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 p.154 #20 · Sony FE 200-600mm f/5.6-6.3 G Image Thread | |
photonoclast wrote:
Hoping to hear from the A9/200-600 combo wizards on here.
Everyone is always posting such fantastic pictures here, but I want to post a failed opportunity, and see if I can learn something that will let me get the shot next time. Shooting A9/200-600 + 1.4 TC on a monopod. First shot is a perched pileated woodpecker. Ignore the over-exposure - I had been shooting into shadows just 15 seconds before, and didn't get the exposure compensation adjusted when I started shooting into that direct light (this A9 needs to be shot at -0.7 at least to avoid blowing highlights in early morning bright light conditions, and I know I need to move more quickly to adjust that as I go between different lighting conditions).
I was using Tracking Flexible Spot S (level 3), which is my standard setup when chasing small birds in trees and brush, as it's the only way I can get the birds in focus among branches. The green box was on its head, as I worked hard to make that happen. Then he took off like a shot towards me (flew just over my head) Photo #2 is a slight crop. It looks to me like the A9 was trying to track, but couldn't quite keep up - if I look closely the back feathers are in better focus that the head. ISO was 2500, exposure was f9 1/1250 which doesn't look like it was enough to freeze the wings (so looks like I should try living with higher ISO to get >1/2500 at least).
Photo #2 is also a modest crop, showing to me that it was trying to track, but maybe not keeping up.
Here's really the technical question: I have the A9 set up so AEL button is Wide focus priority, and I use it when I need to switch rapidly to a moving bird that is well separated from the background. If, while the bird is stationary, and I push the AEL button, will it pick up the focus correctly from where it is while I had it on Tracking F Spot S?? Should I try to switch modes when I think the bird might fly, or should the Tracking F Spot S be able to follow the bird as long as I can keep it in the frame? Too often when I try to switch to Wide the camera quickly finds a branch closer to me than the bird I am already focused on, so I miss shots that way....Show more →
First off, I am not a combo A9/200-600mm wizard. I have been using this combo, although not exclusively since I do have a 600mm GM lens, since it became available almost 1-˝ years ago. I agree with you that the combo tried to focus in the 2nd and 3rd image but it couldn’t pull it off. Woodpeckers are fairly small and it is fairly big in your images, especially in the last 2. I got the hunch that your situation was beyond the capability of the 200-600mm lens but not the A9.
One of the first few days of trying out the 600mm GM lens, I had a similar situation you encountered. I got a burrowing owl using RT tracking and it launched at me at full speed. I got 5 images, the first one was not critically sharp but the remaining 4 were. Granted, a burrowing owl, measuring some 8-10 inches, is larger than a woodpecker but the combo didn’t have any issues with focusing and tracking the owl at that speed within 0,5 second. Hence, I believe that the AF motor of the GM lens is definitely more capable in getting something like that. FYI, I posted images of the owl in a thread in the N&W forum here: https://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1617547.
If you switch the AF area even though you programmed the setting for that in a customized AEL button, you still loose some valuable time and I bet you almost anything, it will grab the closest contrasty target to you and chances are not the bird in the AF-Wide regardless whether you had the bird already in focus.
Hope this helps,
Joshua
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