I finally had a little time to play with the video a bit, I did a little with the slow motion this mid morning (a little bright). I used 120fps with the 600mm + 2x.
Weather conditions were tough on this morning tour with wind and heavy cloud cover. Almost not worth going out but actually it was to see this rare sighting. I was told this is a rare photo. It could be possibly the only picture of a Snail Kite flying with a fish. The boat captain said he has been out here 30 years and never seen it or photographed it. Fortunately the 1dx Mark III stayed locked on in the poor conditions.
I've been spending hours upon hours helping my health network in our response/planning to COVID-19. Today was the first fully "off" day in 18 days (despite an hour of work). I was able to sneak away to a local park to see a recently reported Lesser Black-backed Gull in the cold, dreary, late afternoon. But it was outside! I didn't get to leave my house for 75 hours at one point due to work and planning for the impending disaster. Nobody else was at the park and I planned to maintain a good 50 feet from anyone. COVID-19 free at the moment.
I shot more gulls. I'm finding that OVF tracking is very good when birds are far away, but as the birds tend to get fairly close to MFD in poor light, the camera tends to focus on the tail or feet as opposed to the head. This is in auto point selection with tracking on. I need to try the A9 and 200-600 again to see how it compares. I haven't picked it up since I got the 1DX3.
More at 1200mm I have been doing a lot at 1200mm to really see the performance and paired with the camera I am very impressed. When I used the 1dx Mark II at 1200mm, detail was incredible but the AF lacked a bit, at least for me. This was one of the reasons I went with the 400mm f2.8 over the 600mm f4 due to the lack of use at 1200mm with the 1dx Mark II. Now I feel 1200mm is very useable now in pretty much all situations. Actually this camera has improved the AF speed with extenders also. Personally I am a very happy camper with this upgrade.
It amazes me that you have captured so many fantastic images of such a variety of wildlife already in the short month and a half you've had your new rig and it's not even April yet.
Ok, actually you make me sick but that's beside my point.
