PierreB wrote:
Great shots Ken. That kestrel looks a bit ragged doesn't it?
Thanks Pierre, The Kestrel was soaking wet which give it that ragged appearance. Morning after a heavy rain and it was not the happiest bird on the planet.
I agree that your personal style does comes into play in determining some of the options...as well as the existing conditions.This is why I feel that what works for one may or may not work
for me.But it's good to get an idea of what settings are being used by a cross section of other
shooters.
BTW/ You mention you use the 1D2....Since this is a thread concerned with hands-on usage of the 1D Mark IV you may find that much of what applies to the IV doesn't apply or work with
the 1D.I say this in reference to the various settings.
As far as registering various sets....Right now I have to work on my first set
ftemoto wrote:
So, have people worked through the firmware update issues with their big lenses?
I'm confident that any issues with the firmware update and long lenses were, in fact, non-issues. There were only a relatively small handful of people who thought that they might have had an issue, and the majority of those came back within a few days to report that that their cameras were doing fine and that, in most cases, they had been experiencing user error. I can't tell you for sure that a couple of people didn't have some real issue, but, if they did, I don't think it had anything to do with the firmware.
I was out the last two mornings shooting eagles with my 1D Mark IV and the 500/4 and 1.4x. The combination performed superbly. Yesterday, out of over 250 shots, I had a total of 3 that were soft. I'm not sure that I've ever before had a day with any camera with that high of a percentage of shots that were in focus. Of my shots yesterday and today, about half were shots of static subjects and about half were action. Of the action, many were blue sky flight shots, which shouldn't be a challenge, but many others included backgrounds with either trees or water, and once the camera locked focus, it didn't want to let go. The shots below are certainly not the best eagle shots that I've ever taken, but my shot opportunities weren't very good and I was taking what I could get, and these shots are posted only to show that the 1D Mark IV with firmware 1.0.6 can focus using a long lens. Most of these shots are moderate to severe crops. These were shot using the center point expanded to surrounding points. Other settings are as explained in the guide on my site. http://www.wildlifeimagesbyles.net/Technique/1DIV_focus_guide/1div_focus_guide.html
I asked the question simply to see if people had reached closure on whatever issues they were having for whatever reason. Too often on the net there's the front end dust-up over people's concern, disappointment. discouragement and fewer back end reports of how it played out.
Nice shooting Les,
These shots certainly seem to illustrate that you are not having any of those problems.
I'm surprised to see that the expanded points didn't present a problem with the eagles perched in the trees though.
Lexoluck wrote:
Nice shooting Les,
These shots certainly seem to illustrate that you are not having any of those problems.
I'm surprised to see that the expanded points didn't present a problem with the eagles perched in the trees though.
Andrew
Andrew,
I'm always mindful of the possibility that expanding the focus focus points is going to confuse the AF system with a busy background, and, when I started shooting some of the birds in the trees, I did some quick chimping to see if the focus system was getting confused. I was fully prepared to disable the surrounding points if that had been the case, but I was pleased to see that the camera wasn't getting confused at all with them enabled. I'm not sure that enabling all 45 points would have worked, but using just the surrounding points was working great. As much as I liked the AF on both my 1D Mark II and 1D Mark III, I'm not sure that either of them would have done as well with expanded focus points and a busy background.
I'm always mindful of the possibility that expanding the focus focus points is going to confuse the AF system with a busy background, and, when I started shooting some of the birds in the trees, I did some quick chimping to see if the focus system was getting confused. I was fully prepared to disable the surrounding points if that had been the case, but I was pleased to see that the camera wasn't getting confused at all with them enabled. I'm not sure that enabling all 45 points would have worked, but using just the surrounding points was working great. As much as I liked the AF on both my 1D Mark II and 1D Mark III, I'm not sure that either of them would have done as well with expanded focus points and a busy background.
Here are a few more eagle fly by shots. The blue sky background shots should be pretty simple for the AF to handle, and the in-focus rate that I'm getting for those shots is virtually 100%. When the background gets more complicated, the in-focus rate doesn't drop off by much at all. At this point, any notion that there is a problem with firmware 1.0.6 and long lenses is completely out of my head. These were shot with the 500/4 and 1.4x using the center point expanded to surrounding points via CF III-8. All other AF settings are as explained in the guide on my site. http://www.wildlifeimagesbyles.net/Technique/1DIV_focus_guide/1div_focus_guide.html
The first couple of shots here were moderate crops. The last 3 are fairly severe crops.
ruhikant wrote:
My 18 years old Ef 500/4.5L has never been so sharp and reliable AF for BIF.
I found the L&R AF expansion is the best compromise.
Wow.....Ruhikant, that is totally out of ordinary, and not by a little either........I can not remember ever seeing eagle flight shots of that quality. Bravo.
(Don't you ever sell that lens as I will not sell mine. )
You said it Petkal - I'm blown away by the quality of the shoot and skill of the shooter.
Reading Les Zigurski's 1DIV focus guide he talks about initial focus quote...
When using all 45 focus points, initial focus still needs to be locked in with the center focus point before starting to shoot. Failure to lock in initial focus with the center point is a common user error that will result in out-of-focus shots
So am I understanding that in 45 point focus selection or expanded mode the center focal point needs to be aimed and a half shutter push to lock on then the camera, understanding what is being focused on can now track handing off to other available points as required (only to available points depending on the mode selected)? Am I reading that right ?
I'd also be interested in high iso /low light comments, great thread this is very helpful.
rd4tile wrote:
It was shots like those from you guys that inspired me to get a 4.5L. I like it so much with the MKIV that my 400 is getting awfully lonely.
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