SANParks.org Forums

Best we have used is bird seed. But the mixture with sunflowerseeds. The are big and much more lighter that rice or beans and works just as well.
Any big supermarket or pet store is the place to get them

One online supplier of beanbags recommends small polystyrene balls or beads.

Presumably you could get them from a DIY centre or builders' merchants.

I usually use ± 3 kilo's of rice. Easily handled, and at the last day you can make one of the staff happy. An added bonus.

Exactly the same here!

Hi forumites,

Just to let you know that we have started a new Group Pool at Flickr. After the succes of the KNP group pool, with 41 members, DinkyBird has started a Kgalagadi group pool

So you are going to click the button. Now what is going to happen? Here is a very good article on sensors.

Just a heads-up for people a little short on millimeters on their lens: Buy a 100-400 cm lens now!
Looks a little odd though.

Not bad , although with a 1.6 camera that gives you a fairly decent 640 cm on the long end .
Pretty decent for photographing insects at long range

D40 and D80 users...
Nikon has brought out new firmware for you, repairing some errors in the menu's, and more importantly the noiselevels seem to be down after installing it. I wanted to post links to the software, but the Nikon site is soooooo slow that I gave up. Yet another reason to use Canon!

Hi All

I have just got a Cannon 400D. Previously I used a film camera and had a 100-500 mm lens. I am looking to buy a lens for my NEW digital and was hoping that someone can give me some advice in terms of if you are starting your lens collection, what would you buy. The cost is not of real concern, however, i would only buy one lens so it must be flexible. It would only be for game and bird photo's

Readles

If cost is no problem, go for one of the long Canon lenses. My preference is the 500 F4 IS - the 600 is too heavy (the 500 is bad enough). This is a superb wildlife lens.

However it is too long for a number of situations so don't throw away your other lenses just yet. You will probably want a couple more to cover a wider range eventually.

I am sure many would recommend the 100-400 L lens; personally I was never very impressed with it. However I have been very impressed with the 70-200F4L IS, a new lens from Canon and that would be my second recommendation if the first is too much/large etc.

Richard

I will recommend the 100-400 L with IS
Very versatile and can be used with 1.4 converter.
But , must agree with Richard
Glass on the 500 is sharper
But only a very little sharper

But the great thing about the 100-400 is that you have freedom while making a composition.

And a landschape zoom lens.

For versatility go for the 100-400. If you want to use an extender on it make sure your body is one of the 1-series (1D MKIII comes to mind) as you'll lose AF otherwise. And stick to the 1.4 extender only.

Otherwise the 300 f/2.8 is probably the sharpest lens available, but for birding that may be a little to short in a lot of cases, even with an extender.

Peterpiper apparently the reason the results are not sharp is that the C 100-400 is a 5.6 and will loose Auto focus with a more powerful convertor than 1.4. You need to go to f4 to get the full versatility out of convertors and sharpness. We sold our 80-400 VR 5.6 for that reason and sold the Landy and got the sharpest tele zoom I have ever seen the 200-400 f4 which works with all convertors. We now reckon that is sharper in many situations than the awesome 70- 200 F2.8. The only drawback is that often you need to suddenly go below 200 and you can with the Canon. If you say the 100-400 is not as sharp as it could be then you should see the Canon 70-200 f2.8. Our friends have one and its killer and the rivalry between the 2 men is really funny at times!!!
If Nikon goes full frame I know we will have to somehow invest in a 500 or 600f4 for the birds as the 400 will no longer be 600