Swallows in flight

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arbitrage

arbitrage

Well-known member
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I shot these over two mornings last weekend. Testing out the Z9 and 400 f/4.5 I decided to pick up to see how the Z9 has evolved since I owned it for a brief 2 weeks way back when it was released.
I think that FW has certainly made the Z9 a better camera. But more so in the customization than in the AF. The AF has improved but it still doesn't compare to the A1 when it comes to swallows in flight. I still came home with 100s of nice keepers but they were frustrating to get compared to the ease of the A1. Where I feel the Z9 is hindered is acquiring subjects that are further out and smaller in the frame. This makes swallow shooting tough as when they are close enough for the Z9 to latch on and track they are moving through the FOV so fast. With the A1 it will acquire them when they are small in the frame and track them as they come close...then you fire when close to get decent pixels on them. The other issue was the Z9 is hopeless acquiring something a fast as a swallow against any sort of complicated background and it has a lot of trouble continuing to track a swallow off of a clean background onto a complicated background. The A1 is so much better at this.
But in the Z9's favour, when it did track for a sequence the consistency of sharp shots seemed on par and probably better than the A1. At least the A1 on 1.31FW which IMO is a downgrade from 1.2FW in consistency.

Here is a selection of my results with the Z9 and Z400/4.5....
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 25, 2023.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
 
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Great shots! Especially the last two!!!!! Appreciate you sharing your experiences. If you hadn't shot the A1, you would probably be happy with the Z9! LOL! Swallows are indeed tough! You did very well!
 
Member's gallery
You are the Swallow Master Geoff, excellent set of images. Appreciate your thoughts and experience in shooting the Z9, I've been playing with the thought of picking one up to see how it compares to the A1. Also, I share you concerns about FW1.31 on the A1.
 
Member's gallery
Geoff, Your Swallow photos are great as most of your work, as a avid Z9 user and fine it has been excellent in many ways and especially they have continued to upgrade the firmware to improve the users experience, and believe they will continue to do so. One camera can't do all things for all people, it is usually the end user, you think.

Chris S.
 
Member's gallery
arbitrage said:
I shot these over two mornings last weekend. Testing out the Z9 and 400 f/4.5 I decided to pick up to see how the Z9 has evolved since I owned it for a brief 2 weeks way back when it was released.
I think that FW has certainly made the Z9 a better camera. But more so in the customization than in the AF. The AF has improved but it still doesn't compare to the A1 when it comes to swallows in flight. I still came home with 100s of nice keepers but they were frustrating to get compared to the ease of the A1. Where I feel the Z9 is hindered is acquiring subjects that are further out and smaller in the frame. This makes swallow shooting tough as when they are close enough for the Z9 to latch on and track they are moving through the FOV so fast. With the A1 it will acquire them when they are small in the frame and track them as they come close...then you fire when close to get decent pixels on them. The other issue was the Z9 is hopeless acquiring something a fast as a swallow against any sort of complicated background and it has a lot of trouble continuing to track a swallow off of a clean background onto a complicated background. The A1 is so much better at this.
But in the Z9's favour, when it did track for a sequence the consistency of sharp shots seemed on par and probably better than the A1. At least the A1 on 1.31FW which IMO is a downgrade from 1.2FW in consistency.

Here is a selection of my results with the Z9 and Z400/4.5....
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023-2.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 26, 2023.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
March 25, 2023.jpg by Bird/Wildlife Photos, on Flickr
Click to expand...
Arbitrage, a great set of birds in flight, the swallows are very challenging to shoot, I love the water reflection ones.

Oliver
 
Member's gallery
Nice work! I tried photographing swallows in flight a couple times and it’s incredibly difficult, they’re fast and unpredictable. Great skill displayed by you here!

@arbitrage Do you have any swallow in flight tips you’d like to share? Settings, focus modes, or anything else you think would be helpful. Hopefully next time I can improve my keeper rate. Thanks!
 
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