image. The newer Olympus (OMDS) cameras have a really good in-camera TC that I've used with my 75-300mm that does not take a TC and isn't sharp enough to allow for much cropping. Andy Rouse has a video on the in-camera TC --
 
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You don't specify (unless I missed it) what camera system you are using (eg DSLR or Mirrorless). Here is my personal experience, which seems to be backed up by what others have posted here and elsewhere.

DSLR: 1.4x teleconverters work well with professional telephoto lenses, but not necessarily with consumer grade zooms (if there are any of these that even accept a teleconverter). 2x teleconverters are not sharp enough to be worth using on any lens.

Mirrorless: 1.4x teleconverters the same as above. 2x also work well with 70-200 f2.8 zoom and with fixed (non zoom) telephotos, but not with other zoom lenses (eg Nikon 180-600, Sony 200-600, etc).
 
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MrFotoFool said:
You don't specify (unless I missed it) what camera system you are using (eg DSLR or Mirrorless). Here is my personal experience, which seems to be backed up by what others have posted here and elsewhere.

DSLR: 1.4x teleconverters work well with professional telephoto lenses, but not necessarily with consumer grade zooms (if there are any of these that even accept a teleconverter). 2x teleconverters are not sharp enough to be worth using on any lens.

Mirrorless: 1.4x teleconverters the same as above. 2x also work well with 70-200 f2.8 zoom and with fixed (non zoom) telephotos, but not with other zoom lenses (eg Nikon 180-600, Sony 200-600, etc).
Click to expand...
I am planning to use 1.4 TC on my Z8 with 180-600 lens.
 
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