jimmy462 Offline Upload & Sell: On
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Hi Bsmooth,
Sometimes solving a problem requires a bit of creative thinking, and looking at the problem from a different angle. (Something which should come as learned second nature to we photographers...defined here as, "folks who capture moments in time".) Case in point...
A few years back I decided to try my hand at some BIF work...I had gotten my hands on my first HSM focusing telephoto lens (Sigma 120-300mm EX DG non-OS) which I felt would be up to the task of responding quickly-enough to the focusing commands from my camera. At the time, that was a 30D, which I came to realize through experimentation was not up to the task of nailing focus where and when I wanted while using AI Servo mode. (Heck, I even went so far as to nailing the combo down on a tripod and asking it to track a person walking towards the camera with the subject firmly locked on the center-point focusing sensor and using all three auto focusing methods and the camera would still either miss or veer off focus at least 30% of the time! Ha!)
In the years since I've redone these experiments with my 5D Mark II and then 7D (supposedly as good as the APS-H 1D-series focusing, at the time) with a variety of both HSM and USM telephotos and finally came to a personal working conclusion that automatic electromechanical focusing—as designed and implemented by Canon (my limited test pool)—was a hopeful experience, at best.
The whole of the problem just wasn't with the birds moving around quickly, part of the problem was with the gear, and part of the problem was with the operator's ability (um, me) to respond adeptly enough to his subject's behavior. (BTW, and FWIW, while doing my own experiments trying to capture both Barn Swallows and Chimney Swifts in flight I came to my own conclusion that whatever energies were to be expended in investing in marksmanship skills, on my part, would not be rewarded in equal proportion with sufficient or quality results. )
It was at this point a voice from my past bounced around my head..."Kid, if you're working too hard, and you're working up a sweat, you're doing something wrong."
Well, I realized that there's nothing I can do to keep birds from being themselves...and, I realized that there's nothing I can do to soup-up my cameras...the only problems I could solve were those involving what I was doing. So, along the way I began to develop a sense of what it is I'd like to be able to do (and not do) along with taking a realistic look at what it is that I thought was possible to actually do. And, I concluded, that panning around frantically just trying to keep a flittering bird in the viewfinder and hoping that it lands on an AF point and that the camera and lens and everything else in the entire universe just so happens to work right for one infinitesimally brief and fleeting moment before I fall over because I've lost my center, was beyond the capabilities of both humans and their machines.
These days I watch my birds and their behaviors. I notice what the swallows and swifts are doing in flight, what they do when they're coming in for a landing, what they do before they take-off again. I try to be more predictive about what I'm seeing, what I'm noticing and what I'm learning. I ask myself questions like, "what is the best focal length to be using" and "best position to be in when the swallows come flying out of the garage?" "How can I best tell the story of that moment?" And then, having decided all of that, frame my shot, grab a best focus for the garage door where the action will be happening and then work on my sense of timing for that infinitesimally brief moment when they magically come zooming out.
My point here being...it's been important for me to both learn and know my gear and to get an understanding of what it can and cannot do for me. Sure, having HSM motors and capable AF are great, but they only take me part way down the road to getting the images I desire, the rest is on me.
Anyhoo, I hope this was helpful...good luck in your gear hunt!
Jimmy G
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