Beginner's Attempt on Filming a Bird Documentary

[LDN-15-27]

Hi all,

Recently I've been planning to film a documentary on the birds of Beijing for a school project. I have very limited experience in wildlife photography, which is why I will be doing a good amount of research over the past few weeks. My plan for the documentary is not for it to look as crisp and sharp as a BBC documentary, but to have footage of pretty decent image quality. I have decided that my main focus will be on passerines and close - ranged waterfowl, but I will also have the opportunity to go somewhere and film flocks of waterfowl from far away. The purpose of this thread is to seek advice on anything related to filming birds (e.g. camera movement, filming flying birds, apertures, filming techniques). First, I would like to start with gear and just general tips that a beginner should know about filming birds.

For my gear, I probably won't have anything top-of-the-line. Right now I have a Canon EOS R6 borrowed from my friend but it lacks a telephoto lens. I wish to purchase a second-hand Sigma 150-500 lens for a cheap price.

I have 3 main questions:
1. Will this setup satisfy my needs?
2. Are there any better or cheaper alternatives?
3. What will filming with this setup look like?

Thanks guys, any help is appreciated.

 

[Lafone]

Hi all,

Recently I've been planning to film a documentary on the birds of Beijing for a school project. I have very limited experience in wildlife photography, which is why I will be doing a good amount of research over the past few weeks. My plan for the documentary is not for it to look as crisp and sharp as a BBC documentary, but to have footage of pretty decent image quality. I have decided that my main focus will be on passerines and close - ranged waterfowl, but I will also have the opportunity to go somewhere and film flocks of waterfowl from far away. The purpose of this thread is to seek advice on anything related to filming birds (e.g. camera movement, filming flying birds, apertures, filming techniques). First, I would like to start with gear and just general tips that a beginner should know about filming birds.

For my gear, I probably won't have anything top-of-the-line. Right now I have a Canon EOS R6 borrowed from my friend but it lacks a telephoto lens. I wish to purchase a second-hand Sigma 150-500 lens for a cheap price.

I have 3 main questions:
1. Will this setup satisfy my needs?
2. Are there any better or cheaper alternatives?
3. What will filming with this setup look like?

Thanks guys, any help is appreciated.

I don't do much video but I would say one of the keys particularly with the longer lenses will be adding some more stability. Although the R6 has good stabilisation, you'll see better results if you shoot on a monopod or a tripod with a video head.

 

[LDN-15-27]

I don't do much video but I would say one of the keys particularly with the longer lenses will be adding some more stability. Although the R6 has good stabilisation, you'll see better results if you shoot on a monopod or a tripod with a video head.

Ok, I'll definitely keep this in mind. Thanks for the reply.

 

[Dr. Wolverine]

Hi all,

Recently I've been planning to film a documentary on the birds of Beijing for a school project. I have very limited experience in wildlife photography, which is why I will be doing a good amount of research over the past few weeks. My plan for the documentary is not for it to look as crisp and sharp as a BBC documentary, but to have footage of pretty decent image quality. I have decided that my main focus will be on passerines and close - ranged waterfowl, but I will also have the opportunity to go somewhere and film flocks of waterfowl from far away. The purpose of this thread is to seek advice on anything related to filming birds (e.g. camera movement, filming flying birds, apertures, filming techniques). First, I would like to start with gear and just general tips that a beginner should know about filming birds.

For my gear, I probably won't have anything top-of-the-line. Right now I have a Canon EOS R6 borrowed from my friend but it lacks a telephoto lens. I wish to purchase a second-hand Sigma 150-500 lens for a cheap price.

I have 3 main questions:
1. Will this setup satisfy my needs?
2. Are there any better or cheaper alternatives?
3. What will filming with this setup look like?

Thanks guys, any help is appreciated.

R6 can shoot C-log and C-log 3, so you might want to learn color grading on DaVinci Resolve if you are planning to do post-processing. For the lens, I would recommend the Sigma 150-600 Contemporary in second-hand, as it is a little newer, and the image quality would be much better. The autofocus would be way faster, and everything about it would be an upgrade. The price would be a little higher, but I imagine you will be able to purchase this lens at around the same cost as a 150-500. I assume you have or will be purchasing an EF to RF adapter? Both the 150-500 and 150-600 are EF lenses, so you will need an adapter to attach them to the R6.

As @Lafone has mentioned, a good tripod and video head are essential for video work. The IBIS works best with native RF lenses, and so both the Sigma 150-500 and 150-600 might not perform as well. Also, the IBIS usually helps handheld photography, but for videos, tripods are almost always a necessity. A good video head is great, and better than ballheads, as they allow smooth panning movement. A decent product I use is the Fotopro MH-6S fluid video head, which is often at a very good price, especially second-hand. However, it does not have variable fluid drag control, unlike more professional heads.

I hope I have been a little help, and good luck on this project!

 

[LDN-15-27]

R6 can shoot C-log and C-log 3, so you might want to learn color grading on DaVinci Resolve if you are planning to do post-processing. For the lens, I would recommend the Sigma 150-600 Contemporary in second-hand, as it is a little newer, and the image quality would be much better. The autofocus would be way faster, and everything about it would be an upgrade. The price would be a little higher, but I imagine you will be able to purchase this lens at around the same cost as a 150-500. I assume you have or will be purchasing an EF to RF adapter? Both the 150-500 and 150-600 are EF lenses, so you will need an adapter to attach them to the R6.

As @Lafone has mentioned, a good tripod and video head are essential for video work. The IBIS works best with native RF lenses, and so both the Sigma 150-500 and 150-600 might not perform as well. Also, the IBIS usually helps handheld photography, but for videos, tripods are almost always a necessity. A good video head is great, and better than ballheads, as they allow smooth panning movement. A decent product I use is the Fotopro MH-6S fluid video head, which is often at a very good price, especially second-hand. However, it does not have variable fluid drag control, unlike more professional heads.

I hope I have been a little help, and good luck on this project!

Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, I have already purchased a second hand Sigma 150-500 with an EF to RF adapter, but I presume the performance won't be too far off from the 150-600. I tried filming last weekend, but I completely missed the tripod video head part that you and @Lafone mentioned, and I ended up with extremely shaky footage. I am now looking for a good video tripod, and the Fotopro MH-6S recommendation is very helpful. Also, quick question, does the body of the tripod also matter? I am currently deciding if I should just get a video head or an entirely new tripod.

 

[Lafone]

Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, I have already purchased a second hand Sigma 150-500 with an EF to RF adapter, but I presume the performance won't be too far off from the 150-600. I tried filming last weekend, but I completely missed the tripod video head part that you and @Lafone mentioned, and I ended up with extremely shaky footage. I am now looking for a good video tripod, and the Fotopro MH-6S recommendation is very helpful. Also, quick question, does the body of the tripod also matter? I am currently deciding if I should just get a video head or an entirely new tripod.

As long as your tripod does what you want it to and can take the weight of the lens and camera I don’t think you’d need a new one - most of the heads have standard fittings. There are a lot of tripods out there but I’d make sure it’s the weight you want, goes as low as you want (some have no centre column for example) and can take the weight of your stuff with room to spare. I wouldn’t use a really cheap one but any mid range will be fine to start with - tripods can be crazy prices but basic sturdy and well made from a reputable maker is the way to start I think.

One thing is to make sure you can set the tripod up to be level. If your tripod doesn’t have a spirit level bubble built in, or a levelling head accessory but is fine for everything else, you could just purchase a cheap spirit level and pop it in your bag and use that.

 

[Lafone]

Just to add I think the Fotopro MH-6S is a great head at a good price (and DrWolverine takes some lovely stuff so I went straight to google to have a look too!), but for more food for thought and in case something is more available in your region, I really enjoy this reviewer, its all quite nerdy and he really explains the difference between heads.

I have a Three legged thing cine head, which he didn't review, so no affiliation or influencing.

When I was doing my research I found it interesting to see the differences between the price points and features. While I don't shoot video much I find a fluid head a more compact proposition than a gimbal (I have both) particularly when travelling around, so I did a bit of research a while ago and thought sharing the you tube links might help.

These are a couple of years old price wise but some still relevant as the head market isn't that fast moving.

 

[Dr. Wolverine]

Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, I have already purchased a second hand Sigma 150-500 with an EF to RF adapter, but I presume the performance won't be too far off from the 150-600. I tried filming last weekend, but I completely missed the tripod video head part that you and @Lafone mentioned, and I ended up with extremely shaky footage. I am now looking for a good video tripod, and the Fotopro MH-6S recommendation is very helpful. Also, quick question, does the body of the tripod also matter? I am currently deciding if I should just get a video head or an entirely new tripod.

I would say if your current tripod is able to sufficiently hold the weight of the R6 and the sigma 150-500, and it is compatible with the video head, then I wouldn't purchase a new tripod. However, it might be wiser if you believe your current setup is unable to hold all the weight.

 

[LDN-15-27]

I've had a common problem when I was filming for the past few weeks. I shot in 4k 25 fps, but the footage sometimes looks blurry and not sharp enough, like this example in the linked video of an Eurasian Coot. Is this because of the insufficient lighting? Or are there some camera settings that I need to tweak?

 

[Lafone]

I've had a common problem when I was filming for the past few weeks. I shot in 4k 25 fps, but the footage sometimes looks blurry and not sharp enough, like this example in the linked video of an Eurasian Coot. Is this because of the insufficient lighting? Or are there some camera settings that I need to tweak?

It might be light or shutter speed or it might be you are not fully focused on the bird - coots being dark are quite hard to retain focus on the eye and it’s turning away from you quite a lot. Tracking birds in video is much like in stills.

I find Jan is quite helpful on all the things to try from focus mode to SS so this might be worth a watch (he does sell his own photo editing stuff but he’s a well known bird photographer and videographer so it’s not just an ad).