Your Call
Which of today’s four featured images is the strongest photo? Why did you make your choice?
What’s Up?
Bob Eastman and I left my home at 3:30am ET on Thursday and — after our blessedly uneventful flight, landed in sunny San Diego at 9:15am Pacific Time. We visited Cliff Oliver in La Jolla and enjoyed a great brunch at Cafe Vahik. We had several hours to kill before picking up Warren Robb at the airport at about 5:00pm; his flight from Dallas was delayed. Then it was delayed again. So, we picked up Warren and Judy together just after 7pm. Miracle of miracles.
Today is Friday 10 January 2025. The four of us will be up early for a pre-IPT day with the pelicans. Whatever you opt to do, we hope that you too choose to have a great day as well.
If an item — a Delkin flash card, or a tripod head — for example, that is available from B&H and/or Bedfords, is also available in the BAA Online Store, it would be great, and greatly appreciated, if you would opt to purchase from us. We will match any price. Please remember also to use my B&H affiliate links or to earn 3% cash back at Bedfords by using the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout for your major gear purchases. Doing either often earns you free guides and/or discounts. And always earns my great appreciation.
Should You Upgrade to or Purchase a Sony a-1 ii?
I will be purchasing a second a-1 ii quite soon.
Aside from the improved ergonomics as compared to the a-1, other nice features include the fact that the rear screen tilts both ways. Pre-capture will surely prove to be a plus while in my option, the Speed Boost feature is a total waste for bird photography. In addition, the resolution on the rear monitor has been improved dramatically. Not to mention that Bird Face-Eye tracking on the a-1 ii is significantly better than on the a-1 and that the 51MP file are to die for. And don’t forget the Pre-Capture feature!
So, the big question is, is the a-1 ii “worth” a gear upgrade. Remembering that I can never know whether or not something is worth it to you, I can say that I was not floored when using my a-1 ii. The differences between the a-1 ii and the original a-1, are neither huge nor eye-opening. The huge difference between the new camera body and the a9 iii is, of course, the 51MP a-1 raw files (as compared to the 24MP files rendered by the a9 iii).
With the price of a new a-1 having recently dropped $1500.00 to $4,998.00, the decision for new Sony buyers is a very tough one. The a-1 ii sells new for $6,498.00. And the price of used a-1 bodies will continue to drop (but surely not as much as I had thought before using the a-1 ii).
If you do purchase an a-1 ii, be sure to use one of my two affiliate links so that you will receive my a-1 ii settings (in the form of a CAMSEa1ii.DAT file), the Buttons and Dials Guide, and an Info Sheet. Folks who do not purchase their new a-i using my B&H link or from Bedfords here and entering the BIRDSASART discount code at checkout will be able to purchase the a-1 ii guide for $227.43. If you are at all confused and do not want to screw up your order, please get in touch via e-mail.
Sony a-9 iii Mirrorless Camera Body
The First Buyer Changed Their Mind
Yours truly, Arthur Morris, AKA artie, is offering a Sony a9 iii Mirrorless camera body (Firmware v1.00), this one in excellent plus plus condition for a ridiculously low $3998.00. The sale includes the original product box, the body cap, the battery charger, one battery, the strap, and insured ground shipping via major courier to lower-48 US addresses only. Your item will not ship until your check clears unless other arrangements are made.
Your purchase will also include my latest a9 iii Set-up e-mail, the new Buttons and Dials Guide, and the new INFO Sheet. This body already has my latest settings on it so you will be good to head out and start making great images as soon as you review the e-mailed materials.
Please contact artie via e-mail.
This camera’s incredible frame rate, an unheard of 120fps, gives you at least four times as many wing positions and flight poses as the other top-of-the-line mirrorless camera bodies. With the incredible AF system that is even better than the AF system of the a-1 with Firmware v2.02, most every single image will be sharp on the bird’s eye. And the raw files can stand up to decent crops. A new one sells at B&H for $5,998.00. B&H has two used a9 iii bodies list right now, one for $5,217.95 and another for $55217.95! And KEH is offering a used like-new a9iii for $5823.00! Used Gear Page regular Karen McCormick sold a used a9 iii for $4298.00 last month. If you have been thinking of an a9 iii, grab my lightly used a9 iii right now and save a sweet $2,000.00. artie
ps: You can see some of my a9 iii images in the blog post here.
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This image was created on 5 January 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE, FL. Standing on the pier, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens with the Sony FE 1.4x Teleconverter (at 477mm) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. Shutter Priority +1.3 stops: 1/3200 sec. at f/9 (wide open) AUTO ISO set ISO 5000. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the Thumb Wheel. AWB at 5:33:27pm just before sunset. Zone/AF-C with Bird Eye/Face Detection enabled performed perfectly. Image #1: Boat-tailed Grackle flying by the sun image |
Why the Un-needed Teleconverter?
Looking at the focal length of “only” 477mm, it is easy to see after the fact that I did not need the TC. I mounted it, however, thinking that I would need more reach for the occasional Great Blue Heron or Great Egret that might fly by. None did, so I tried for the impossible shot — a fly-by grackle at fairly close range. I took about 40 frames. In 39 of them I either whiffed completely or cut off the bird’s head or tail or wings )or some combination thereof. Thus, Image #1 was somewhat of a miracle.
The Trick
The trick to making images like this before the color develops is to frame the bird against a portion of sky near the sun without including the sun in the frame. Your properly exposed raw file will look boring, but the golden yellow is there for the taking by those who are competent at processing their raw files.
ISO 5000
Once again, we see an absolutely sharp, clean image with virtually zero noise in the background, that in part from the a- ii’s impressive 50MP stacked BSI CMOS sensor and in part from my relatively new 2-step note reduction technique. That as detailed in DB II and in the DB III Video Series, Volume I.
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This image was also created on 5 January 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE. Standing on the pier, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 200mm) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. Shutter Priority +1 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/6.3 (wide open) AUTO ISO set ISO 640. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the Thumb Wheel. AWB at 6:03:00pm well after sunset. Image #2: Pier at sunset |
The Versatile 200-600
Most folks do not think that a long telephoto zoom lens would be fabulous for landscape and scenic photography. For my style, however — clean, tight, and graphic, it is ideal. Here, I love the clean edges left and right and the reflections under the pier itself. In case you have not noticed yet, the sunset was quite impressive. We did have to wait until about 15 minutes after the time of sunset for the color to develop.
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This image was also created on 5 January 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE. Standing on the pier, I used the hand held Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G OSS lens (at 280mm) and The Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. Shutter Priority +1 stop: 1/125 sec. at f/5.6 (wide open). AUTO ISO set ISO 1600. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the Thumb Wheel. AWB at 6:05:25pm well after sunset. Image #3: Cattle Egrets at sunset |
Caught with My Pants Down
Since no birds had flown by once the color became brilliant, I was at my landscape shutter speed (1/125th sec.) when this small flock of Cattle Egrets flew unexpectedly through the brilliant color. Had I seen them coming, I would have raised the shutter speed to at least 1/1250 or 1/2000 sec. You can’t get ’em all.
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Lens: iPhone 15 Pro Max back triple camera 6.765mm f/1.78 Focal Length: 6.8mm iPhone 15 Pro Max image by yours truly, Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART Image #4: The ILE Pier at Sunset |
Your Dependable Ultra-Wide Angle Kit
Most cell phones offer super-wide angle options. I believe that the iPhone 15 Pro Max offers three different lenses. And, with the touch of a control, I capture in raw. I just wish that that setting would stick.. As noted here previously, it is a lot more convenient to carry an iPhone than it is to lug a 12-24 or a 24-70.Do not be shy about using your cell phone for scenics and more.
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Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
#2 is my favorite. Love the angles, shapes and general graphic nature of it. The positioning of the top rail just below the distant land horizon is the compositional icing on the cake.