Hi John, I hadn't realized the DMC-FZ1 had a 12x-optical zoom. It could be the "grainy" appearance and jagged lines visible in a few spots along the branch are artifacts of something else, then, like compression (could be usefilm's compression), resizing, or sharpening. I'd guess that before the low ISO setting, which usually results in higher quality rather than lower.
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David Goldfarb{K:7611} 6/27/2003
Here's another one where waiting for the bird to change the angle of its head to get a better placed catchlight might give you a bit more depth in the eye.
The 12X zoom gives you a nice composition here, but it's also giving you some digital aliasing. Personally, I prefer using a long lens and film, but if you have a spotting scope, you might do a search on the net to see what some people are doing with "digiscoping," which can produce really surprisingly good results using equipment that many birders already have (a digital camera and a spotting scope). Another alternative is to look at one of the tele-extenders for birders available from Eagle Eye Optics, which seem to produce decent results at a moderate cost (www.eagleeyeuk.com).
The background is a little grainy and the bird could be sharper ... but it is a nice picture and I don't understand why it's not getting more views. Sure, it's not original, but the yellow stands very well in front of the turquoise and the red spot gives a touch of added color. DOF is nice, just as the composition, but the branch in front of the tail is a little detrimental. Bye,Luca
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