Birds in Flight (Bif) with 300 f/4 pro

[EmPix]

BIF with 300 f/4 pro

My friends ( mitalpatel and Rahul ) and I recently ran some experiments with various settings on the EM1 Mk II, EM1 Mk III and the M1X. This PDF has findings and recommendations based on those trials, after almost 15000 shutter actuations

Please feel free to comment, or ask questions.

Unfortunately I cannot upload the file due to file size, so here's the Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17PE...ew?usp=sharing

[Phill D]

A very nicely put together and informative little guide. Thanks again for the link.

[EmPix]

Our pleasure to be of help, Phil! Many thanks for the kind words!

[PeterSimpson]

Thanks very much for this informative guide, particularly because it provides a context and rational for the settings.

For "Low ISO Processing" you recommend drive priority: "this is the system default, and we recommend not changing it". Can you explain why this is?

Many thanks, Peter

[EmPix]

Thanks very much for this informative guide, particularly because it provides a context and rational for the settings.

For "Low ISO Processing" you recommend drive priority: "this is the system default, and we recommend not changing it". Can you explain why this is?

Many thanks, Peter

Thanks so much for the kind words, Peter!

We were quite vexed by "Low ISO Processing" -> In our tests, we did not see any effect of this on the RAW, and the default of this setting is "Drive Priority". On the EM-1 Mk II this setting was introduced only in last year's firmware I believe and the previous behavior was "Drive Priority".

In cases where a setting does not affect the RAW, we kept it off to free up the processing pipeline in the camera.

We did find some discussions which mentioned that this caused some extra detail to appear in the JPEGs, so if one is photographing with JPEG only, it may be worth testing the effect of setting this to "Drive Priority" with the caveat that it can slow down the FPS in a burst.

Hope this helps!

[EmPix]

Mital ( mitalpatel ) has also joined the forum, it all started with him and Rahul when they got serious about field tests.

[blackfox]

I haven’t as yet read the links so my only comment is ,perhaps your overthinking it a tad . I have totally no problem with b.I.f shots ... apart from at the moment while my camera wends it’s way to Portugal .

[EmPix]

I haven’t as yet read the links so my only comment is ,perhaps your overthinking it a tad . I have totally no problem with b.I.f shots ... apart from at the moment while my camera wends it’s way to Portugal .

True, this could be the perfect recipe or it could be overkill based on the situation. For Indian birding conditions there is usually a lot of heat haze and dust with birds at a distance, so these are the settings that worked for those conditions.
We did start from scratch, after wiping the settings to defaults, and built from there.

I would suggest the same to others. Stop tweaking at the point that the output matches your expectations

[PeterSimpson]

We were quite vexed by "Low ISO Processing"

Me too! In my raw files I have not been able to discern any difference between the two options and have seen different "understandings" posted online, some saying that the setting affects JPGs only and some suggesting that it applies universally. For my wildlife images I always use electronic shutter and only very rarely shoot above 10fps so I keep "Low ISO Processing" on "Detail" just in case, because I'm not fussed about the exact frame rate and I'm shooting well below the 18fps ES maximum frame rate.

[Walti]

My understanding of the low iso processing is that it kicks in when the camera buffer memory is getting full due to large high speed bursts, so it prioritises either the quality of the photo or the burst rate dependant on setting. If you do a lot of burst photography then the memory card write speed becomes important, so the faster you can get reduces/removes this setting importance. I have never got to the point where the burst rate has slowed because of this setting, but I am only doing a dozen or so as a large burst!

[PeterSimpson]

My understanding of the low iso processing is that it kicks in when the camera buffer memory is getting full due to large high speed bursts, so it prioritises either the quality of the photo or the burst rate dependant on setting. If you do a lot of burst photography then the memory card write speed becomes important, so the faster you can get reduces/removes this setting importance. I have never got to the point where the burst rate has slowed because of this setting, but I am only doing a dozen or so as a large burst!

Thanks, that makes lots of sense, shame they can't say this in the manual!

[mitalpatel]

Mital ( mitalpatel ) has also joined the forum, it all started with him and Rahul when they got serious about field tests.

Greetings and Thanks EmPix for bringing me here.

[Phill D]

A warm welcome to both of you. Hope you enjoy the forum.

[mitalpatel]

Thanks, that makes lots of sense, shame they can't say this in the manual!

I guess there are plenty of interconnected AI based things in the camera that needs to be tweaked in accordance to make it better in use. Plenty of things un-doccumented as well or not so brief on its impact on photography.

[mitalpatel]

I haven’t as yet read the links so my only comment is ,perhaps your overthinking it a tad . I have totally no problem with b.I.f shots ... apart from at the moment while my camera wends it’s way to Portugal .

I presume you are a well experienced long term user .. Its okay to be in disagreement. but nothings a waste to share at least if it helps .. Probably yes overthinking could be a term but factory setting didn't gave me my results of quality I expected with the gears and so by going through combination of settings lead US there and collectively we put it up on paper.

[Zedex10r]

Thank you for this very helpful guide.

[patileac]

That you've done it for you is a good thing, but that you've put in the effort of writing such an explicit guide for the common good is very, very helpful. I have the 300mm f4 lens and your guide will help me make better use of it.

Many thanks.