Ironically I saved your noisy images and ran them through Topaz Photo AI. It rendered them flawless with detail and completely devoid of even a hint of any grain. I'm rather astonished more don't treat themselves to noise free images that retain all their detail and have NO downsides. Much more appealing to see needless to say.
Not bad considering this was my first attempt at shooting hummingbirds! (I don't count the time 15 years ago I tried with my 7D and had such a hard time I just gave up). For those that say gear doesn't matter, in some cases it absolutely does. I remember that 7D attempt with distaste and contempt. I never tried to shoot hummingbirds since then (and actually took a long break from photography in between). Now with my new gear, literally went out to a known hummingbird sanctuary and just started nailing keeper after keeper.
Today was also the day I tried pre-capture for the first time. For hummingbirds, that's basically a cheat code. The downside is that I have to download and go through like a thousand images this week.
Carlo_M wrote:
Today was also the day I tried pre-capture for the first time. For hummingbirds, that's basically a cheat code. The downside is that I have to download and go through like a thousand images this week.
FWIW, In this post, Geoff describes how, with practice, he was able to use pre-capture to reduce the number of shots he took. I haven't used pre-capture enough yet to retrain my brain to use his technique, but it sounds promising.
vbnut wrote:
FWIW, In this post, Geoff describes how, with practice, he was able to use pre-capture to reduce the number of shots he took. I haven't used pre-capture enough yet to retrain my brain to use his technique, but it sounds promising.
Thanks, will check it out!
I will say for me the biggest change was mental. Meaning when I normally shoot, I'm always nervous of missing the shot so I'm always trying to predict when something will happen (e.g. when will that bird take flight?).
Once you enable pre-capture, you need to relax and reverse that mentality. It's okay to miss the shot because all you have to do is hold the shutter halfway down to enable it and make sure the AF box is on top of your subject and just...wait. As soon as it moves in the way you want (take off, dive into the water, etc.) *then* press the button. There were a couple of times early on where I missed the moment and groaned and took my finger off the button before realizing I should have just fully pressed down on the shutter button! As soon as I forced myself to make the mental adjustment, boom!
For the record I was shooting at 15 FPS so I was only capturing about 7 shots in pre-capture (which maintains 1/2 a second in memory IIRC). When I go back I might try 20 or 30 FPS to get more shots in the pre-cap buffer, which could get me even better results!
Barred owlet/owl parents from a local park. It was amazing to witness this Owl parent feed an abandoned owlet which was left near their nest by the rehabitation people from the park.
R5 MK II EF 400 f2.8 II Fstop - F5.6 1/640S ISO 5000
R5 MK II EF 400 f2.8 II Fstop - F5.6 1/400S ISO 1250
R5 MK II EF 400 f2.8 II Fstop - F5.6 1/400S ISO 800
Carlo_M wrote:
Not bad considering this was my first attempt at shooting hummingbirds! (I don't count the time 15 years ago I tried with my 7D and had such a hard time I just gave up). For those that say gear doesn't matter, in some cases it absolutely does. I remember that 7D attempt with distaste and contempt. I never tried to shoot hummingbirds since then (and actually took a long break from photography in between). Now with my new gear, literally went out to a known hummingbird sanctuary and just started nailing keeper after keeper.
Today was also the day I tried pre-capture for the first time. For hummingbirds, that's basically a cheat code. The downside is that I have to download and go through like a thousand images this week....Show more →
Hummingbirds hovering at flowers or feeders are one of the easiest birds to capture in flight. And my 7D did just fine.
Canon EOS 7D400.0 mm f/5.6 lens400mmf/8.01/2000s1600 ISO-0.3 EV
