Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve

Only an hour away from my home in Guildford, is the wonderful national nature reserve, Titchfield Haven, run by Hampshire County Council.  

Titchfield Haven National Nature Reserve

As their website states, "the Reserve covers 369 acres of the Meon Valley, encompassing a mosaic of natural habitats. River, fen, pools, reedbed and meadow are carefully managed, giving protection to a range of special wildlife".

Entry is only £4, and parking (on the edge of the Solent) is free.  There's an excellent cafe too.

I wasn't able to spend much time in any of the hides, but did try them all out.  Here's a few photos of what I was able to capture, either from a hide, between them, or outside the Visitor's Centre.

Common(?) Tern

Turnstone

Turnstones

Canada Goose

Buzzard

Oystercatchers

House Sparrow

Mute and Black Swans

Mute Swan

Gadwell

Black-headed Gull

Lapwing

Black-tailed Godwits?

Bar-tailed Godwit?

Avocet and Bar-tailed Godwit

Linnet

Finally, only a short drive away, and with a very hidden entrance is Titchfield Abbey, which is a free English Heritage site.

Titchfield Abbey

Canon News: EOS 5DS and 5DS R

Canon have come up with something groundbreaking here - a brand new 50.6MP CMOS sensor sat inside one of two bodies the 5DS and 5DS R.

Canon 5DS

Canon 5DS

The specifications include:

• 50.6 MP CMOS full-frame sensor
• Dual DIGIC 6 processors
• 150K Pixel RGB+IR Metering Sensor
• Up to 5.0 Frames Per Second
• 61-point AF
• Cropped Shooting (1.3x and 1.6x cropped shooting modes produce 30.5 and 19.6 megapixel files)
• USB 3.0
• Mirror Vibration Control System
• Interval Timer Shooting

Prices for the body are around £2999 at time of writing.

More details are available here.

Canon 5DS R

The 5DS R is almost identical to the 5DS, but a "...low-pass cancellation filter enhances the clarity and sharpness of the high-resolution images with minimal risk of artifacts".

Canon 5DS R

It's priced at £3,199.

There are more details available here.

Canon News:11-24 f4 L lens announced

Canon have just released an extremely wide zoom lens, the 11-24 f4 L lens - in fact at time of launch, it's the world's widest rectilinear zoom lens.  I am lucky enough to own the 16-35 II L lens, and at 16mm, it can create some stunning landscape shots, so this 'wide boy' must be incredible.

Canon 11-24 f4 L lens 

It features three different lens coatings to deliver superb image quality, has minimal distortion, and near-silent AF, with full-time manual override.

Expected to cost £2,799.

More details here.

Canon News: EOS 750D and 760D

Canon have updated their popular low/mid-range 'rebel'/xxxD DSLR (which started with the 300D - my first digital camera!), and have introduced us to non-identical twins - the 750D (Rebel T6i) and 760D (Rebel T6s).  

Canon 750D

Canon 750D

The specifications include:

• 3.0" (7.7cm) Vari Angle LCD touch screen
• 24.2 Megapixel APS-C sensor 
• 19 all cross-type AF points
• DIGIC 6 processor delivers full resolution shooting at 5 fps
• large ISO sensitivity range of ISO 100-12800 (extendable to ISO 25600)
• Connectivity options include Wi-fi and NFC
• Movies can be recorded in .mp4 format for easy online sharing
• Full HD movies with Hybrid CMOS AF III to track movement and focus smoothly between subjects
• Creative movie modes

£599 for body only.

More details available here.

Canon 760D

Canon 760D

The 760D shares most of the same specifications as the 750D, but adds a few extra features:

• An eye sensor for use with the optical viewfinder
• LCD information display on top-plate
• Quick control dial on the rear
• Servo AF in Live View (which I'd LOVE to have on my 5D Mark III for wildlife filming)

£649 for body only.

More details here.

Canon News: EOS 1D-X Firmware updated to v2.0.7

Canon have released an updated firmware release (to 2.0.7) for their flagship EOS 1D-X.

Canon EOS 1D-X

The changes incorporated are:

1. Improves the AF controllability when shooting in Live View mode with a wide-angle lens (fixed focal length or zoom).
2. Fixes a phenomenon in which, when shooting long exposures (several minutes), vertical lines appear on the right edge of captured images (still photos).
3. Fixes a phenomenon in which the Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB) may not perform as intended when in continuous shooting mode and where the shutter speed is longer than 1 second.
4. Improves the reliability of the control mechanism for the Picture Style Auto setting.
5. Fixes a phenomenon in which the electronic level indicator does not work correctly.
6. Fixes a phenomenon in which, when using the "Save and read camera settings" function, the color space data that is selected in "Custom shooting mode (C1-C3)" is not saved. *1
7. Corrects some incorrect indications on the "English" and "Russian" menu screens.

*1 As a result of this fix, cameras with Firmware Version 2.0.7 will not be able to read the "camera settings file" created with cameras running Firmware Version 2.0.3 (or earlier). If you require the "camera settings file", please create it after updating to firmware version 2.0.7.


One upgraded, you will be unable to revert to a previous version of the firmware.

The firmware is available to download for Mac or Windows here.

Canon News: EOS 5D Mark III Firmware v1.3.3

Canon have released an updated firmware release (to 1.3.3) for their popular full-frame DSLR, the EOS 5D Mark III.

Canon EOS 5D Mark III

The changes incorporated are:

1. Improves the AF controllability when shooting in Live View mode with a wide-angle lens (fixed focal length or zoom).
2. Corrects some incorrect indications on the "English" and "Russian" menu screens.

One upgraded, you will be unable to revert to a previous version of the firmware.  This may of course have implications for those running any non-Canon 'hacks', such as Magic Lantern.

The firmware is available to download for Mac or Windows here.

RSPB Big Garden Watch 2015

This weekend was the RSPB's Annual Big Garden Watch, the world's largest wildlife survey, which has been tracking changes in the UK's garden bird population for 36 years.  I treated myself to a giant cup of tea and settled down for an hour to see what I could record.

My garden is near some diverse habitats - a city centre, small woods, and a river, so I've been lucky enough historically to see a large variety of birds, often flying low overhead:

Peregrine Falcon with extra wings

... and sometimes enjoying the berries from our holly tree:

Redwing enjoying a holly berry

But with the Garden Watch, the 'rules' are to simply count the maximum concurrent number of each species seen in (not over) the garden in an allotted hour.

A few of the usual suspects were of course around - Great Tits, Dunnock, Blackbird and Robin.  I was also lucky enough to get my first ever photo of a tiny Wren, and a reappearance of a female blackcap, which I had first seen late last year.

Blackcap (female)

Blue Tit

Wren

And just beyond the garden, I saw 10 Magpie in a tree - but only one popped into the garden for the hour.

A tidings(?) of Magpies

In the allotted hour, I wasn't able to record any sightings of other frequent visitors to the garden, like Nuthatch, but maybe next year!

More details of the birdwatch are available on the RSPB's website.

Canon News: 6D firmware (v 1.1.6) released

Canon have launched new firmware (1.1.6) for their budget full-frame 6D.  It addresses the following aspects:

• Fixes a phenomenon in which the camera may not first use the center AF point to focus, when the AF point selection is set to automatic in AI Servo AF mode.
• Fixes a phenomenon in which focus cannot be finely adjusted with specific lenses when shooting remotely with EOS Utility software.
• Corrects some Ukrainian language displayed on the menu for ISO Setting.

UK users can download the firmware from here.
US users can download the firmware from here.