TimMunsey wrote:
A short eared owl gave me a brief treat and another chance to use pre capture, I was using a 600mm f/4 with a 2x, the bird left the perch for a close by dive, an unsuccessful hunt. I was set at 60fps, the camera followed the bird very well even with the 2x, shutter set at 1/2500th perhaps on the slow side for a close bird.
Here's some from the sequence I lost a few due to wing clipping I should have used the 1.4 but I had no next time to repeat such is nature.
What do you have for your AF settings for the birds and what mode were you in? Wide, Zone, tracking (I assume). There's so many sub-settings now.
I spent a little time with little birds this weekend trying to get the perch launches and it seemed that it tracked the bird but missed the eyes for a few shots. I think I need to tweak the aggressiveness of some of the settings, but while I fiddle with that I'm curious what you were using even if conditions are not identical.
jhapeman wrote:
What do you have for your AF settings for the birds and what mode were you in? Wide, Zone, tracking (I assume). There's so many sub-settings now.
I spent a little time with little birds this weekend trying to get the perch launches and it seemed that it tracked the bird but missed the eyes for a few shots. I think I need to tweak the aggressiveness of some of the settings, but while I fiddle with that I'm curious what you were using even if conditions are not identical.
I have the same question. I tried to shoot a few songbirds today with the 600/4 + 1.4x. The birds are quite small and unpredictable. There is no problem now to capture them taking off BUT I'm not getting eyes in focus at all. I tried both wide area + no tracking and XL + tracking. Speed change = responsive and crossing = locked on, 1/4000s. I may give another try tomorrow but I feel that I'm missing something, both literally and figuratively...
jhapeman wrote:
What do you have for your AF settings for the birds and what mode were you in? Wide, Zone, tracking (I assume). There's so many sub-settings now.
.
I use AF-C release
Wide and Zone without tracking
Expanded spot and XS spot with tracking
Locked on No. 1
Responsive
For small birds I use XS spot with tracking, I have a lot of success once I'm locked on, but I can get motion blur if there's not enough shutter speed I believe the higher you can get away with the better the results.
With the owl I was using Zone without tracking, of course the results could be the same with, my settings are a carry over from the A1.
Like Tim says, if small birds move across frame (i.e. you are not able to keep them steady in the frame) you will need a extremely faster shutter speed (the bigger they are in the frame, the faster shutter speed you will need). For sideways squirrel jumping shots like below I had to use at least 1/10000 to avoid motion blur. Also in my experience the A1 needs a few frames before it starts to track a small bird taking off, with the A9III and 120FPS I would expect there to be many frames before it starts tracking properly. I would expect the speed change responsive setting to shorten that time, but it will probably make the AF a bit more jumpy.
Also it helps a lot if you can make the birds more predictable, for instance if you have a feeder and put a single perch near it they will be using the perch a lot and fly from it to the feeder.
randomguy wrote:
Also it helps a lot if you can make the birds more predictable, for instance if you have a feeder and put a single perch near it they will be using the perch a lot and fly from it to the feeder.
That's a great idea, and it reminded me this video:
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@4m 10s Mike Lane is using an interesting contraption to get birds into exact position he wants (and of course there's ProCapture involved )
^^^^^^ Fantastic set Duncang the A9III brings another level of results to bird photography. Of course your abilities are also well demonstrated in this video.
Amazing. I am blown away by this. I have just "toyed" with a bit of bird photography. Nothing serious. Using my A1 (which I sold 3 months ago).
A9III arriving tomorrow. My primary use case will be field sports and particularly soccer where there is a lot of "crossing" of players in front of your subject and often difficulty grabbing focus on one of two players converging on the ball. Has anyone out there tried this for field sports yet?
danrhiggins wrote:
Amazing. I am blown away by this. I have just "toyed" with a bit of bird photography. Nothing serious. Using my A1 (which I sold 3 months ago).
A9III arriving tomorrow. My primary use case will be field sports and particularly soccer where there is a lot of "crossing" of players in front of your subject and often difficulty grabbing focus on one of two players converging on the ball. Has anyone out there tried this for field sports yet?
There's a new "Crossing" AF setting that lets you change sensitivity for other objects coming into the frame and/or your subject leaving, and how soon it should jump to the new object. Might be helpful in your case.
Soooo many focus settings to mess with now, makes the A1 look like child's play. Similar to the settings on the A7RV but in my experience there they didn't have nearly as much of an effect as they do on the A9III.
Thanks! I noticed that setting in the A93 user guide (which I downloaded and have been reviewing) but of course have yet to test it and soccer season in my area is still about a month away. But that setting does appear to try and address one of the common problems in field sports.
And, yes, there are a lot of focus settings in the A7R5 but I think sometimes I felt like the camera just wasn't quite fast enough. Not simply in shootings speeds as it is not an A1 or A9 but just the overall speed of focus. Of course for my non-action oriented stuff it is great. I love the rear screen, the EVF, etc. Now with the A93 I will have those ergonomics I like with a big improvement in speed - even in the AF. I won't have the megapixels but I remember how awesome it was to upgrade to the next Canon camera (back when Sony wasn't in the market) that brought us 8 megapixels! Yet for a lot of work even that did what was needed. ;-)
I agree with you on Sony having improved the ergonomics. Along with the speed it is the "ergonomics" that led me to move from the A1. The A1 was OK for its time (though the rear monitor was a disappointment). But the A93 improves in so many areas. And where my A7R5 is often on a tripod, the A93 will be in my hands 98% of the time so the ergonomics matter. From the rear screen to the better feel in the hand to the C5 button. And, yes, even the "*" setting on the drive mode dial. That may be the default position for me given that I will be going back and forth with the A7M5. At least we have options. Lots of options!
docusync wrote:
@4m 10s Mike Lane is using an interesting contraption to get birds into exact position he wants (and of course there's ProCapture involved )
OM-1 and other Olympus cameras are not the only cameras that have this feature:
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