Although not in the same class as others here, but the fact that I can go out shoot this hand held at max zoom and get something I am happy with, shows what a fantastic camera the OMD is.
The only trouble with this shot is at max zoom 300mm the swan was a way off. We can't walk on water eh?
So if the weather is good tomorrow, its off to the lake and hopefully a few will fly closer.
Still very much early days for me shooting BIF (or wildlife in general) and I would love any tips or advice. Reading threads like this is very helpful.
Like an idiot, I didn't set the focus to a single point, but let the OMD use its brains... which may have impacted even the very modest number of keepers. Note to self, don't use ISO1600. Not only is it noisy, but it wasn't nessary for getting a high shutter speed. I just needed to sick with A mode, and keep the aperture number smaller...
All are with the P 100-300, mostly at 300, many with a monopod (new approach for me).
The first is cropped at least 50%, since the big blue heron was very far away. This is the one tree where they all seemed to put their nests. No trails on that side of the marsh so I'm shooting across quite an expanse of water.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
And then to round it out, a blue heron on the closer side of the marsh, but the background is so in focus.... urgh. As you can see from the EXIF, I wasn't paying attention to the aperture, and shot this at f/10.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
FWIW, I've really been stewing over the BIF issue lately, to the point that I've wondered if I should move on from m4/3 for wildlife photography--which I really don't want to do, and probably can't afford to do. So every session of camera-spec investigations makes me wonder if I'm better off staying with the G5 and 100-300mm. Unfortunately, I've had relatively few opportunities to get out and practice to see what I can get out of this combination. Most of the time I get nothing work keeping, but once in a while a large, slow bird will fly low enough that I can get something worthwhile--which just keeps me in confusion about what I should do.
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Turkey Vulture - G5 + 100-300mm @ 300mm, Shutter-speed priority, 1/500, ISO 400, single large focus box, AF-S, RAW processed in PhotoNinja, cropped slightly to 4399 x 3146
Right now I'm trying to see if AF-F makes any difference over AF-S. I've set the two custom options on the G5 for two kinds of bird shots -- C1 with a single, minimum-size focus box for perched birds, and C2 with the largest single focus box for BIF.
What I really need is a whole day to stay someplace with lots of large, flying birds so I can try various focal lengths and AF methods. While I'm at it, I could also use a million dollars, my own castle, and an organizational staff of 12.
I only ever use autofocus single or manual focus with the GF1. Autofocusing the 100-300mm isn't the GF1's strong point. I try to get the subject in the viewfinder, then pump the shutter release to focus and re-focus until I take the shot. It's faster and more reliable. With birds moving as fast as these little guys, there wasn't much time. I got two shots off before they were out of range, this was the better one.
Links on this page may be to our affiliates. Sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.Mu-43 is a fan site and not associated with Olympus, Panasonic, or other manufacturers mentioned on this site.Forum post reactions by Twemoji: https://github.com/twitter/twemojiForum GIFs powered by GIPHY: https://giphy.com/
