PeterHG's Big Year-4th time

[PeterHG]

65. (CR 24). Grey-capped Flycatcher. Sarapiqui, January. Another representative of the extensive range of flycatchers.

 

[TonyQ]

@PeterHG

Some wonderful additions here - your new camera is performing really well. The Grey-capped Flycatcher is a beauty!

[michael-ibk]

And I love the Long-Tailed Tyrant, one we missed.

[PeterHG]

66. (CR 25) Northern Rough-winged Swallow. Boca Tapada, February.

 

[PeterHG]

67. (CR 26) King Vulture. Boca Tapada, February. They kept their distance more than the other vultures, but at this location we saw a few of them every day.

 

[PeterHG]

68. (CR 27). Olive-throated Euphonia. Boca Tapada, February. The only place we saw them. This is the male.

 

 

And here with the female

 

[PeterHG]

69 (CR 28). Collared Aracari. Boca Tapada, February. This was definitely the place for Aracaris and Toucans.

 

[PeterHG]

70 (CR 29). Keel-billed Toucan. Boca Tapada, February. Amazing colours and we couldn't get enough of them. The lodge had feeders next to the open air restaurant and every now and then they were visited by Toucans. 

 

 

[PeterHG]

71. (CR 30). Yellow-throated Toucan. Boca Tapada, February. Also called the Chestnut-mandibled Toucan, as a subspecies of the Yellow-throated Toucan

 

[xelas]

Pure beauties, @PeterHG! I am happy that Costa Rica has delivered yet again. Boca Tapada ... inserted into the next CR itinerary.

[Dave Williams]

Great stuff, glad you added the reason for the choice of national bird because I was taken aback at such an ordinary looking bird to be chosen!!

Yes, tell us more about the camera gear and where you stayed,touring etc?

[Galana]

Great shots of Toucans. I can see the attraction here.

Nice King vulture too.

[Kitsafari]

spectacular shots of the toucans. 

[Zim Girl]

The colours on those toucans are just amazing!

[PeterHG]

Ok, I’ll add some details on the locations and camera setup. I’m still thinking of doing a full trip report, but I have to limit my time at the computer, so for now, just a few notes here:

My wife and I did a 4-weeks tour, visiting locations that had been suggested a.o. by @xelas (thanks for those) and found in other trip reports.

This is the route we took (counterclockwise):

 

 

We stayed three nights at most of the places. I made a switch to Olympus last December and, although I still have the Canon setup ( I’ll decide whether to sell it later), I only took the Olympus with me. The body: Olympus OMD-EM1 mkII with the Olympus 300mm F4. I also had with me a matching teleconverter 1.4, which I did not use very often, due to the fact that a lot of the photography had to be done in low-light conditions. My wife has an Olympus OMD EM10 mkIII with a 75-300 zoom and a 14-150 zoom. On a few occasions I made use of one of her lenses.

My setup weighs about 800 grams less that the Canon 7DII with the 100-400II. That may not sound like much, but I did feel the difference when walking. Which was good, because that was the main reason for the switch. As the Olympus has a smaller sensor my reach with the 300mm lens equals 600mm full-frame. The same reach as the Canon combination with the APS-C sensor. Of course the converter would extend that to 840mm, with only minimal loss in sharpness and still snappy autofocus. It is small, so does not add a lot of weight.

The camera performed well, fast autofocus and 18 fps, quite impressive. The lens is incredibly sharp, definitely on par with and in my even outperforming the 100-400II.

The smaller sensor, of course, does not handle high iso’s like a full-frame camera, but did not disappoint either in that respect. Again (my personal view) on par with the Canon APS-C sensor. Yes, a 6400 iso shot definitely has noise, but when exposed properly and post-processed with some careful noise reduction is still quite usable. Here are some examples:

 

 

 

 

 

Am I completely happy? No, the menu system (coming from canon) is quite complicated and takes some getting used to. I still struggle with it at times. The electronic viewfinder has come a long way since they were introduced in SLR cameras some years ago. The advantage being that you get a live view of exposure compensations etc, but in bright light of deep shade they a still lacking sometimes and, no matter how fast they have become in starting up, the is still a very short lag. Nothing like before, but it may cause you to miss a bird or animal suddenly breaking from cover. Realistically, though that would impact only a very, very small percentage of your shots.

 

If I am going out for a walk and want an even more light-weight setup, I sometimes attach my wife’s 75-300 to the camera. You lose a little of the ultimate sharpness and birds in flight are going to be more difficult (not impossible, see below), but other than that it is still an amazing little lens:

 

 

 

I hope in this post I have given some useful info on the trip and the equipment. Don’t hesitate to PM me if you’d like to know more.

Edited April 2, 2019 by PeterHG
inserted correct picture

[xelas]

@PeterHG, thanks a lot for your review of M3/4 system. I think that the loss of weight (what about size??) more then outweight the potential loss in IQ (although no such can be seen on your excellent photos).

Mirrorless is the future of DSLR. For ultimat quality and pro users, maybe not. But for many of us, hobby photographers, for sure yes.

[Galana]

If those photos are noisy you have no chance in the ECB challenge.

Lovely photos in there own right.

Thanks for the background. CR is on my list.

[PeterHG]

2 hours ago, Galana said:

If those photos are noisy you have no chance in the ECB challenge.

That would be a shame, of course ;), but keep in mind these are processed. Straight from the camera they do show quite a bit of noise. There is, however so much detail in the photos that even after applying some noise reduction the result is not bad at all.

[PeterHG]

72 (CR 31). Brown-hooded Parrot. Boca Tapada, February. Common visitors to the lodge. Sometimes there would be 20 present.

 

 

[PeterHG]

73 (CR32). Red-lored Parrot.Boca Tapada, February. Once or twice much bigger parrots came down to the feeders, like this couple.

 

[PeterHG]

74 (CR 33). White-fronted Parrot. Boca Tapada, February. Only one brief sighting in the gardens of the lodge.

 

[PeterHG]

75 (CR 34). Great Green Macaw. Boca Tapada, February. The biggest of them all, measuring almost 90 cm from bill to the tip of the tail. We heard their harsh calls quite a few times, but on only one occasion did they fly past close enough for a shot.

 

[PeterHG]

76 (CR 35) Great Curassow. Boca Tapada, February. Large, secretive birds that mostly stay in the deep shade, but sometimes, late afternoon, they showed themselves at the edge of the forest. The light was already fading, but a few shots were still possible.

The male:

 

And the female:

[PeterHG]

77 (CR 36). Black-cheeked Woodpecker. Boca Tapada, February

 

Edited April 3, 2019 by PeterHG

[PeterHG]

78 (CR 37) Montezuma Oropendola. Boca Tapada, February. This large bird with its characteristic bill, was seen at most locations.