u/Idontlikecock

Newish player (2 months). Have caught some good Psyducks and now a good Noibat. They all seem pretty great, and I currently invested the HB+BFS Golduck to 30, the other two are still around lv13.

My questions: I am currently research rank 37. I can not raise these puppies to 50 yet (when the first Golduck and Noivern really take off).

* Is it worth investing in any of these guys at all before I hit 50? The odds of getting better ones are like ~1% according to Raenox, but not 0. If I did level them up to their current max possible level, they'd pretty much all be permanent members on my team as they are by far the best things I've captured so far and they can start getting extra candy + sleep exp to make getting them to 50 easier.

* I feel like I at least made a mistake investing in Golduck 1 rather than the second one. My thought was @50+, the HB BFS is better than just BFS, but in now time, I think speed + STM + BFS > HB only. I think I should at least get that fella to 25. Long term, is there any issue with running these two golducks late game? I check often so I'll get their procs, but fully investing two would be much more difficult than 1.

* I currently do not have an investment worthy healer (currently using a Pawmot that gets 4.25 triggers / 38.3 energy a day). I was trying to save my main skill seeds to max a good healer first. Is it at all worth investing main skill seeds into these lads before getting a good healer? Currently have 6/2 main and sub seeds.

Thank you. I have decision paralysis 🫠

I sort of fell into doing bird photography for work. Long story, but it’s what my company needed and now it’s part of my job.

I’ve been using a Canon 7D Mark II that I originally had for hobby photography, and work bought me a Sigma 150-600mm to go with it.

Lately I’ve been feeling more pressure to step up the quality of my shots. My wife thinks my photos are better than what competitors are putting out, but I don’t want to get complacent and end up losing what is honestly a dream gig.

My setup has always been good enough for me, but I do get comments sometimes that my shots are soft or just not very sharp. That’s fair, but the work requires me to lean more toward getting a lot of shots, regardless of the quality. With that in mind, I’d like to raise the baseline quality so I’m not ending up with as many throwaways or just bad photos.

So, I’m trying to figure out where to improve. Is this mostly a skill issue, or is my gear starting to hold me back? If I do spend money, where does it make the biggest difference?

I’ve got a big project in a couple weeks, and I’ve thought about renting something like a Canon EOS R6 Mark II with either a Canon RF 200-800mm f/6.3-9 IS USM or Canon RF 100-500mm f/4.5-7.1L IS USM.

My wife made a good point though. Last thing I want is to be learning a new camera during an important shoot. I know my current setup pretty well, even if it’s older. That said, newer autofocus like eye tracking seems like it could make a huge difference for birds and cut down on missed focus.

So what would you do here? Stick with what I’ve got and focus on technique, upgrade glass, upgrade the body, or just rent and figure it out?

Appreciate any advice.

Edit: forgot about this feature, but equally handy. Image stabilization isn't something my current camera has to my knowledge. I'm constantly photographing off a moving airboat which is quite bumpy. I'm assuming the IBIS of the new bodies would be a huge benefit.

Which of these would you invest in? Some? All? None?