usefulness of Bird Ai...

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cleaning house

[antpitta]

Nice write up (& illustrative photos good as usual!)

[Tordan58]

Yes, the AI is usually skilled at locating a potential subject even in rather challenging conditions with twigs and foreground vegetation in the way. Not always, though, sometimes it gives up after failing to identify a subject, and then the AF basically goes on strike. When that is the case I engage MF with focus peaking and/or magnification.

One useful and not so discussed feature enabled by subject recognition is that you do not need to move the AF points as you recompose the image or select another subject.

One weakness and area of improvement would be to have a setting where the AI always prioritizes the subject closest to the camera when several candidates are identified (showing as several white boxes in the viewfinder).

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I thought the OM-1s default (same as the EM1X’s) Bird Ai behaviour when more than 1 bird is boxed was to lock the subject closest to camera or most center frame.
I’ve seen both cameras choose differently when there is a more fully visible/higher contrast bird not center frame or closest subject.