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Set up: OM-1 running 1.6, 300mm Pro, 2x TC. ProCap SH2 at 1/2500 sec. (NB I discovered the latter now has a minimum shutter speed of 1/640 sec).
Birds on branch: excellent. There was virtually no fluctuation in focus that I’d previously experienced with CAF. Here’s a carrion crow from a 14 shot burst; normally I would expect a few soft images amongst them, but every one was in focus.
And here’s a little egret in a tree (I’ll come back to this). The same focussing consistency was apparent.
Birds in flight (a relatively new venture for me): this was a tale of two extremes. When it was good it was very, very good, but when it was bad it was hopeless.
Yesterday I chose a favourite subject of mine: carrion crows. Overall, 1.6 was more effective than 1.4 (I skipped 1.5) but most of the shots were in the ‘good, but not good enough’ category, thanks to a combination of blanket cloud and the perennial problem with carrion crows (viz. black coloured eyes in a black feathered bird). Nevertheless, the cloud thinned on occasions and as soon as the camera could see the sparkle in the birds’ eyes, the shot was in sharp focus despite the busy background:
Today it was the turn of water birds under much better light. Herons in flight were a doddle and my hit rate wasn’t far off 100%, but let’s face it, they are not a bird photographer’s greatest challenge.
Things get more complicated with busy backgrounds, but here is an example of a heron flying in front of trees and the camera simply ignored them:
It was the little egret that perplexed me. Here’s the best shot of the bunch:
It was an exception to the rule. The vast majority were like this :
I don’t know the exact numbers, but my hit rate for egrets in flight was probably less than 10%, and I don’t know why. Admittedly egrets have virtually no contrasting patterns in their plumage to help the camera, but it had no problem focussing on the egret in a tree. It spoilt what had otherwise been a rather encouraging start.
That’s it so far.
Birds on branch: excellent. There was virtually no fluctuation in focus that I’d previously experienced with CAF. Here’s a carrion crow from a 14 shot burst; normally I would expect a few soft images amongst them, but every one was in focus.
And here’s a little egret in a tree (I’ll come back to this). The same focussing consistency was apparent.
Birds in flight (a relatively new venture for me): this was a tale of two extremes. When it was good it was very, very good, but when it was bad it was hopeless.
Yesterday I chose a favourite subject of mine: carrion crows. Overall, 1.6 was more effective than 1.4 (I skipped 1.5) but most of the shots were in the ‘good, but not good enough’ category, thanks to a combination of blanket cloud and the perennial problem with carrion crows (viz. black coloured eyes in a black feathered bird). Nevertheless, the cloud thinned on occasions and as soon as the camera could see the sparkle in the birds’ eyes, the shot was in sharp focus despite the busy background:
Today it was the turn of water birds under much better light. Herons in flight were a doddle and my hit rate wasn’t far off 100%, but let’s face it, they are not a bird photographer’s greatest challenge.
Things get more complicated with busy backgrounds, but here is an example of a heron flying in front of trees and the camera simply ignored them:
It was the little egret that perplexed me. Here’s the best shot of the bunch:
It was an exception to the rule. The vast majority were like this :
I don’t know the exact numbers, but my hit rate for egrets in flight was probably less than 10%, and I don’t know why. Admittedly egrets have virtually no contrasting patterns in their plumage to help the camera, but it had no problem focussing on the egret in a tree. It spoilt what had otherwise been a rather encouraging start.
That’s it so far.
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