Playing with a long lens

Len, a U3A friend, has been imploring me to spend loads of cash on a new long lens. I’ve resisted! He’s taken some remarkable photos of birds using high ISO values – admittedly from distance – I wanted to play with using my 200mm lens at about 3-4m from the subject.

Lockdown provided the opportunity to sit in a deckchair, with the camera on a tripod and a remote control and experiment with various settings of ISO, shutter speed and aperture in a challenging light situation (ie shade with sunlit background). Out of 121 shots taken using continuous shutter release I got three that were worth sharing. Not because they were great pictures – far from it, but more to record the settings I used.

The shot above of the sparrow on the bird bath was taken at 1/1600sec; f/4 with a 200mm lens @ ISO200

The female goldfinch in the shadow was taken at 1/800sec; f/8 (to get a bit more depth of field) with the 70/200mm lens again at 200mm and ISO 800. The same settings were used for it as it took off …