I live in Moldova, in the summer of 2011 I became interested in macro photography, shooting insects. It was so exciting that I did it almost every day until October. I got up early in the morning and rode my bike while the insects sat still sometimes with dew drops. Then I filmed some with their activities. These were praying mantises, various spiders, ants grazing aphids, mosquitoes, grasshoppers and many others. I suddenly found out that under our feet is a huge macrocosm, and life and struggle take place there. It's a pity, I only took photos, a cheap Canon 300D, an inexpensive macro lens, a tripod and some accessories. But your video stirred my memories. Thank you!
I want to do this with my life so bad. I've fallen in love with Photography over the past few years. I'm 15 years old this year and my goal for this summer is that by August I want to have four thousand dollars to buy a Sony A7III with a 200-600mm lense. It's ambitious but I've gotten a job and I'm well on my way there, almost half way actually. Videos like this inspire me. Keep up the great content!
That's awesome! I wish I had started this when I was that young. I wish you luck and hopefully you can get your gear (and bring it on many adventures)!
Good luck .. you won't be disappointed with either of the two. However, you may even consider buying a crop sony body (A6400 perhaps) for even longer reach and at the same time saving some money. I have the 200-600 and it is great on my Sony A9 but I routinely end up using it more on the A7 R4 since I can crop it further.
@@ryandury I didn't end up getting the 200-600. I financially could have bought it but I found that 400mm was enough for me. I now have an a7iii, sigma 100-400, and an 85 f1.8. The hardwork did pay off and I love my setup.
So cool Stefano, very good shots! I love watching your excitement in the video, sometimes I feel the same. Very good opportunity to be able to fly to South America. The jungle looks awesome.
@@StefanoIaniro Stephano! Beware! Praying Mantises are notorious for grabbing and killing hummingbirds. Just wanted to let you know. They are after both the butterflies AND the hummers!
Wow..ur excitement is contagious... really loved the humming bird+mantis+butterfly pic...what a moment to capture... Expecting to get my a7r4+200-600mm by this march..your vlogs has been inspiring ... looking forward for more
@@akcalder92 Hey! The upgrade is really a photo-based upgrade for me. I still think the a7iii is the better video camera. But for stills, the two biggest benefits from the A7RIV are: increased AF-speed and tracking, and obviously the higher MP (more detail, 26MP images in crop mode). The biggest downside is weak handling of noise. I really try to keep it at ISO 1600 or below depending on the scene - and even at that, I may have to do some noise reduction. When I used both cameras in Ecuador, the a7iii definitely outperformed the a7RIV in low light. I'm happy to use both these cameras tbh. At the end of the day, I'm mostly sharing to my social medias for now. I do plan to do some larger printing in the future, which is another reason I felt the A7RIV made sense.
Saw your comment on the low light performance and noise at higher ISO...that can be a concern in many parts of India where the light even during day time may not be great esp places with dense foliage... Is there any difference in iso performance between the super35/crop mode vs while using as full frame in a A7R4???
Wow that genuine excitement and raw happiness in your eyes during that shot....that spark in your eyes is something magical truly. God bless you man.....wish I could meet you someday and see that spark in real haha I am so crazy, please don't mind about it
Amazing video loved it. I love mountains and jungle it's like heaven for me the smell, views, calls something I can't explain you know right, it's like a secret door or place always surprises you with something rare. Also as a birder you have so many tasks to do and as a photographer, you have many more tasks to do. Here in India, the mighty Himalayan mountains are the best over 600 spices have found in different places, altitude, the habitat it's the most beautiful thing.
Thank you! I'll definitely be paying more attention to what's around flowers from now on that's for sure haha. It would also be cool to catch a praying mantis leaping on its prey!
Hi , been birdwatching for over 40 years, just started photography couple of years. Your enthusiasm is infectious my friend . I subscribed as well . I would like to go Panama one day ? Have you a video from Panama ? Thanks .
Thank you so much! I haven't been on an actual birding trip to Panama yet. I did see a few birds from the Panama City airport window, however 😅 Hopefully I'll be able to get there in the future!
Your music choices are stellar! I'd love to see the artists you use in the credits. Great content as well! I found your channel after I got my 200-600 for my a7R3. Been having mixed results with focus. Glad to have found your tip video. Thanks for your videos!
Stefano, I watched your videos about Mindo in Ecuador. As a result of your info. I plan to spend three weeks there before doing the Galapagos. Very interesting and constructive. Did some birding in Colombia earlier this year which was awesome. I hope to maybe meet you on a birding adventure someday!
Those are great locations! You have high potential to see a lot of incredible species. Each of those locations have something different to offer. I wish you luck! 🙂
@@matttrevillionphotography I'm going to release another video on the Hopkins Wetland/Marsh. Awesome place, but I don't see it being terribly different from Crooked Tree. Crooked Tree generally has better species diversity, so I would still recommend there. Honestly, you have great location diversity already, the one land-based area I would maybe consider is Mountain Pine Ridge. They have some goodies there (check the ebird checklists for more info)
Hi Stefano! Love your feed and my final decision of buying the combo of the A7RIV + 200-600 mm was thanks to you and Mark Smith. Really grateful. Love this picture of the hummer with the mantis eating the butterfly, it’s amazing! It was taken at 1/500th of a second, right? so the IBIS of the camera plus the stops of the lens work incredibly, because these I had to shoot no less than 1/2000th with my non-IBIS Nikon D500! It will be such a pleasure!!! Thanks a lot for sharing!
So glad you enjoy! And I hope you're having fun with your new gear! The IBIS is a nice added feature. One thing is that having IBIS on won't freeze the action any better than having it off, it's more to help reduce shake and vibrations from the lens/camera. So you'll still need to use a fast shutter speed to freeze hummingbirds. In this case, I took a bunch of shots and I had a few that froze the action well at 1/500th. If I was using a higher shutter speed, I would have gotten more keepers!
Yo never use a 600mm with s shutter speed less than 600. I know the light was bad and I understand u don't want to increase the iso. In such cases switch to video. That helps.
Yeah, I'm a little more cautious when I'm handheld, but with a tripod I don't mind going lower. It all depends the situation. As long as I'm shooting in bursts, I tend to get at least 1 or 2 usable images at very low shutter speeds haha
Thank you!! And I'm really enjoying it. Definitely wouldn't use it on every photo but it's a nice tool to have. I see it expanding my shooting options/capabilities, and for that reason I find it extremely valuable.
Another great video. I have learned so much watching your channel. I have begun to photograph birds in the deserts and beaches here in la Paz, BCS, MX after watching your channel. I am going to visit The Yellow House in Mindo, Ecuador this September. I have the Sony a7mlll system and would like to get either the Sony 100-400mm GM or the 200-600mm lens for the Ecuador trip. Which lens would you recommend for the trip. Thank you in advance.
Thank you! And I'm excited for you, I've wanted to go back ever since leaving Mindo haha. I mostly used the a7RIV while I was there, but I enjoyed using the a7iii since it's better at low light performance. Not sure if you watched my video comparing both lenses, but it really is a tough decision. I think it will come down to which birds you want to target, how much hiking you'll be doing, and if you intend to photograph things other than birds?
Hey, I'm from India, Kolkata... I like ur all video,it's really great... If possible,can u come India??I want to join u and capture more stunning beautiful photos.
I am actually planning a future series about that - setting up nest boxes, layout, attracting wildlife, etc. Right now there's snow everywhere so I'll have to wait until summer haha
@@StefanoIaniro ohh nice. So future is full of content. I found your channel 2days ago. And watched all your videos in 2days. I'm your happy subscriber. All the best.
Brilliant photo, and another great video! Question about your setup: do you typically shoot from the tripod or do you try to shoot handheld and then mount to tripod for video?
Hi, how well and how fast does this Sony a7riv animal eye focus function (auto focus)works on flying birds or flying subjects with Sony a7riv + sony 200-600mm oss lens ??
Stefano, this was a very cool video. I loved your humming bird shot. I noticed that the f-stop for that one was @f8 , while most of the others were @f6.3. is there a reason to do that?
Thank you! And yes, I didn't know the exact positioning that the hummingbird would be in. So I originally started at f/13 to try to get both the hummingbird and praying mantis in focus. But I was losing light quickly because of the clouds so by the time the hummer actually came around I was at f/8
@@StefanoIaniroAh, I thought so but wanted to confirm. It is an useful tip that I'll use next time onwards. :) Thanks f for the reply and keep posting great videos. Cheers!
Havent enjoyed a channel in so long. Subscribing for sure! Im a landscape shooter wanting to get into wildlife so im learning through all your videos. Using the a7r4 with a 70-200 but waiting for the tamron 150-500 to be my new go to lens. Question: do you prefer to shoot 61mp and crop in? Or apsc mode with extra reach?
So glad you're enjoying the channel so far! I tend to do a mix of both depending on the scene. From an image quality perspective, there isn't any difference between shooting in 61mp and cropping to the same field of view as the aps-c mode. However, I do use aps-c mode a fair bit when 1) There is a lot of branches or the AF is having issues focusing (using aps-c means a smaller frame with less distractions, so that can help the AF). 2) I anticipate I'll be taking a lot of images (smaller file sizes and quicker to clear the buffer). 3) For video (just handy to have the extra crop to get up close)
@@StefanoIaniro thank you! You’re kind and helpful. I did not put any thought into the frame rate being quicker on apsc mode but makes complete sense when you mentioned the small files. Thank you!
Hi Stefano, at minute 7:40, what camera setting do you use to get that type of slow motion for hummingbirds? 120fps slowed down 4x? Thanks and great video. Mike
Amazing pic! It would be better if u captured a good pic when the mantis still holds the butterfly as a whole, but can't complain! BTW how did u get the pic with a black background at 10:13?
Thank you so much! And I angled myself so that I had the darkest background possible (which was a bush in the shade). Then I underexposed a little bit and in post I brought up the highlights and darkened the shadows a bit. It's a pretty easy technique, kinda similar to using a flash on a higher power.
10'50 if you know the name of the pland behind your, at the right of your head, I'd like to know. I have one just like this that obviously is near my stream.
Hmm, the 2 plants i know off hand from that shot is the wider leaf plant Coco Yam (there's a poisonous species and a species you could eat) and the plant with the thinner long leaves is Sugar Cane. Besides that I'm not too sure about the others
Do you have any trouble with focusing BIF with this camera lens combo? I find it’s just not as sharp as my old Nikon D750 and Sigma 150-600 mm. Saw posts from other birding photographers complaining the same problem.
I haven't done a whole lot of BIF with this combo, but I did test it while in Belize along the coast on some Pelicans and Terns. It tracked very well but I did notice a fair bit were softer than I would have liked. With that being said, I was also waist deep in the sea getting rocked by waves lol, so certainly not ideal testing conditions. I'll need to do proper BIF tests this spring/summer.
Stefano Ianiro Wildlife thanks for replying so quickly. It seems the worst problem only happens with this combo, if one put the lens on a diff camera or the camera with a diff lens they are all better. I heard Sony is aware of the problem, praying they will have a firmware fix soon, as I sold my Nikon gears too soon.
Stefano Ianiro Wildlife BtW, I found you channel recently and watched a few videos and picked up quite a few tips. The joy you experience with birding is obvious and contiguous. Thanks again for sharing!
@@xyz9250 Interesting! I wonder what their reasoning is for lack of sharpness for BIF. I've been really happy with the combo so far for songbirds though.
If you're asking what I used in this video, it's the a7RIV. If you're asking what I recommend, I haven't used the a9ii yet. So can't really speak for it!
@@StefanoIaniro actually i m interested in wildlife photography and currently using 80d with 70-200f2.8 with 2x teleconverter. And want to move in sony mirrorless and my budget is not too high.. so i want to ask you " is a7 mark 3 with 200-600mm is good enough for wildlife and bird photography
@@dr_photugrapher8237 Depends your wants/needs. For myself, I do a lot of bird photography in darker situations. So it's nice to use the a7iii since it handles noise quite well! The AF speed isn't up to par with the R4 or a9/2 but I saw an improvement over my 70D for sure. Best thing to do is to try to rent 2 bodies you're interested in and see if you can justify the more expensive one!
birds flock for early warning protection one bird flies they are all ready to fly ! insectivors did you say they are eith omnivores or carnivores ! protein or carbs or both .
