Manual lens for BIF; Looked ok to me

[danielchtong]

I think I can deflate the myth almost officially that manual focus lens are not suitable for BIF pict. It is entirely workable . Today it was slightly dimmer and I had to use iso1600. Nonetheless it is critical to use 1/2500s or faster and aperture F8 to get the right DoF. That seemed to be about it. Even with the tiny buffer of K100D, I still get ok shots.

All were taken with my manual A300mmF4 . Seagull as taken at Toogoodpond of Toronto

















The above gave me some trial run before getting these this morning. Environment was rough/tough but it was manageable with the payback.


G B H at Toogoodpond of Toronto














Daniel , Toronto

[Monza76]

Great shots Daniel, personally I feel that manual lenses have one adventage, once you have focus the camera will not try to refocus at the wrong moment. With my sad little 100-300mm f4.7-5.8 zoom I usually use the OK button to activate the AF, that way I do not have to worry about the inevitable refocus. The A 300mm you are using looks much sharper than my zoom, some attempts at BIF found here : http://forums.steves-digicams.com/fo...=94&page=2

Keep it up, your telephoto work with the 135 and now the 300 is very good.

Ira

[robar]

looks great to me also. i need to get out more.

roy

[danielchtong]

Monza76 wrote:

Great shots Daniel, personally I feel that manual lenses have one adventage, once you have focus the camera will not try to refocus at the wrong moment. With my sad little 100-300mm f4.7-5.8 zoom I usually use the OK button to activate the AF, that way I do not have to worry about the inevitable refocus.

I think I may hit something big that has been bothering Pentaxians a lot. And Hung or Royce did that too I am sure. Actually I bet that he was not using AF at all in his BIF shots. Remember he was using a consumer zoom Sigma APO 70-300mm.

Ira,

Test it out which is easy. Go to any highway and shoot fast moving cars (similar to BIF) 20 - 40 ft away. Use these setting: max daylight, at 250mm, 1/2500s and F8 (you know the reason why these setting). Use MF and continuous mode. As you have prefocused to around 20 to 40 ft, fire in burst when vehicle approaches from one direction, pan and continuously adjust the focus ring at the same time . (real fun man) . The focus ring should only move at the most 50 degrees only - as the vehicles move sideway not towards you. Turn off your SR as you are panning

The A*300mm you are using looks much sharper than my zoom,

Ira

Half right. It may be sharper but we are talking about using F8 and the difference should be minimal. If I am correct, consumer zoom may be just fine . If the image is still soft, use 250mm or even 200mm (below the extreme end)

Geez can I apply for a patent?

Daniel

[NonEntity1]

Very nice shots Daniel. I also generally use manual focus for bird in flight shots. However, having tried a friend's Nikon D2x with a SSM lens, I can see why someone who was primarily interested in photographing birds would go that route. Focus was almost instantaneous and there was no hunting at all. Then again, his camera and the one lens on it ran $6k too.

Tim

[mtngal]

Wonderful pictures, Daniel - I sometimes have a love-hate relationship with my manual focus lenses. Many times it doesn't bother me at all, but other times I miss pictures because I'm trying to focus. It's really handy when you can pre-focus - works great for the one horse show I played with.

[bigdawg]

Daniel I got away from my Beloved Kodaks as they were auto focus only and so slow at doing it...not to mention they would focus on the limb and not the bird. Here is one in deep shadow but the Tele Takumar 200mm and the K10D still stopped the wings in motion when using A priority mode. Not anywhere as good as your's and I must say those are magnificent photos. I used manual focus so long on the K1000 that going back to Auto focus was slowing me down. LOL

[bilybianca]

Thank's for bringing it up, Daniel, with such convincing examples.I have also been frustrated when using one of my not so many AF lenseson moving objects. That is trying to get a shot of my dogs playing on the lawn. The AF hunts and I growl. MF isn't easy either, but then I can blaim my lacking skills and not the gear.

Kjell

[Lyrics51]

I think manual focus is better most of the time for action because most of the time you are not in ideal shooting situations which is where auto focus works the best. With astill or posed subject auto is fine and often preferable, but for action you can't wait for the camera to focus even if its just a split second. Perhaps its because I am using the DL whichisn't to the quality of the 100 or the 10. Or maybe its because I began with manual focus 35 years ago! By the way, Daniel, those are some beautiful shots.

Glenn

[inneyeseakay]

Great shots Daniel... Not something that I have been brave enough to try, but it'snot that we have as pretty birds here in SC in the middle of the summer either though.