I am glad to be given a chance to be tried on the Fujifilm XF70-300mmF4-5.6 R LM OIS WR. Even though we don’t have that many opportunities to do more tests on this setup because of the Covid-19 lockdown.
for quick sharing from Fujifilm XF70-300mmF4-5.6 R LM OIS WR Liew WK – Lens Stories
For birding Photography, we always concern about on few camera and lens specifications
1. Image Quality
– how sharp and how’s the ISO performance
– with Teleconverter Image quality
2. Autofocus performance
– how fast the autofocus, how accurate autofocus, and how good is the tracking capability
3. Weather-resistant, Weight and Size
– no one can deny bigger lens (longer and bigger aperture) will give you better image quality but we need to know how much we can tolerate with Image quality drop with the size and weight reduce.
– most of the bird photography here (Tropical rainforest – Malaysia) involves a lot of tracking, walking, hiking so it is not really a good choice to carry heavy equipment to long hours to do bird photography here.
Some Extra Features
4. Minimum Focus Distance
– most of the Bird photographers also a nature lover who may also capture many other creatures (butterfly, snake, etc
– minimum focus distance of 0.83 which give magnification 0.33
5. Image stabilization
– I can’t comment much as not really do a lot of testing on this but some of the dark conditions where I shoot ~600mm at 1/10-1/30s also give a very good success rate but for my comfort. 1/100 is a base shutter speed to get a very high success rate for myself.
I also captured some videos handheld
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Very low light condition
ISO1600, F8.0, 1/30
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1. Image Quality
– with previous testing on the Fujifilm equipments
– as previous testing share, the X-T4 AF performance FAST, accurate and tracking is good too.
– I won’t share any single point AF here as all others above are using AFS or single focus but here I am sharing what I am concern about continuous focus for both lock focus & tracking capability
– Both above Loglight Condition sharing pictures were captured in very low light condition and AF is still fast and accurate for AFS
All pictures below captured with AFC – continuous focus and Zone (almost full screen). [I let the camera and lens decide to lock the object and track without any additional setting change]
i. Terns
– many of them flying far and near with moderate speed but in any direction under the hot sun
– most of the focus can lock fast and continuous tracking the bird by the next 1-2 s as the tern fly out from the frame
– it is almost no fail to lock focus when the birds flying with blue/white sky and sea background which has enough contrast
– it is getting difficult to lock focus when a bird flies into the frame where the background is green
– this owl all of a sudden fly out from the small palm oil plantation- the focus lock fast but the tracking miss 50% intermittent as it is flying toward me fast and close (some of the focus frame lock on the wing but not the head).*** the tracking may able to improve by some AF setting. as the focus locking is fast enough to focus again after miss out of focus within 1-2s flying toward me seriesFujifilm X-T4, Fujifilm XF70300, TC 1.4x [434mm, ISO800 F.8.0 1/1250]
– This is a special case where this hornbill standing on a building wall. So make use of the continuous focus & tracking mode. Even the bird is near the tracking work since the bird begins flying until it missing into a tree.
– the moment happens just ~2s, while I am shooting 7fps. and the focus just miss 2 frame
– it is very difficult to capture swift picture due to normally they are flying fast, all different direction
– success rate is not very high due to the flying speed very fast and accelerates in any direction for feeding. But the camera and lens still able to lock the focus as long as my position is at the right position.
– due to the APS-C sensor size the lens design in a smaller size compared to an equivalent 35mm equivalent lens (100-400mm)
– the lens with X-T4 which is 607g (including battery and SD memory card)
– 1.4x TC
with such focal length 107mm to 457mm or (107mm to 457mm)x1.4 or x2)
look at the size
4. Minimum Focus Distance
– this lens can take a photo at a minimum focus distance of 0.83 which give magnification 0.33 think this is also good for some butterfly, big object macro
another photohunters trip to our favor location Bali, Indonesia. as usual we had chasing non stop SUnset, Sunrise and Milky Way … glad we had very good weather , colorful sunrise, sunset, rays , clear sky for milky way ..
due to peak season and room availability for the first day , immediate after wet and lovely sunset at Tanah Lot. We move forward to Jatiluwih follow by Milkyway chasing , the sky cover by clouds when we arrived and very soon it open up for us capture the beautiful of Milky Way with lovely paddy terrace.
With less than 3 hours sleep, everyone wake up for sunrise. Glad that we have lovely sunrise .. after the sunrise, everyone grab a quick rest before travel to another beach for sunset ..
After a “egg yolk” sunset , going for dinner than continue our Milky Way chase . today the sky is obviously clearer so everyone should have good Milky Way.. one of the participant say : it is my first time capture Milky Way and it is so easy and clear ! 😀
Next Morning , we decide walk ~1km for sunrise with our favor spot . “Yes” it is fill with water in the paddy field , what we need just beautiful light to have WOW reflection + sunrise + terrace paddy
instead any beautiful color, we given long shining Rays and allow everyone changing their angle for the beautiful all direction rays
After beautiful sunrise and breakfast, we travel 3 hours to another favor spot Mount Batur . We do not have very good angle for sunset, so we decide to make a sunrise spot for sunset (reverse sunset) . When we arrive at the place , the sky show another hour of lovely RAYS ! not much foreground but we still trying best to squeeze in the plantation and small hut for the lovely RAYS … follow by chasing Milky way for varies locations … sky is clear too . Some start say ohhh we shoot Milky way too much now :p
With another less than 3 hours sleep, we move to Lake Batur for sunrise. Here, change a lot since my years first visits. Rubbish any where, wooden boat changed to fibre etc but it still a beautiful sunrise spot and YES again we have lovely colors sunrise .
for the next few days, we spend our day at Amed for Mount Agung .
while we were here .. weather again is very good and we spend quality time here with Milky way, Mr sun .. etc
Another 6 days photos hunting outing, we have good weather for few days. difficult hike for some to the Ijen for blue fire and sunrise but glad all make it to peak .
28 Aug – noon arrival so we decide stay in town and shoot sunset nearby
29 Aug – Long travel distance but we managed to stop by for some slowshutter and good food
Aug 30 – leaving to Pantai Pulau Merak for slowshutter and sunset
Aug 31 – relaxing morning and night hiking to Ijen
Sept 1 – drive back after hike down from Ijen and on the way reach town we managed to stop for sunset
Sept 2
we spend morning sunrise near Sanur area
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update 2016 Oct 20
beautiful low tide beach with right time we shoot without lunch
update 2016 Oct 1
no one at this beautiful beach , and most of us attract by the green moss with rocks on the other site .. i am alone here to enjoy the nature mirrow ..
… no One here …
recommended view@
update 2016 sept 8
– a beautiful beach , good for slow shutter and reflection depend on tide
Update 2016 Sept 5
– highlight of the outing , Mount Ijen Blue fire … happy we saw it and capture it close and far
A 12 days liewwk Nature Photohunters to Sichuan, Qinghai – CHINA … we mostly passing by and surrounding with glass land , and out main targets are Qinghai Lake and Chaka Salt Lake … both locate Qinghai Province .
Lets start with group picture at one of our main targets/hunting ground 😀 .. Qinghai Lake & Chaka Salt Lake
So far, we only had 1 day full raining day happen at Hongyuan County which we should look for sunset , reflection for river curves ….. too bad we didn’t able to capture anything as raining non stop for 14 hours
update 2020 April 4
update 2019 Dec 12
update 2016 Aug 24
one of the most memorise sunrise ever have … we actually stuck in jam to enter this place for >30min for less than 1 hr .. and we witness this beautiful sunrise together >1000 people together sharing the same view of sunrise
update 2016 Aug 23
– Zhagana, 扎尕那 a small village locate Gansu (甘肃) … the village locate surrounding with rocky mountains giving amazing view of sunrise .. with rays in
– beautiful location where it is not tourist spot, we were happy to witness beautiful rays too at this spot
update 2016 Aug 20
– a full pano Milky way at Chaka Salt lake , with the refection and without pano head make this slikt difficult .. but finally i able to make this
update 2016 Aug 15
– Chaka Lake, Qinghai, China
when dawn everyone looking at west direction I am with another photographer attract by light from East
– our main target location, Chaka Salt Lake famous with reflection … beside full sky mirror … we target clouds reflection, sunset, milky way… and this is an extra the ray appear only for few of my shots while I try to capture the photographer in action. very abnormal as this was capture 8pm at East direction which sun is opposite of this …
update 2016 Aug 6
– misty morning at HongYuan
Conclusion of the tour , we see various different environments, (glass land, mountain, biggest lake for CHINA, salt lake, glass land mountains etc)
We walk a lot due to the design of the park, shooting at odd hours …. But every walk , reward us with beautiful view so everyone no complaint on the walking (longest one way walk is 3.8km)
update 2016 Aug 6
– one of the most clear sunrise , and it is special moment we witness this sunrise together with >1000 peoples together 😀
– Qinghai Lake , Canola flowers 油菜花
– Glassland along the travel .. this was capture in the bus while travelling
– one of the most beautiful spot .. village with rocky mountain surround . we were lucky managed to witness beautiful sunrise, sunset and rainbow here just for 1 night stay
扎尕那 （zhagana)
– woke up earlier , stand in he cold …. and before the sun came out . my gang wonder why we wait as the view just so so .. the mountain dark off , sky just clear …. …. I keep tell wait wait (with worry) I believe with the mountain shape it should have light ray shine out … and when this show up everyone wow plus the mist just keep pop out from the village …
– Chaka Salt Lake 茶卡盐湖 － main target of the outing , we spent 2 days here … lovely sunset, milky way etc ..
– mirror of the sky show reflection from the lake
– night sky even beautiful with all stars on the lake
after long rest for Landscape photography, went for another quick long exposure, sunset and Milky Way shooting at Batu Pahat … and here few simple sample
– all picture use AV mode meter at same position
– just contrast , saturation add to each picture
1.without any filter
– obviously the top-right over expose without any filter use
2. use most standard GND filter than we recommended for here GND .9s
– sky exposure seem better after the GND even with little highlight
3. use RGND 2 stops
– the exposure seem more balance without highlight due to light concentrate on center of the frame
4. with RGND and 10 stops ND filters
– ND 10 stops to make the shutter speed much slower create different slow shutter effect (silky effect for this) . the calm and peace feel make the picture look different from the standard capture
Overall the GND/RGND is to balance the sky exposure with the foreground and ND can create different effect for composition.
