uday592
Active member
Need help with eye focus for a1. I assigned AEL for eyeAF and when I place the AF area on the bird eye and press AEL , many times the focus lock on the eye does not happen. Is there anything I am doing wrong.
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Thx I will try it out.This is indeed a great forum created by Steve.There is an even easier way than custom recall dial which is called custom recall “hold”. You can assign a full set of settings into a single button.
When I am doing “mixed shooting” my ael button is actually a custom recall hold which switches to small spot AF, 1/640 shutter speed and drops to 5fps for perched birds. When I get back to AF on, I instantly revert back to 1/3200 and 20fps with tracking zone. It’s like 2 cameras in one with just one button.
The best video on it is Mark Smith’s video for the A9 settings. That’s where I learnt about it.
Now if I do mostly bif then my AEL button is set differently. Those two configurations are stored in dial mode 1 and 2.
Need help with eye focus for a1. I assigned AEL for eyeAF and when I place the AF area on the bird eye and press AEL , many times the focus lock on the eye does not happen. Is there anything I am doing wrong.
Have been using the A1 with 200-600 and one con here is the smallest AF area is bigger than Nikon D5 making it difficult to focus on warblers and simillar birds in busy surroundings like shrubs, trees etc.
This is how I have my a1’s set up. Mode 1 is for birds non flying: bird eye af on, flexible spot medium tracking, shutter speed 1/640, aperture f4, auto iso. Mode 2 is birds flying. I have the same settings as mode 1 but my shutter speed is at 1/3200 and af mode is zone tracking burd eye af. Mode 3 is animals. Animal eye af, tracking flexible spot medium, 1/1000, f4, auto iso. This allows me to quickly switch from one mode to the other and I than can use custom buttons or front and back dials to make adjustments as needed.Thx for the invaluable advice.It is really going to make my BIF shooting easy
Thx for the valuable advice.Sounds good. I will give them a try & test it out asapThis is how I have my a1’s set up. Mode 1 is for birds non flying: bird eye af on, flexible spot medium tracking, shutter speed 1/640, aperture f4, auto iso. Mode 2 is birds flying. I have the same settings as mode 1 but my shutter speed is at 1/3200 and af mode is zone tracking burd eye af. Mode 3 is animals. Animal eye af, tracking flexible spot medium, 1/1000, f4, auto iso. This allows me to quickly switch from one mode to the other and I than can use custom buttons or front and back dials to make adjustments as needed.
Thanks for the advice. Will try. Since I only shoot birds subject recognition is set to birds. I can use AFon to keep eye AF on at all times.That’s where you need to “unlearn” a few things. You can’t shoot the A1 that way very well. Per my other post, keep eye AF and subject recognition on at all times. Then use the small flexible spot as a way to tell the camera roughly where to look for a subject / eye and trust the camera to find the eye in that small area (it does extremely reliably). The camera will look beyond the spot, but it will start there.
Those cameras need to be shot with a different mindset - it takes a bit of adjustment But once you let go of needing to control everything exactly and trust the camera with more of the decisions, your keeper rate will skyrocket.
Good photography is easy to buy. Buy the latest and greatest camera and lenses with all out automation, buy some solid software with AI in it's name and buy some tickets to the workshops of famous photographers. Unless you are completely brain-dead, you will come out of it with good photography.
It won't be good value for money photography and it won't be standout photography but it will be good photography.
The trouble is when you want to make great photos. Then you need to work extra hard to stand out from all the good photos that people can take with their wallets .
Good photography is easy to buy. Buy the latest and greatest camera and lenses with all out automation, buy some solid software with AI in it's name and buy some tickets to the workshops of famous photographers. Unless you are completely brain-dead, you will come out of it with good photography.
It won't be good value for money photography and it won't be standout photography but it will be good photography.
The trouble is when you want to make great photos. Then you need to work extra hard to stand out from all the good photos that people can take with their wallets .
Here’s the thing when saying a camera does or does not make someone a better photographer. Gear makes a good photographer better it does not make a bad photographer better in most cases. If you don’t understand composition, exposure, depth of field and aren’t willing to capture your subjects in their best such as not wanting to get on the ground to be eye level than no camera is going to fix that. If it’s the better af helps you gain more keepers and makes up for lack of skill than it does make you better. Better is subjective, better could still mean you produce crap.
I had to laugh a few weeks ago while out shooting birds a guy came up to look at my big white lens and introduce himself. He apparently visits this location daily and it was my first visit. He invited me to join his Facebook group on this location so I did. He continued to describe himself as an advanced amateur and pointed towards some others and mentioned they weren’t. I smiled and continued on with my day. After viewing members post 99% of it I wouldn’t share including his as they really need to read Steve’s books. Comparing my photography to theirs I look like a pro, comparing my stuff to some of Steve’s and I look like a newbie lol. So ones skill level matters first and than gear. Gear can only do so much.
Here’s the thing when saying a camera does or does not make someone a better photographer. Gear makes a good photographer better it does not make a bad photographer better in most cases. If you don’t understand composition, exposure, depth of field and aren’t willing to capture your subjects in their best such as not wanting to get on the ground to be eye level than no camera is going to fix that. If it’s the better af helps you gain more keepers and makes up for lack of skill than it does make you better. Better is subjective, better could still mean you produce crap.
I had to laugh a few weeks ago while out shooting birds a guy came up to look at my big white lens and introduce himself. He apparently visits this location daily and it was my first visit. He invited me to join his Facebook group on this location so I did. He continued to describe himself as an advanced amateur and pointed towards some others and mentioned they weren’t. I smiled and continued on with my day. After viewing members post 99% of it I wouldn’t share including his as they really need to read Steve’s books. Comparing my photography to theirs I look like a pro, comparing my stuff to some of Steve’s and I look like a newbie lol. So ones skill level matters first and than gear. Gear can only do so much.
Best wildlife photographers I know are well planted in both crowds... they love and know a lot about their subjects and this allows them to create those shots that move people and make them go "uuuh and aaaaah".