Bird Photography Equipment Comparison $20000 vs. $2000! Do You Really Need Expensive Gear?

[Music] today we've got a big battle on our hands it's gonna be 20k my normal Rick vs. 2k a rig that most of you will be more familiar with a 150 to 600 millions will I be able to recreate the look that I get with this camera with this setup so let's look at the gearing under use today I said 2k and 20k this is a 5d Mark 3 you can get it used for around $1,000 I think and this is at 10 150 to 600 but I'm also not really wanting to talk too much about the lens I just got this from a friend thanks Paul there's a lot of zoom lenses in this range so I really wanted to use that and also because it's 600 millimeters this is 600 millimeters so I can actually nicely compared it to I'm just going to use it as a sample of all the different kind of zoom lenses that are out there and get it used probably for less than $1000 so think roughly $2,000 for this setup and a lot of you guys don't use a tripod so I think I will just hand hold it for today and the other the 20k setup is big sturdy gets on tripod Wimberly had canon 600 millimeter version 2 image stabilized prime lens Canon 5d Mark 4dn canon 600ex at the top and Wimberly flash brackets with a flash battery and the better Bheema attached on top see if I can take similar images with this setup with no flash to this really expensive set up and we see when it works where the shortcomings are and how I manage if I managed to get similar looking images and how you can get great looking and just using it set up like this [Music] Photography purchase rock I can stick and nice upright to forget some bits I just put down my normal setup in the spot where I would usually shoot from gonna take a couple pictures of videos with this one and then I'm going to use this setup from the exact same spot seeing what the images will look like then we go back look at the images and then I will try to match the images that this camera creates with this camera so I assume I've never really used this lens I assume I will actually have to get a little bit closer to the birds to get the similar smooth background that this lens will give me from further away but let's not jump to conclusions let's just see what happens and start shooting [Music] [Music] [Applause] just took some nice shots of the hooded Robin on the rock first with this camera then with this camera looking at these shots both taken at f8 ISO 800 in both lenses from the same position I'm actually quite surprised how well the zoom lens is stacking up in terms of the background of course on the prime lens the background is more dissolved and nice and smooth and creamy but looking at the zoom lens it's actually not that bad to be honest I expected it to be much worse so what we'll have to do to get a similar smooth background compared to this one I'll just have to move closer so let me do that now [Music] [Music] [Music] so there's a few techie winders hooded Robin Willy wagtail got a few from the old position now I moved in close and I'm actually able to create a very similar looking image to my long lens when I step about one and a half to two meters closer to the subject than I have to do with my long lens so I think it's a good example that when you think about your backer like you also saw my video how to get amazing backgrounds and you think about the distance between the background and the purge that once you do that you can actually create very similar looking images with nice and smooth backgrounds using a lens like this so all of this is because it dissolves the background a little bit worse than the big prime lenses that you have to be a bit closer and ideally your background has to be a little bit further behind the bird so how did I get that first of course I step closer but then I also went a little bit lower because there's a hill behind me by going lower I get a bit further a bit bit more distant background and get a very similar looking image with a really nice and smooth background you can see now I'm actually filming the same Jackie winter from the same position with the two different cameras as you can see in the video the background is actually a lot more dissolved with a big lens and even though I'm shooting at f11 it's still a lot smoother than shooting on the 150 to 600 millimeter lens and by the looks of it the worse the background gets the bigger the difference between the two lenses are because the 600 still dissolves the background really nicely where's the 150 to 600 as soon as the background gets a little bit more sticky or has a few different colors it shows up a lot more and the look is just not as smooth anymore as you get with the big lens so that seems to be the main difference on the rock before we didn't notice it as much because the backer was already really nice there's not many distracting elements in the background wears on the distant backgrounds with a lot of sticks the difference becomes a lot more obvious and I have to get a lot closer to the bird to get a similar look in sumo style of image another thing I just noticed is that this 150 to 600 is actually a fair bit shorter than the six on the promenade so I assume it's only like done a 5 minute 50 or 500 60 millimeters because when you look at the two pictures is actually quite a difference now let me show you one more reason why I really like using this thing because you might say at the moment well the difference is more or less marginal why pay all this different money well first of all when we look at the image quality itself clearly this one has a lot more details and just the file just looks smoother and cleaner but besides that I can use extenders on this lens very well without a problem without much of an image quality loss wears on this lens you're maxed out at 600 millimeters which is the real advantage of a let big lens like this and the main reason I use it because I don't have to be s closest s today where I was only 5 or 6 meters away on another day I can use my 1.4 extend and stand 10 meters away I can use my 2 x extender and stand 12 or 14 metres away and still get a similar looking so I spook the birds a lot less and I'm just a lot more flexible and that's one of the main reasons I'm really using this big lens saying this is the real power of the two x extender I'm a juice away from the rock and oh but I still get a decent sized Willy wagtail in the frame and let me grab that little camera for a second and I'll show you what this shot would look like with that zoom lens from this distance and so now I'll basically have half to set up in the shot and not just the top of the rock like I have with this camera and like I said before that's the real power of having these big lenses with the wide apertures because you can use extenders you still have good quality and you can stand this far away from a skittish bird without really affecting his ways with this lens you just have to be so much closer to the bird to get this similar result do you need this lens or similar expensive big lens to take outstanding bird images no I think today has proven that even with a cheap setup like this you can take fantastic bird images but as I said in my background video already you just have to work a little bit harder to get the same looking images you have to be a little bit closer to the bird and the background has to be a little bit further away but if you get those things right you can absolutely take stunning bird images with a setup like this I hope you enjoyed today's video it's quite fun trying to copy my signature style with the different lens and seeing what would have to do to get there and I think as a conclusion we can say don't worry too much about what lens you're using with the right technique you get outstanding bird images no matter what so just get out there work on your techniques of attracting birds work on finding nice and distant backgrounds behind your purchase and you will take great bird images no matter what lens you use let me know in the comments what your favorite lenses what lanes are currently using and before we go subscribe down there and give me a thumbs up bye [Music]

Channel: Jan Wegener

Views: 73,205

Keywords: bird photography, australia, vogelfotografie, jan wegener, birding, photography, birds, equipment, lens comparison, equipment comparison

Id: ayGauBHGdPw

Length: 9min 50sec (590 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 01 2019