Both the still and video AF performance are different in almost all the camera. Here is one of the video AF with
– CANON EOS R6, CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2, CANON 1.4x, CANON EF=EOS-R adapter
– Tripod
– AF method : the only method using Full sensor area in R6
+Tracking
– Subject to detect : Animals ; Eye detection : On
The AF seem slower lock focus to the object compare to still AF. which normally require 1-4 seconds to lock the object. After locked focus, the tracking seem work well but still 20-40% chance lost focus especially bird eye/head not detectable. But it will get the object refocus very fast as long as we able to follow the bird movement.
After use the powerful R3, which it is almost not missing to find a bird when the bird within the sensor. (we dont use AF point to focus to the bird but let’s the camera to find the bird/bird eye and lock focus than track). Glad that I am able to get R5/R6 for more test on this entry level of full frame camera.
I am trying to sharing different kind of environment to lets the Camera find the bird itself and this may keep update later.
Condition 1 : Bird with contrast again Backgroung
– CANON EOS R6, CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2, CANON 1.4x, CANON EF=EOS-R adapter
– M mode, Auto ISO, F5.6 (biggest aperture), 1/200
– Handheld
– AF method : the only method using Full sensor area in R5/6
+Tracking
– Subject to detect : Animals ; Eye detection : On
THE FOCUS almost immediate lock on the bird head/eye and track.
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Condition 2 : closer Bird with lesser contrast again Background
– CANON EOS R6, CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2, CANON 1.4x, CANON EF=EOS-R adapter
– M mode, Auto ISO, F5.6 (biggest aperture), 1/200
– Handheld
– AF method : the only method using Full sensor area in R5/6
+Tracking
– Subject to detect : Animals ; Eye detection : On
THE FOCUS almost immediate lock on the bird head/eye and track.
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Condition 3 :further Bird with lesser contrast again Background
– CANON EOS R6, CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2, CANON 1.4x, CANON EF=EOS-R adapter
– M mode, Auto ISO, F5.6 (biggest aperture), 1/200
– Handheld
– AF method : the only method using Full sensor area in R5/6
+Tracking
– Subject to detect : Animals ; Eye detection : On
THE FOCUS require a bit time to look for a bird but very quick to get the bird focus locked and track on the head and eye
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Condition 4 : small bird low contrast over the similar and messy Background
– CANON EOS R6, CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2, CANON 1.4x, CANON EF=EOS-R adapter
– M mode, Auto ISO, F5.6 (biggest aperture), 1/200
– Handheld
– AF method : the only method using Full sensor area in R5/6
+Tracking
– Subject to detect : Animals ; Eye detection : On
THE FOCUS almost not possible to find the bird (trying to moving the camera at various position of the sensor). What we need to do just move the focus ring so the focus area near the bird than very soon it will be get the Bird/Bird eye focus and track.
R3 can easily use eye-Control AF to resolve this or I found R3 capable to find the even at this kind of environment.
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Condition 4 : very small bird with contrast
– CANON EOS R5, CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2, CANON 1.4x, CANON EF=EOS-R adapter
– M mode, Auto ISO, F5.6 (biggest aperture), 1/200
– Handheld
– AF method : the only method using Full sensor area in R5/6
+Tracking
– Subject to detect : Animals ; Eye detection : On
THE FOCUS almost not possible to find the bird (trying to moving the camera at various position of the sensor). What we need to do just move the focus ring so the focus area near the bird than very soon it will be get the Bird/Bird eye focus and track.
it is another series of picture captured while I am testing the CANON EOS R3
this bird sudden flying from sea toward mangrove, with the canon R3.. it is effortless just lock focus and track the bird even flying backlit BG and different BG
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– video clip create from a series of pictures captured with CANON R3
– while I am shooting Tern flying at Selangor coastal area. this Heron sudden flying from beach toward mangrove area.
Spend another morning for test one of the most difficult photograph objects, swift and swallow.
*** I will updating all the swift AF test here.
There are some setting that I change for this fast moving object which I think it may affect the performance
CANON R3, CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2, EF 1.4x TC III
AF area (whole sensor)
AFC, eye-control AF off
Drive mode: H (15fps) and H+ (30fps)
AI Servo (AF-C)
cRAW and use DPP straight convert to JPEG and resize.
No CROP
Len set to >10m which anything near than 10m will not be focus
no feeding, no fix location/direction for the bird. Everything here just a bird flying and I just point my Len direction and lets the camera lock the focus (on bird) and track by following the flying direction
few test, trying to show
i. near object
ii. far object
iii. flying at same Background (Green, sky)
iv. flying cross various background
– can see below, the birds will flying crossing sky, water surface, green etc
I am glad to given a chance to have a unit CANON EOS R3 to have a series of test on Birds/Nature Photography.
As for other camera, I plan to have series of tests which related to Tropical forest birds Photographer concerns eg. ISO performance, AF performance, Raw files dynamics range etc.
After days of basic understanding the camera (actually it is like a upgraded version of my old CANON EOS 1dxm2). I will try share other view of the camera later in other posts, here lets share one of the major concern : AF performance.
For this test, I am using
CANON EOS R3
CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2
CANON 1.4x TC III
No feeding, No nesting and no idea what bird flying to/from which directions. Just base on what you see and trying the Camera capability to focus and capture.
Setting
AF area (whole sensor)
AFC, eye-control AF off
Drive mode: H (15fps)
AI Servo (AF-C)
RAW and use DPP straight convert to JPEG and resize.
I am glad to given a chance to have a unit CANON EOS R3 to have a series of test on Birds/Nature Photography.
As for other camera, I plan to have series of tests which related to Tropical forest birds Photographer concerns eg. ISO performance, AF performance, Raw files dynamics range etc.
After days of basic understanding the camera (actually it is like a upgraded version of my old CANON EOS 1dxm2). I will try share other view of the camera later in other posts, here lets share one of the major concern : AF performance.
For this test, I am using
CANON EOS R3
CANON EF 500mm F4 IS2
CANON 1.4x TC III
Handheld inside car
No feeding, No nesting and no idea what bird flying to/from which directions. Just base on what you see and trying the Camera capability to focus and capture.
Setting
AF area (whole sensor)
AFC, eye-control AF off
Drive mode: H (15fps)
AI Servo (AF-C)
RAW and use DPP straight convert to JPEG and resize.
All of sudden a White-throated Kingfisher flying infront of us, with immediate response I just point the Len toward the bird and lets the camera lock focus on the bird and track … capture the images in ~3-4s
this feature need to enable an electronic shutter and what it does
1. focus and HALF press the shutter
2. the camera start record pictures within the frame
3. press the Shutter button and anything pre-happen before shutter button press (~<1s) will be a record
e.g. 3 White-bellied Woodpecker Nesting
– another good opportunity to use this special function
– 这个环境非常容易的用这个功能
video by combine 17 pictures within ~1s while the bird flying out from the nest and I only press the shutter button after seeing the bird flying out from the nest
eg. 1 this bird keep “displaying” but what we need just one position
whats you need to do just
1. Turn ON Pre-shot (require ES)
2. focus on the bird and half-press the shutter just like on left and waiting for any action of the bird. Press the Shutter immediately after the desired moment happen to mean frame 6/7 (anything within ~1s) then all the previous pictures will be recorded into the memory card.
*In traditional to capture the desired moment (5th frame from left, we need to keep burst the shutter and hope lucky to get the frame with a few hundred shots.
* in this testing, I only enable 8 fps
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eg2. Bird flying out from Nest
in this condition, the bird may stay in the nest hole for minutes, hours before it flies out and when it flying out could be just a split second. So it is not easy to capture the moment.
here is the frame I got
1. Enable Pre-Shot
2. focus and Half-press shutter button. The bird can be in this position for minutes and hours.
3. all of sudden the bird fly out and this is when I press my shutter button
But all the other frames before this last moment already captured into the memory card
This is just a feature that captures pre-moment so it is not continuous focus, so pre-plan the angle where the bird expects to have the next move is important to have a better focus picture.
Besides that, to have a wider or not too big a subject the frame can allow u to have long series of action pictures.
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So Have fun trying this lovely feature. Besides Fujifilm Xt3/4. Understand Panasonic which first launches this feature under Pre-burst and Olympus follow later call Pro-capture.
– Smaller than Himalayan snowcock, this species has a grey head and neck with a white patch behind the eye and above the dark cheek. Chin, throat and breast are white, with two grey bands on the breast. Grey wing coverts and tertials have a white trim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_snowcock
Is a long journey from Malaysia – Sulawesi – Jayapura (~26 hours without a bed, too much coffee and waiting) …for the day1 when we arrive, we give Magnificent Riflebird a try but failed to have any photo .. but the bird was well seen above our “hide”
Day2 – Nimbokrang
We start our drive, walk ~430am, 15 min drive and ~20min walk … the first Bird-of-paradise is waiting for us .. before we walk into our “hide”. The bird keeps calling, trying to attract female … but seem it is not attractive enough. only one female comes close and fast. The male trying to “show off” with some action but the female flew off just immediate it trying to show his “dance”
I am mostly recording video, so this picture I share is a Jpeg extract from Canon Digital Photo Professional software …
– one of the most easier, walk not that far and the birds just there without any waiting
– first Bird-of-Paradise of the trip and amazing beautiful
非常漂亮的天堂鳥。
update 202105
– let’s share some old pictures and video
– this was 2019 Oct, our West Papua Bird Photography trip first Birds-of-Paradise and one of the most easier.
– special of this bird is the tails
2. King Bird-of-paradise, 王极乐鸟, 王天堂鳥, Cicinnurus regius, ヒヨクドリ, Cendrawasih Raja
BoP #2 which is my target #1 for this tour, was just about 20min walking after Twelve-wired Bird-of-Paradise, but this is so much smaller, higher & active makes only a very limited angle to get the full view. I am lucky to have this just ~5min wait.
King Bird-of-paradise, 王极乐鸟
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3. Lesser Bird-of-paradise, 小极乐鸟, 小天堂鳥, Paradisaea minor, コフウチョウ, Cendrawasih Kecil
– The only BoP we didn’t see much and dancing .. just hear most of the time … the location we wait seem not the really correct location for “dancing” … but it did flying across and let us record
– another not so obvious Bird-of-Paradise got from Irian Jaya.
– this is so far away, and somehow it still belongs to BoP .. we got it record ..
– 鳥不是特別出色，還要在遠遠的。
– 攝於伊里安查亚
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After 5 days of “enjoy”, reasonable food, easy walk (flat), air-cond room, not far from airport and bird spots .. we finally move to 2nd destination Arfak Mountain..
After got the information before, we get ready with some extra food … sleeping beg, insect repellent, etc .. just before we going into a “no Phone” (only a particular spot can get a phone signal which is a bit distance from our “homestay”. After ~2 hours of offroad travel, we arrive at our homestay a little bit late and with rain .. so we call this a day and enjoy our cold stay
Here, we need to split into a few groups to decide on different BoP hide due to limited “hole” for photography …
Day1 at Arfak Mountain
5. Western Parotia, 阿法六线风鸟, 阿法六線風鳥, Parotia sefilata, カンザシフウチョウ, Parotia Arfak
– lucky to have this amazing, lovely bird for bird #1 .. we walk a very steep hike ~45-60 degree uphill for ~500m … we saw the bird-eating, calling for the whole morning but just not dancing … at ~9 am, we almost give up … the female came to the dancing group, followed by the male than the moment begin …
update 202310
– 4 years ago 5 of us went to West Papua for Photography and today 3 out of 5 we back to same airport and same Starbuck ..good memory … and hope tomorrow we have same good experience for the photography tour
– a big overall blackbird, with a colorful throat depends on the angle and also have a Blue eye
– the male famous with ballerina dance displaying to attract female
– 非常特别的天堂鸟。大，黑，喉会变黄绿。为吸引母鸟会跳草裙舞
201910, Mount Arfak, West Papua, Indonesia
update 2020 Jul
Western Parotia, 阿法六線風鳥, 阿法六线风鸟, Parotia sefilata
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so amazing to see it dancing ..
update 2020 Jan 16
a close look at the Juv
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6. Red Bird-of-paradise, 红极乐鸟, 紅極樂鳥, Paradisaea rubra, ジュウニセンフウチョウ, Cendrawasih Mati-kawat
actually, this is the last BoP of the tour but I really like it so much when I process the pictures …. can’t wait to share this great moment with you all. Endemic, common but somehow I really like this
update 202203
– finally Malaysia border going to open, do we able to make a trip here again this year ?
– 马来西亚要开放了。今年应该来得及到这拍鸟。
201911, Weigo Islang, Indonesia
update 202102
update 202011
update 2020 May
Red Bird-of-paradise, 紅極樂鳥, Paradisaea rubra,ジュウニセンフウチョウ, Cendrawasih Mati-kawat
update 2020 Jan 23
one of my favor photo .. when this Red BoP decide make noise face to face to me
– another BoP that really amazes us, it keeps cleaning the “dancing” ground and displaying (dancing) to attract a female. make a lot of photo opportunity
– one of the easiest and beautiful Bird-of-Paradise
– every morning, it will come to “dance” ground clearing and calling the female – this is a moment after an hour clearing, no female is approaching so it is resting and preening nearby
– 一隻蠻普通+漂亮的風鳥，天堂鳥。
– 每天它都會到這清理，呼叫。希望母鳥的到來。
update 202112
update 202105
– one of the most seen, photograph BoP, but still like this bird very much. the body contains so much color and the chest “green” can changing depend on lighting and angle to “purple”
A large, front-heavy brown bird with a long, pale downcurved bill and a distinctive elongated head with a flat crown and a forehead tuft. Orange legs. Unmistakable males have a green-blue breast shield and long creamy-white plumes extending from the shoulders. Females are entirely earth-brown, lacking the shoulder extensions and shield. Immature resembles female. Found in canopy of tall forests in lowlands and foothills, confined to three islands in north Moluccas. Regularly sighted at known display sites. Very loud when displaying, giving raucous “WAA-WAA…” and “KEE-KEE…” notes. [Ebird]
update 202310
[sorry for the bad video]
– this a weird scene I seen, or I missed out anything before .. why the female is on top and I record few times ..
– another trip another good view of this bird after longer wait compared to previous trips. I didn’t have best angle but still trying to show the beauty of this bird .. 8km bird .. worth ? YES definitely
– will share some funny video about this bird … may be finish this trip
– another trip another good view of this bird after longer wait compared to previous trips. I didn’t have best angle but still trying to show the beauty of this bird .. 8km bird .. worth ? YES definitely
– will share some funny video about this bird … may be finish this trip
– 2nd trip to Halmahera 2023 and see you next week … never get bored to see it making noise and dance even the journey there bit challenge … I am coming
– lucky to see it display but not really full open view. capture video with 100p slowdown 50%
– 幸运的看到他在跳舞。可是没全露。可是还是记录下了。
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another special tour, which has main target of this Standardwing Bird-of-Paradise.
It is a real good experience to be Halmahera, we just spend 3 nights. We easily got ours’ targets seen.
This is our main target, on 2nd morning. We hike 3.7km straight to the “hide” (on the way, we heard owlet-nightjar which is my favorite bird but we failed to see the bird and also rushing to the hide for main target.
Arrived before 6am, while every still dark. We can heard many of them already calling infront of us but just very brief view. after 30minutes, finally we got clear view of this amazing beautiful bird. But I still only got some extreme high ISO picture even with my CANON RF400mm F2.8.
Long story short, the birds stay for long and from ISO 25600 – ISO800, Managed to have perfect view of the bird and pictures… oohh video too .
Immediate of this target, we walking out and birding. There is another very good story to talk about “pick up service for the Pitta”
+Tracking
