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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Kestrel in flight or 1DX auto focus rediscovered | |
(Sorry, the show is over)
The folks at the Canadian Raptor Conservancy have a North American kestrel which on occasion they show off to their seminar participants. The little falcon is not particularly well trained, and it flies a very short distance, almost unpredictably and lightning fast. My previous attempts to photograph the little flutterer in flight were not very successful, whereby I'd get one OK shot perhaps, but no more. It was clear that my old AF setting of one preselected AF point + expansion was not good enough to track such fast bird in very brief flight.
Then I decided to let all of the 1DX AF points come into play, starting with a preselected AF point, and that has made a huge difference in the shot in-focus rate which increased dramatically to something like 50 %. Clearly, 1DX auto AF point select feature was doing a much better job of tracking the bird than I did by manual AF point preselection. That has given me a renewed respect for the 1DX AF system.
The lens AF drive speed (spec) makes no difference, given a good prefocus.....I could have shot those with 85L if I was able to get close enough. What does matter is the lens nominal aperture......the larger, the better.
Therefore, 200 f/2 IS, 300 f/2.8 and 400 f/2.8 are all well suited to the task. If one is able to approach closer to the bird, I'd recommend 200 f/2 IS lens, although that would require a fast, not to say violent, tracking swing of the lens, which tends to destabilize the lens/camera. Longer lenses allow shorter/slower tracking arc, and that adds stability and control, although the issues get complicated by an increase in weight of longer lenses.
Edited on Feb 27, 2017 at 09:24 PM · View previous versions
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