D500 and tracking issues

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Capturingtheunseen.com

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I've searched this forum for threads about this; if they are there I can't find them. I did find some posts from a couple of years ago on the Fred Miranda forums, but am looking for some more recent opinions on settings for BIF.

In the course of two years I have gone from hating the D500 to loving it. Admittedly, the hating was probably more of a reflection of my skills and abilities than of the camera itself. :)

That out of the way, I love the body due to the amazing detail in the images (using it with a Nikon 200-500 5.6,) but one caveat remains: Tracking BIF.

My settings with former Nikon bodies--Dynamic 9 or 25 continuous--don't seem to work well for any length of time. The camera loses focus easily, and won't re-acquire, no matter how I set auto-focus tracking with lock-on.

What I have settled on is continuous focus with single point, lock-on delay set to 5.. That feels wrong to me, but it seems to work the best. I also use group from time to time, but most of my targets are larger birds so not too often.

Any input from those who have successfully defeated this beast would be greatly appreciated.
 
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My opinion for what it’s worth is: “If it works for you great.!” I actually had more luck by decreasing the lock on delay to a value of 2. But that fits my style. A lot of this has to do with our technique, That’s the beauty of these cameras. You can adjust them to fit your style of shooting.
 
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For anything moving with my D500 or D850 I will use either Auto or Group....nothing else. For some perched birds I will use Single Point.
Unless you are shooting in messy conditions Auto will get it done better than anything else. The only issue may be with your large birds, if they are large in the frame, the Auto may grab near wings without enough DOF to compensate. Group would be better then. For any faster flapping birds the Auto usually seems to ignore the wings as they are moving fast enough up and down.

The lock on setting has little effect. Leave it on default and forget about it.
 
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I agree with using GRP as well - it works great with the D500.

However, I'd also think about blowing off the AF points. Seriously. I had a D500 that went from perfect to incredibly unreliable in one day. Tracking fell way off, it just didn't work well at all anymore no matter what I did. It occurred to me to blow off the AF sensors and I actually saw a tiny "dust bunny" fall out while I was doing it. Next day, it worked perfectly again.

I have the technique in the video below, all cued up

 
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Steve said:
I agree with using GRP as well - it works great with the D500.

However, I'd also think about blowing off the AF points. Seriously. I had a D500 that went from perfect to incredibly unreliable in one day. Tracking fell way off, it just didn't work well at all anymore no matter what I did. It occurred to me to blow off the AF sensors and I actually saw a tiny "dust bunny" fall out while I was doing it. Next day, it worked perfectly again.

I have the technique in the video below, all cued up

Click to expand...
Thanks a bunch Steve!
 
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For D500+500PF, Single point for perched or still subject, Group for slower moving larger birds, Auto area for fast moving smaller birds and once focus is acquired I switch to Group on the fly. Lock on setting at default, I have not needed to change this.
 
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shaned said:
For D500+500PF, Single point for perched or still subject, Group for slower moving larger birds, Auto area for fast moving smaller birds and once focus is acquired I switch to Group on the fly. Lock on setting at default, I have not needed to change this.
Click to expand...

Someone else mentioned Auto. I don't even see that as an option in manual mode. I probably wouldn't use it anyway, but I do not see it.
 
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I feel similarly to the OP, and the funny thing about the D500 is that almost everybody has their own favorite way of setting it up for BIF. I am not saying this is wrong, but it is interesting. We are now approaching the time of year where a lot of migratory birds are in our region and I hope to be able to both get some sunshine and a few days off, hopefully in sync with each other. As to what method I plan on using? I would love to stick with single point AF-C, but I do believe that I may be my own worst enemy if I do.

--Ken
 
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Replytoken said:
I feel similarly to the OP, and the funny thing about the D500is that almost everybody has their own favorite way of setting it up for BIF. I am not saying this is wrong, but it is interesting. We are now approaching the time of year where a lot of migratory birds are in our region and I hope to be able to both get some sunshine and a few days off, hopefully in sync with each other. As to what method I plan on using? I would love to stick with single point AF-C, but I do believe that I may be my own worst enemy if I do.

--Ken
Click to expand...
Here is what I have found with single point AF-C, confirmed again today. Even if the focus point slips off the bird, the bird is still in focus. So, it appears to me as though it is acting like dynamic mode even though it supposedly isn't.

nikon af1.JPG
You can only see EXIF info for this image if you are logged in.
 
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Capturingtheunseen.com said:
Someone else mentioned Auto. I don't even see that as an option in manual mode. I probably wouldn't use it anyway, but I do not see it.
Click to expand...
I use Auto Area AF and Group AF as my go to for BIF, both on manual, hand held.. Auto Area ie: for Falcons that move very fast at close distance around cliff faces. As these birds only appear for less than a second perhaps, I have no hope of using Group for initial acquisition. Just a personal preference I guess.
 
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I have a similar issue with my D7500, though it obviously doesn't have the same AF system as the D500. I use Group AF, back button with AF-C and "Focus tracking with lock-on" set to Off. When I'm tracking a BIF and take some short bursts, usually the first frame is the sharpest, but the next few are out of focus as it gradually flies out of the focal plane, even if the subject doesn't move outside the Group AF sensors. The AF system doesn't seem to make microadjustments to continuously track the bird while I'm holding down both the shutter release (in short 4-5 frame bursts), and back button. Is this normal? Does the camera continue to focus between each frame when I do that? I use a pretty old screwdrive Tokina 300 F/4 which focuses slowly, so it might just be the lens and not necessarily the AF system. Maybe I just need to blow the AF sensors. Your feedback is appreciated!
 
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Capturingtheunseen.com said:
I've searched this forum for threads about this; if they are there I can't find them. I did find some posts from a couple of years ago on the Fred Miranda forums, but am looking for some more recent opinions on settings for BIF.

In the course of two years I have gone from hating the D500 to loving it. Admittedly, the hating was probably more of a reflection of my skills and abilities than of the camera itself. :)

That out of the way, I love the body due to the amazing detail in the images (using it with a Nikon 200-500 5.6,) but one caveat remains: Tracking BIF.

My settings with former Nikon bodies--Dynamic 9 or 25 continuous--don't seem to work well for any length of time. The camera loses focus easily, and won't re-acquire, no matter how I set auto-focus tracking with lock-on.

What I have settled on is continuous focus with single point, lock-on delay set to 5.. That feels wrong to me, but it seems to work the best. I also use group from time to time, but most of my targets are larger birds so not too often.

Any input from those who have successfully defeated this beast would be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
Part of your issue might be related to the focussing speed of the 200-500. It might also help if the have focus limiter selected so when it does lose focus it doesn’t have to rum through the whole range to re-aquire.
 
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Steve said:
However, I'd also think about blowing off the AF points. Seriously. I had a D500 that went from perfect to incredibly unreliable in one day. Tracking fell way off, it just didn't work well at all anymore no matter what I did. It occurred to me to blow off the AF sensors and I actually saw a tiny "dust bunny" fall out while I was doing it. Next day, it worked perfectly again.

I have the technique in the video below, all cued up

Click to expand...

Took the words out of my mouth! People rarely clean the AF sensors even if the clean their image sensors.
 
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Capturingtheunseen.com said:
Here is what I have found with single point AF-C, confirmed again today. Even if the focus point slips off the bird, the bird is still in focus. So, it appears to me as though it is acting like dynamic mode even though it supposedly isn't.

View attachment 11561
Click to expand...

Three things can happen here (the first two apply to this).

First, with the D500, there's always at least some delay in the Focus Tracking With Lock On Setting. What happens in a case like this is when the AF area sees a drastic change in distance, it waits a moment before attempting to refocus. The tracking setting determines how long it waits. In this case, you slipped off and shot during the wait period. That's my guess and it's working as it should. The bird is still in focus because the DoF is really deep based on the distance (I'm looking at how large that single AF point is next to the bird). Plus, it looks like it's more of a side-to-side flight shot.

The second thing is that if the AF area doesn't have something of adequate contrast to lock onto, it can hesitate for a split second or not focus at all. I don't think that's the case here, since the background doesn't look out of focus enough that it would be out of range of the PDAF sensors.

The third thing is that sometimes the camera mis-records the AF position. I've seen this with wider AF areas, it doesn't apply to single point though.
 
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Turberticus said:
I have a similar issue with my D7500, though it obviously doesn't have the same AF system as the D500. I use Group AF, back button with AF-C and "Focus tracking with lock-on" set to Off. When I'm tracking a BIF and take some short bursts, usually the first frame is the sharpest, but the next few are out of focus as it gradually flies out of the focal plane, even if the subject doesn't move outside the Group AF sensors. The AF system doesn't seem to make microadjustments to continuously track the bird while I'm holding down both the shutter release (in short 4-5 frame bursts), and back button. Is this normal? Does the camera continue to focus between each frame when I do that? I use a pretty old screwdrive Tokina 300 F/4 which focuses slowly, so it might just be the lens and not necessarily the AF system. Maybe I just need to blow the AF sensors. Your feedback is appreciated!
Click to expand...

That is unusual. It should keep tracking / adjusting focus - the only time I've come across situations like this is when the camera is on AF-S and not AF-C. I tend to agree - maybe it's something with the lens. I've shot swallows in flight with the D7500 and it's worked out :)
 
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Steve said:
I agree with using GRP as well - it works great with the D500.

However, I'd also think about blowing off the AF points. Seriously. I had a D500 that went from perfect to incredibly unreliable in one day. Tracking fell way off, it just didn't work well at all anymore no matter what I did. It occurred to me to blow off the AF sensors and I actually saw a tiny "dust bunny" fall out while I was doing it. Next day, it worked perfectly again.

I have the technique in the video below, all cued up

Click to expand...
Ha! I just blew them off. Didn't even know they were there.
 
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