Here is my thinking, as a birder and nothing else.
I shoot at f/4 all the time. Depth of field is very thin. If the AF in pre-capture does not work then it is useless to me. Even the slightest movement will give a soft shot. If at right angles to the focal plane then you might get lucky. And I look for those kind of shots and move to try and get the shot if I think it is possible. With my DSLR!.
Just look on this thread, it is obvious which camera the birders are using and the success they have. If the Canon was focusing in pre-capture. This thread would be drowning in pre-capture shots with Canon.
I am going to buy the R5II when I get back to the US. But, not for pre-capture.
I have seen a few people who have bought the A1II and are disappointed by the Pre-capture AF consistency and accuracy. Is it your opinion that the A9III is way ahead of the A1II in these sort of situations? I've not upgraded from the A1 to the A1II because I did not expect the AF to be significantly improved beyond AI subject recognition but some claim the A1II is just as good as the A9III. E.g. - https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/68167992
I would like to get pre-capture but I don't want to go back to 24mp. Can the A1II produce these kind of shots?
somersettr wrote:
I have seen a few people who have bought the A1II and are disappointed by the Pre-capture AF consistency and accuracy. Is it your opinion that the A9III is way ahead of the A1II in these sort of situations? I've not upgraded from the A1 to the A1II because I did not expect the AF to be significantly improved beyond AI subject recognition but some claim the A1II is just as good as the A9III. E.g. - https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/68167992
I would like to get pre-capture but I don't want to go back to 24mp. Can the A1II produce these kind of shots?
From my still limited experience I would say it certainly can....BUT at 30FPS you aren't going to get as good of a sequence as you can at 60 or 120FPS on an A9III. I mean the A1 (OG) can get those types of sequences but you miss some of the good stuff without precapture.
So far A1II precapture has got me some challenging straight at me finch shots against messy backgrounds so I know the A1II will be able to pull off sequences with much cleaner water backgrounds. Swallows just starting to arrive in my neck of the woods so more coming soon....
Geoff, nice set of images, would you care to share your AF settings for you A1 II ? These coming at you shots I find are the hardest for the camera to maintain focus on the subject, I usually find I'll have one or two frames that are not quite as sharp but them the camera catches up and they continue to be tack sharp.
MIRANDA1 wrote:
Geoff, nice set of images, would you care to share your AF settings for you A1 II ? These coming at you shots I find are the hardest for the camera to maintain focus on the subject, I usually find I'll have one or two frames that are not quite as sharp but them the camera catches up and they continue to be tack sharp.
This is what I had set when I took those shots:
AF Lvl for Crossing: 1(locked on)
AF Trk for Spd Chng: Responsive
Under the Bird settings:
Tracking Shift Range: 2
Tracking Persistence Lvl: 4
Recognition Sensitivity: 5(High)
Most of the time I use Head/Eye, Sometimes use Body/Head/Eye
But in discussion on a different thread some have recommended trying Persistence Lvl at 1 so I'm going to try that.
Problem is with so many settings it is really hard to test unless one has a very consistent subject that is also difficult enough to make a difference.
I do also notice that the first few frames of the launch (more so with straight on launches) more often lag behind but then it catches up. I had a couple launches where it did keep up right away but the majority took a few frames before it caught up. I certainly don't have entire sequences that are all sharp on the head for every frame. Sometimes focus is lagging just a little bit on the body but with such narrow FOV that ruins the head sharpness.
