i have to say, your photos are beautiful and the subjects crisp and clean...
however, i have to ask: how close to your subjects are you getting,
especially for the smaller birds or the peeps (which tend not to allow
anyone to get remotely close to them)?

i ask this because i have a 10D and 100-400L already, and even with a
doubler, i'm neither close enough to far too much OR the doubler kills
autofocus (and for action nature photography, or even photography of small
and very "nervous" birds, autofocus is almost mandatory)... my photography
tends to be close-up as opposed to encompassing scenery... shooting a 4"
hummingbird from 15 yards away can't compare to shooting a hummingbird from
5 feet away... the same is true of antelope at 30 or 300 feet, the statue
of liberty from 300 yards or several miles... they are different shots,
requiring different attitudes, composition, lighting issues, etc...

i've seen others, like chuck bartlett, shoot a 400 F2.8 prime with doubler,
and he gets superb shots... but, he's also aiming (mostly) for one subject
in one location at a time... unless he's lucky, he'll find it difficult to
be spontaneous OR portable for action that isn't scripted...

so, i ask... i recognize the quality of swar/leica lens is good, but is it
good ENOUGH? if not, i'll wait and keep looking for the holy grail... :)

00 caren
http://www.parkgallery.org
usually found at juanita bay park, kirkland, WA
carenp somewhere near the vicinity of yahoo and dot com


-----Original Message-----
From: TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu
[mailto:TWEETERS-owner at u.washington.edu]On Behalf Of Chris Fagyal
Sent: Friday, 2004 July 16 09:23
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Re: Digiscoping with SLRs


Caren and all,

I'm not at all sure why you'd want to do this...<snip>