When I recently posted photos of my Yellow-breasted Waxbill finches, I mentioned that some photos of some of our other finches would be coming.

Here are some photos of the pair of Yellow-head Star finches we have in our aviary. I find these more difficult to distinguish between the male and female than with any of the other finch varieties we have.

pair of yellow-head star finches

home, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @200mm, 1/500 sec, f/4, ISO400

An old boat lies partially submerged in a canal in Marken, in the north of Holland.

old boat in the canal

Marken, Noord-Holland, The Netherlands

While on holidays in Holland last year, we had spent the day exploring Marken and Volendam, two historic tourist towns in the north of Holland. In the evening, on the way out of Marken, we decided to stop at a convenient cafe for some dinner. The cafe was called Cafetaria De Verkeerde Wereld (literally translated, it means "Cafeteria The Wrong World"), and we had a great dinner there.

While waiting for our meals to be served, I noticed this old boat in a canal just across the road, and took the opportunity to take some photos of it.

I recently went on a photowalk in Perth on a Friday evening. After wandering around the streets and alleys for a while, we then headed to Forrest Place, to take some photos of the Friday night City of Perth Twilight Hawkers Markets.

In the crowds, we found a guy with a Stormtrooper backpack. Some of my fellow photowalkers photographed him while he was seated, and I snapped this photo as he walked past a some fellow photowalkers chimping at the back of Mark's camera.

passing stormtrooper

City of Perth Twilight Hawkers Markets

Forrest Place, Perth, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 35mm f/2 @35mm, 1/250 sec, f/2.5, ISO320

We have a fairly large bird aviary on the side of our house, which means we get to enjoy the birds from our living room and main bedroom, with just the window glass between us and the birds.
We first started with Zebra finches, because they are cheap and easy to breed. After plenty of success with breeding Zebra finches, we switched to Gouldian finches, and have since also acquired some more exotic finches.

I have previously posted photos of some of our Gouldian finches (and more here), as well as photos of our baby quails, but have never posted photos of our other birds.
This morning I spent some time photographing the other finches in our aviary. The Yellow-breasted Waxbill finches are probably my favourite. They are more petite than our other finches, and are also more active, constantly on the move.

Here is a selection of photos of our pair of Yellow-breasted Waxbill finches (also known as Zebra Waxbill finches), with photos of the Painted Firetail finches and Yellow-head Star finches to come in a future post.

female yellow-breasted waxbill finch

home, Western Australia
Canon EOS 50D, 70-200mm f/4L @200mm, 1/80 sec, f/4, ISO200

Earlier today, Canon announced some new products:

• Canon 5D Mark III DSLR camera body (press release here)
• Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT (product page here)
• Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E3-RT (product page here)
• Canon Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E7 (product page here)
• Canon GPS Receiver GP-E2 (product page here)
• Canon Battery Grip BG-E11

Pricing is expected to be as follows

• Canon 5D Mark III DSLR camera body - USD$3499 body only (USD$4299 with the EF 24-105mm lens)
• Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT - USD$630
• Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E3-RT - USD$470
• Canon Wireless File Transmitter WFT-E7 - USD$850
• Canon GPS Receiver GP-E2 - USD$390
• Canon Battery Grip BG-E11 - USD$490

The 5D Mark III, 600EX-RT and ST-E3-RT are expected to be available at the end of March 2012, and the WFT-E7, GP-E2 and BG-E11 are expected to be available at the end of April 2012.

The 5D Mark III camera body, 5D Mark III with 24-105mm lens and the 600EX-RT flash are currently available for pre-order at B&H.



This announcement finally puts an end to the speculation about specifications of the Canon 5D Mark III in recent months, with the announced specifications being:

• New 22.3 megapixel full-frame CMOS sensor
• New DIGIC 5+ processor
• New 61-point High Density Reticular AF system
• 6 Frames Per Second
• Multiple Exposures - an EOS first
• Inbuilt HDR (High Dynamic Range) mode - an EOS first
• ISO 100-25600 (with expansion of L:50,H:51200/102400) enabling sharper images in a broader range of lighting conditions, especially in low light
• Intelligent viewfinder with 100% coverage
• Shutter Life of 150,000 cycles

Canon 5D Mark III camera body

The Mark III features a minor increase in pixel count (22.3 megapixels compared to the Mark II's 21.1 megapixels), a new DiG!c 5+ processor, lots more focus points, and a larger ISO range.
Multiple exposures are likely to prove useful for some artistic photos, but is unlikely to be widely used. Built-in HDR functionality is interesting, as there are some situations where it could be useful. However, due to the many completely overdone HDR photos seen on the internet, many people disdain HDR.