Putting the XF 1.4x TC WR through its paces...
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO800 at 196mm |
The rugged New Zealand coastline west of Auckland is famous for its black sand beaches and Muriwai, a 60km strip between the thundering surf and the dunes, is popular with tourists and locals alike. At the south end of the beach, Otakamiro headland is home to a small but accessible gannet colony where about 1200 pairs of gannets nest from August to March each year.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/600th at f5.6 ISO200 at 196mm |
Perched atop rocky outcrops the birds make their nests only centimetres apart and display fantastic flying skill as they come in to land over the squawking beaks of their neighbours. An adult gannet has a wingspan of 2m and weighs up to 2.5kg - their mastery of the ever changing winds and up draughts is remarkable.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO800 at 196mm |
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO800 at 196mm |
This trip gave me a great opportunity to try out the XF50-140mm f2.8LM OIS WR lens with the new matched 1.4x teleconverter. This gives a 35mm equivalent range of roughly 105-300mm at f4 - perfect for flight shots when coupled with the X-T1 and the latest V4 firmware with the continuous zone autofocus mode.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO500 at 196mm |
Tracking birds in flight takes practice - lots of practice! After a while the seemingly random flight patterns begin to make sense as you see several birds repeating a particular circuit coming in to land. As long as the selected AF group stayed firmly on the bird, the camera had no problem keeping focus - only loosing lock when the bird became too small in the frame.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO500 at 196mm - 7 frames stitched in Photoshop |
This sequence, shot at 8 frames per second, shows the way the birds change from winged-flight to winged-breaking just before touchdown.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2500th at f5.6 ISO640 at 196mm |
Another perfect landing...
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO640 at 196mm |
Each pair of gannets lays one egg and the parents take turns on the nest. The chicks hatch without feathers but within a week they are covered in a white fluffy down. As they mature they grow juvenile speckled feathers and prepare for their first flight - straight off the edge of the cliff! Once airborne the young gannets cross the Tasman Sea to Australia, returning a few years later to nest once again at the same breeding colony. Pairs will stay together for many breeding seasons and the birds can live for up to 35 years.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO800 at 196mm |
The Australasian gannet (Morus serrator or Sula bassana), also known as Tākapu, is a large seabird of the gannet family Sulidae.
Adults are mostly white, with black flight feathers at the wingtips and lining the trailing edge of the wing. The central tail feathers are also black. The head is yellow, with a pale blue-grey bill edged in black, and blue-rimmed eyes.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f6.4 ISO800 at 196mm |
Throughout the 4 hours I spent at this colony the light changed very little. All these images were shot with manual exposure, set to preserve the highlights in the white feathers. As the backgrounds changed considerably, from bright white sea spray to dark volcanic cliffs, an auto exposure mode would have struggled without constant exposure compensation changes - impossible when following a bird in flight. The ISO was set to ensure a shutter speed of at least 1/2000 second - enough to freeze the motion of the wings, and the aperture was generally one stop back from wide open to ensure edge to edge sharpness throughout the frame.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2000th at f5.6 ISO640 at 196mm |
Gannets hunt fish by diving from a considerable height into the sea, pursuing their prey underwater - they have a number of adaptations which enable them to do this:
- no external nostrils, they are located inside the mouth instead
- air sacs in the face and chest under the skin which act like bubble wrapping, cushioning the impact with the water
- positioning of the eyes far enough forward on the face for binocular vision, allowing them to judge distances accurately.
They can dive from a height of 30 metres, achieving speeds of 100 kph as they strike the water, enabling them to catch fish much deeper than most airborne birds.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/2500th at f5.6 ISO400 at 188mm |
Photographing birds in flight head-on is a tough test for any AF system and certainly challenged the X-T1 where it was only really successful if there was a very strong contrast between subject and background.
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/60th at f22 ISO200 at 196mm |
It is always interesting to see what happens if you slow the shutter speed right down with any fast moving subject. At 1/60 sec both the bird and the background take on a wonderful blur that conveys a real sense of motion - not to everybody's taste I know but I like it!
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| X-T1 with XF50-140mm f2.8 and XF1.4x TC - 1/60th at f22 ISO200 at 155mm |
Overall I was really pleased with how the 50-140/1.4TC combination performed. The images were sharp right across the frame and the AF system worked far better than my ability to track the birds - certainly the better way round to be as the photographer can always improve with practice!
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