the osprey are back!

[squirl033]

so, i broke down and got myself a 7D Mk II to go with that nifty Tamron 150-600 lens... probably shouldn't have, but i got a great deal on it... about $400 off retail, too good to pass up. so i took it out today to give it a try, even though the weather was lousy for photography. went down to check on the osprey nest, and they're back! there were 3 or 4 of them flying around, but the nesting pair eventually shooed the interlopers away. the light was lousy, but the birds did their part, and i got a chance to test the new combo... this is gonna be a killer bird set-up! here are some of the "test shots" from the first outing...

 

[Bill Anderson]

Good shots. I look forward to your evaluations of the 65 point autofocus system of the 7DII, which is billed by Canon as their latest and greatest.

 

[squirl033]

thanks, Bill... it's a bit early for a final judgment, but so far, that 65-point AF seems to be a killer. focus is lightning fast, even on moving targets, and it locks on pretty much instantly when you move from a near target to a far one, or vice versa. BIG improvement over the 7D! i haven't had much chance to really try the single-point AF yet - for these BIF shots, i mostly had it set to wide-area and let it pick the AF points to use. once i get it out on a nice day, and have a chance to try the center point and expanded center point options on some twitchy little tweety-birds like chickadees or something, i'll have a better idea, but so far, it's very impressive! i like the new AF point select system, too... makes it much faster and easier to switch between AF modes.