Adder Photography

This one's really for Al.

Nice choice on buying the Canon mate :P As for macro, I took this using 135mm lens with a +2 close up lens bolted on the front. This means of course, I was close to strike-range taking this pic, but she was pretty laid back and not at all aggressive. Took this at Ash, your neck of the woods really .

Interestingly, and I'm not sure why yet...The canon has trouble auto-focusing on adders. MF works a beaut, but must be something to do with adder contrast which foxes the AF, all other reptiles it seems fine.

guess what im getting for chistmas ?

paul

I really like the top one Al !

Gemma,

I'd say whatever you buy in that price range will deliver the results. What made my mind up was walking into a shop and trying them, actually holding them and seeing how they 'felt'.

Personally I found the Nikon autofocus quite clunky, (Canon USM is lubberly!) and the viewfinder not as clear as the Canon. I think the 350 is a bit lighter than my EOS 20D. The only fault I have with the 20D is it is a little on the heavy side. After a day's tramping about with it round my neck, I feel it. And for some of those 'yoga-position' shots using one hand, you feel the weight too.

I think the coolpix is also an 8Mp camera ?, so no difference there. I do hear the D70 is a bargin at the moment, since they brought out the D70S too.

Vicar wrote: I don't know the species (seoanei), are they similar size to berus ? They seem a more robust build ?

Yes, they are similar. Up until somewhere in the 80's (I think) they used to be treated as a subspecies (Vipera berus seoanei). They live in the north of Spain and both the extreme north of Portugal as well as the extreme southwest of France, thus their range is completely separated from the range of the Adder (see SEH atlas map). The scales on top of the head are often more fragmented and they exhibit a seemingly larger(?) morphological variability, including quite a high number of black individuals. If you'd like to see where my observation came from, you may want to check my Pyrenees 2004 trip report. There are some more pictures of (partly the same animals) here.