Manual lens for BIF; Looked ok to me

[Rodney9]

Great shots, the reflection in No 3 is beautiful.

[snostorm]

Hi Daniel,

Sooooooo. . . that's what a BIF shot looks like! Mine always seem to be either clear sky, sky with a blob somewhere in the frame, or maybe a well focused tail and some feet! :-)

Nice job with the A*300 -- it's really hard to even get a flying bird in the viewfinder at that FL, so very well done!

Thanks for showing what can be accomplished if a person works out the needed technique and makes the effort.

Scott

[philneast]

Very nice.

Phil

[danielchtong]

NonEntity1 wrote:

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

Both Canon/Nikon want us to spend 4-5K every 2 yrs. How high is the limit? We can only beat this with the gear we have already. The only new gear I have this time compared with last yr is a faster 2G card.
I believe with K10D's larger buffer, I can fire more shots and get more keepers. Wastage is nothing in digital world.

Phil, Kjell, Roy, Glenn ,inneyeseakay, Rodney & Dawg

Thanks for taking time to comment.


Daniel

[rhermans]

Looked ok to me = looks great for me.

Great series Daniel.

[danielchtong]

snostorm wrote:

Hi Daniel,

Nice job with the A*300 -- it's really hard to even get a flying bird in the viewfinder at that FL, so very well done!
Scott

Scott,

You have a lot sharper fixed picture. Typically BIF pict has entirely different setting from those for fixed subject. You may set 1/160s or 1/200s and have the S R on. For BIF, I failed a lot even with 1/1500s. Now I have all these at least 1/2500s as I was panning and focusing the same time. With this setting, the only occasion I can shoot would be under full daylight .Nothing less than that. The last 3 pict above were shot in a bright day.But it just happened that a cloud blocked up the sunlight and I had to use iso 1600.
So while you are shooting your GHB ,there is practically no time for you to adjust the setting (1/2500s,F8 & NO SR) when all of a sudden it wants to take off. You will be off guard completely with your monopod and heavy gear.
It is just different set up for different occasion.


Daniel

[Gumnut]

i have tried a few BIF photos lately, i will have to try again using 1/2500 and f8 as your photos have worked out very well
can a K10D automatically adjust the iso to suit the exposure if i set the speed and aperture in manual mode?
last time i tried BIF i used f8 and let theshutter adjust itself to suit the exposure
the results were not brilliant

my main problem with manual lenses is always turning them the wrong way first
grrrrr, although i have used focus trap with varying degrees of success

i will keep trying
oh and i find most of my shots seem to be of either black or white birds which doesnt help either:?

[danielchtong]

I think I can repost the bif heron shots in series incl the 4th pict. All happening within 3-4 seconds. Without adjusting the focus ring on the fly, the 3rd and 4th one could hardly be in focus at all.




















Because I had to pan , fire in burst and adjust the focus at the same time, I had to take these at iso1600 to compensate for the vibration (at 1/2500s & F 8 )

Daniel

[Gumnut]

Thanks for the info Daniel
i will write it down and put it in my camera bag

i was hoping to get out this weekend and try it
but it seems it may rain
again
i cant remember this much rain on weekends

[danielchtong]

I have not had chance of practicing/ refining lately. These are pict I took out of around 50s today. Again sea gulls only as they are around
















Daniel , Toronto