Otter Pups learning to hunt

During the last few mornings, I am lucky to shoot the family of otters around the Marina Bay Reservior.

The adult Otters hunts and bite half of the prey before passing to the young pups. Seeing these co-operative behaviour is really a joy. The pups also learn how to grab the freshly killed prey and swim with it.

With my Nikon 300mmAF-D F4 and D90 DSLR, I am able to document the otters pups hunting behaviour with a better close-up view compared to my XT1 w 55-200mm. The Auto focus of the more than 20 years 300mm still shines and the 10 year old D90 still locks on 90% of the the time. I know mirrorless has come a long way since 2008 but the 2014 XT1 auto still pales against a 2008 D90 DSLR. It is a breeze to shoot with D90. Another advantage of DSLR- The battery for D90 can last like a 1000 shots compared to a 300shots for XT1 battery.

Singapore Air Show 2018

This bi-yearly airshow started this week. I was at the Changi Beach area to capture some of the Aerial Display. This year is also our Singapore Air force 50th year anniversary.

 The one complaint I have for our airshow is the lighting is bad. The Air display timing is in the middle of the day and the lighting is harsh.

Nevertheless, I shot these shots with a D90 and 300mmf4 IF-D

Singapore Airforce F-15 SG 50years anniversary painting. with 2 F-16s.

From Indonesia

Nikon AF-300mmF4 IF D and D90 DSLR Test on Otters

It has been 5 years since I last use a DSLR system. Used to be a fan of Canon DSLR system and briefly went to Nikon D600 Full frame system. I have enjoyed the Fuji Mirrorless system alot and really a lot. The image quality and lightweight setup was the reason I have more keepers and opportunity to shoot more as it is no burden to bring the mirrorless system out.

As I am into the Otters shoot recently, my current Fuji 55200mm is kind of short in focal length (at times) and was tempted to buy the Fuji 100-400mm to add into my arsenal of lens. However, I find the Fuji 100-400mm is too expensive (S$2700) and is quite a huge lens compared to my 55-200mm. The 55-200mm is much useful for different types of photography. I would be keeping the 55-200mm as I find this lens is light and more useful.

So for otters and maybe other nature shots, I started to plan to get another system. The Nikon 80-400mm D V1 and 300mmf4 D older lenses and Canon100-400mm v1 were my choices. I have budget constraints and choose the proven old lenses available.

I came across the old but good condition Nikon 300mmf4 D at S$400 and a Nikon D90 at $240. I bought the 2 of them and start to use it for the Otters shoot. Thank God that I came across them this morning and test the old telephoto lens. As this 300mmf4 Nikon does not have any image stabilization mechanism, I have to shoot with 1/640s and above to ensure image remain sharp as possible hand-held!

The legendary 300mm f4 is sharp and although the internet comments that the lens is slow to focus compared to the newer AF-s lens. It is still useable.

Action shot with old and slow 300mmf4 D lens on a 10year old D90. Still not too bad.

As Fuji Xt1 and D90 is a 1.5X cropped sensor camera, the 300mm on D90 became a focal length of 450mm compared to the 55-200mm (equivalent 300mm). An extra 150mm does make a difference in my shots. The 10-year-old sensor of D90 is still brilliant although I can see quite a bit of noise at ISO3200, it is still usable. Today's DSLR or mirrorless sensors are so good that we take for granted as compared to the older cameras.

 I find the DSLR D90 although is almost 10 years old in tech, it is still a very capable camera in 2018. There is one advantage I see using this DSLR is that there is an option to add a power grip and the power grip can use normal AA size batteries available in any convienence stores. 

Here are the shots from the Nikon 300mf4 AF-IF-D and D90 (12M) DSLR. 

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Bishan Otter Pups

Since the last few encounters of this otter family, the shooting opportunity is low due to the difficult environment they are at.

This time, I was lucky to see them again at the opposite end of Gardens by the Bay East.

Finding the otters is quite a challenge as they do not go to the same place every day. The places they explore daily are random. The areas they cover are from Bishan park down to Kallang/ Marina Bay area.

So for me to look for them, I will either carry my Fuji XT1 w 55-200mm lightweight setup which I kept into my small running backpack. I will do a morning jog or cycle around the Gardens by the bay around the Kallang basin to spot the otters. Many of times, I will not see them and take it as a morning exercise.

However, once they are spotted, it is always a joy to observe their ever interesting behaviour.

Fortunately, I came to know some Otters watchers at the route and share info with them too.

This time, managed to get better action and better environment shots. The little ones are really cute and expressive. The otters family is a close-knit family. All by Fuji Xt1 and 55-200mm.