Hummingbirds @ 1792mm’s 😮

Mods, I hope you won’t move this to Wildlife, as I think this has more to do with gear and settings, than it does birds…

But anyway, here’s my story. I have been shooting with my R7 + 800 F11 for 1 1/2 yrs, and I have said all along, if a 1280mm equivalent was not long enough, I should probably be doing whatever I needed to, to get closer to my birds. I already had a Canon RF 1.4 TC, when I bought my 800 F11. I used it exactly 1 time for some moon shots. Worked okay for that, using my camera on a tripod, with the timer. 
Recently I starting thinking about what I could sell, to help offset the cost of the new 200-800 ? Of course I thought about the TC, since I never use it. Then I thought, maybe just for the heck of it, I should try it with my R7 + 800 F11, for a 1792mm equivalent, just to see what it does ? I didn’t really expect much.

So 2 days ago, I went out to my blind to shoot some back yard birds (my frequent test subjects 🙂) It actually worked decently, considering the light was not very good, and I was trying to keep my shutter speed up to a least 1/640th. Oh, I always use a tripod. Without the TC, I like to keep it somewhere around 1/200th to 1/320th.

Encouraged by what I saw, I decided to try the next morning with a little better light. Plus, because of the light angle, I could sit inside our built in patio, and shoot out of an open window, which was nice, as it was pretty darn cold and damp out. Plus, I was sitting on a couch…… surfing the net while waiting 😀 lol

We have a little water feature about 40 ft from the window. Light was actually pretty nice. Fairly low behind me, and straight at the water feature. I did have a Goldfinch coming down and giving me some shots….. and they were looking okay when chimping. Suddenly an Anna’s Hummer came down and started hovering around and up to the sprinkling water ! Of course I started rattling off shots. Seemed like the AF was mostly grabbing him too. He hovered around for what felt like a long time…. Maybe 15 to 20 seconds, and then landed on the perch behind the sprinkling water. I was still taking a few shots but also, letting my buffer catch back up. After maybe 45 seconds, he lifts up, and starts hovering around again for another 20’ish seconds 🙂 I guess this little guy just really wanted his photo taken.

Anyway, here’s my thoughts. Yes, I have taken technically better Hummer shots. Yes, after starting off with DXO Pure RAW, I did finish these with a little light Topaz. No, I would not recommend shooting Hummers in flight with a 1792mm combo. Also, if I knew I was going to be shooting Hummers in flight, I would not have been shooting in ES, but rather EFCS…. Although I didn’t think ES really ruined too many of the shots I took (oh, about 150 shots)

But the bottom line is, I was super pleasantly surprised to have gotten the shots that i did, using this setup. F16, are you kidding me ? Not recommended by photographers anywhere, right ? 🙂

While I am not going to be using my 1.4 TC very much, I’m also not going to sell it as I thought i might. Considering the combo, what do you think ?