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The Bomb, the Delkin Devices 960GB BLACK CFexpress Type A 4.0 Memory Card |
High Capacity Delkin CF Express Type A 4.0 Memory Cards
At present, there is no longer a need to change a memory card in the field. Both the new Delkin 480GB and 960GB cards have more than enough storage for 99.9% of field applications. Using these new cards, I have never hit the buffer with my a-1 ii despite hammering the shutter button on occasion. Regular readers know that I have been depending on Delkin cards for just about a quarter century. In that time I have never lost a single image due to card failure. I’ve put my Delkin cards in the washing machine and dryer and — after two days, recovered one from a bag of barbecued spare-rib fat and bones. I got the images off those cards without a problem. Most amazingly, after dropping a card in the parking lot at Nickerson Beach IPT, participant Carlotta Grenier found the card near the ladies’ room four days later after it had been run over by numerous vehicles. After consulting with Delkin, I ripped the mangled cover off the card, put it into the Delkin card reader, and got to enjoy each and every image. I sent the card back to Delkin and they kindly sent me a brand new one. Please do not try that with Sony or San Disk or any of the many cheaper off brand cards.
At a recent dinner in San Diego, Delkin founder, president, and CEO Martin Wood told how his folks were able to recover the data from an industrial card that survived a military jet fighter crash that burned for more than two hours at 2000° F.
The specs for both the Delkin 480GB and 960GB cards are identical:
Max Read Speed: 1830 MB/s
Max Write Speed: 1710 MB/s
Min Sustained Write Speed: 500 MB/s
Records Raw 8K, 6K, and 4K Video
Records High Bitrates and Frame Rates
Records Raw Photos and Rapid Bursts
To help facilitate card usage in almost any environment and keeping your content safe, Delkin has built its BLACK Series with a rugged design that is water and shock proof and is resistant to temperature extremes. In order to further enhance reliability and functionality, the BLACK Series is serialized and protected by a limited lifetime warranty and a 48-hour replacement guarantee upon registration with Delkin.
I have never bought the story that putting all your eggs in one basket is a big mistake. Having to use multiple cards during a single shooting session greatly increases the chances of losing one or more.
You can order your Delkin cards and their great card readers from BIRDS AS ART by clicking here. I recommend minimizing your per GB costs by going with the Delkin Devices 960GB BLACK CFexpress Type A 4.0 Memory Card.
What’s Up?
With the heavy fog (as predicted), I was not excited about heading down to the lake on Tuesday morning. But boy, I was glad that we went out. Bob and I made some excellent images and I learned some new stuff about exposure and on optimizing foggy morning images. Though the weather was much better on Wednesday morning, we did not do quite as well. Strange both mornings was a young Black Skimmer, only the second one I’ve seen at ILE in 25 years. It did not look to be too well on Tuesday but had a lot more life in it on Wednesday.
I’ve been getting a lot more work done on my 2024 taxes. I was glad to learn that the newer of my two Sony a-1 bodies sold the first day it was listed. The market for used copies of this great camera body is, as expected, holding up well. I am keeping the older one for now as a back-up for the Homer trip. I am not sure when I will receive my second a-1 ii. If you order an a- ii be sure absolutely sure to use one of my links to get the three set-up e-mails for free. Otherwise you will either need to go it alone or send a PayPal for $227.43 to birdsasart@verizon.net.
Bob is dropping me off at the Orlando Airport early next Monday and then beginning his drive back to a very cold Wisconsin.
On Wednesday evening we enjoyed a nice sunset with the skimmer and a White Ibis available for silhouettes. None were inspiring.
Today is Thursday 6 February. Though I have a ton of organizing and packing to do, we will surely head down to the lake for a short morning session. Whatever you opt to do today, we hope that you have a great day and that you too choose to be happy.
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Supporting My Efforts Here
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In the Last Blog Post
In the last blog post, Four Very Special San Diego Not Flying Duck Images. Part I here, my very favorite image was the Northern Shoveler drake. Why? A good photo of this species in soft light had been eluding me for several decades. In addition, I loved the swirly water. Thanks to Dr. Fish for suggesting that I lighten that one. And to Anthony Ardito for suggesting that I lighten the Wood Duck drake head portrait.
For me, the other three images were tied for 2nd place as each was very strong.
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These four raw files (each exposed well to the right), were created on 4 February 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE while working from the front seat of my SUV with my BLUBB-supported super-telephoto rig. Photo Mechanic screen capture of four foggy morning photos |
Exposing Way to the Right
Note that all of today’s featured images were created at either +2 or +2.3 stops (once again in Shutter Priority mode with EC on the thumb Wheel and AUTO ISO). Why? With the uniformly light-toned backgrounds, working in Shutter Priority as above allowed me to quickly and efficiently set my shutter speed, add a ton of light, and concentrate on making sharp images.
The key to getting the color right in each image was the final step: running a layer of Average Blur Color Balance as detailed in Digital Basics II. I should do a short video on this one …
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This image was created on 4 February 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE. Working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering +2.3 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 640. 1/125sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. Amazingly, RawDigger showed even +2.3 stops was not enough; the exposure here was a full /3 sto short of perfect. AWB at 7:45:46am on a very foggy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #1: Mottled Duck and grasses on foggy morning |
The Image Clean-Up
By clicking on the Photo Mechanic composite screen capture above to enlarge it, you can see that I did some neat clean-up work on the grasses, especially the clump below the bill. All done with the Remove Tool as detailed in the Digital Basics III Video Series. The pleasingly arranged grasses that I opted to leave create a peaceful easy mood.
Not to mention that the contrast and color are improved 1000% from the raw file.
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This image was also created on Tuesday 4 February 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE. Again, working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering +2.0 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 400. 1/125sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. RawDigger showed that the exposure was dead solid perfect. AWB at 7:50:06am on a very foggy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #2: Black Skimmer in worn first winter plumage |
It’s Better Side …
On Tuesday morning, this young skimmer’s right eye was cloudy and barely open. Thus, I waited for the look-back pose to create a pleasing image. As mentioned above, the bird looked much better on Wednesday. But the left side of its face was still its best side.
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This image was also created on 4 February 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE. Again, working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering +2.3 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 400. 1/125 sec. at f/4 (wide open) in Shutter Priority mode. Even though this one was created at +2.3 stops, RawDigger showed that it was a full half stop too dark. AWB at 7:51:45am on a very foggy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #3: Mottled Duck pair, male with yellow bill on our left |
A Double Miracle!
Like today’s first two images, this one was created at the wide open aperture to save on ISO. As the ducks were swimming (albeit slowly), the sharpness of this image involved two miracles:
1- There is almost no motion blur on the heads — both eyes are sharp.
2- The two ducks were exactly on the same plane; both eyes are razor sharp.
Do remember that if you are using a long lens on a beanbag, you must remember to turn off Direct Manual Focus (DMF) to avoid throwing off the focus accuracy. With Sony, the switch is conveniently on the barrel of the GM lenses. G lenses (like the 200-600), do not offer this feature. With Canon, I believe that you need to turn DMF on and off via the menu. I am not sure with Nikon.
It is always good to be lucky but folks who do things gooder always tend to be luckier. Gooder is a Bob Eastman-ism for correctly or better.
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This image was also created on 4 February 2025 down by the lake near my home at ILE. Again, working from the front seat of my SUV, I used the BLUBB-supported Sony FE 600mm f/4 GM OSS lens with the Latest Greatest Sony Flagship Body, the a-1 ii Mirrorless Camera. The exposure was determined via Zebras with Exposure Compensation on the thumb dial. Multi-metering +2.0 stops. AUTO ISO set ISO 1250. 1/125 sec. at f/8 (stopped down two stops) in Shutter Priority mode. Again, RawDigger showed that the exposure was a full /3 stop short of perfect. AWB at 7:57:17am on a very foggy morning. Tracking: Zone/AF-C with Bird-Eye/Face Detection performed perfectly. Click on the image to enjoy the high-res version. Image #4: Killdeer preening tail feathers |
Two For the Price of One
While photographing the young skimmer, I noticed a preening Killdeer perhaps five yards further up the shoreline. Good photographers keep their eyes moving at all times in search of something better 🙂
I am not sure how or why I wound up at f/8 here as stopping down two full stops cost me both shutter speed and ISO. I did eventually make a few frames of the skimmer sleeping at 1200mm at f/8 and then at f/16 to be used in a future blog post on stopping down for bird photography. That inspired by a question left in a comment by Thomas Redd at the Los Tres Amigos Do a Tiny, Feisty Colorful Jewel blog post here.
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Image #4A: Square crop of the Killdeer preening tail feathers image |
Your Call?
Which version of the preening Killdeer do you prefer, Image #4 at 3X2, of #4A, the square crop of the same photo. Why?
Typos
With all blog posts, feel free to e-mail or to leave a comment regarding any typos or errors.
Very ethereal feel to these foggy clean-up’s. Provides a good feeling looking at them. Very, very, nice indeed!
I like #4, but #4A would be better for instagram and company.