Title: Last Year I mostly Missed
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I am going back to Laguna Seca Ranch next week for 3 days in the blinds. In preparation I revied my photos taken last April. Back then I had a d-500 with both a 500pf and 3oopf. I shot with both lenses. Reviewing my shots, I conclude that it would be very difficult to get better photographs of perched birds than I did with both lenses. For perched birds I was able to get a SP AF on the birds eye and captured many fantastic poses. A couple are on my wall.
For BIF, however, not so much. I usually missed. I did get some nice shots landing by simply focusing on the perch, turning off AF, and firing away @ 10 f/s when I saw the bird take off from a tree. If the bird landed on the perch I anticipated and the bird stayed in the same focal plane of the perch, I got a good shot. I got a few but nothing for may wall.
Reviewing last year's images, the problem was clear. Neither me not the D-500 was fast enough. I am simply not good enough at understanding the bird's behavior or anticipating the bird's actions to get anything most of the time. Next, @ 10 f/s I only ever captured one shot of a bird taking off. I was OK with a big bird, the Caracara for example, in flight but those little birds were beyond my ability and my camera's ability at least in my hands.
Last year I mostly missed as the attached shots show.
So next week, I go back and explore what this thread originally asked. "Is anyone exploring the OM-1 for BIF?"
Am I a better photographer than I was last year? Frankly I doubt it. Using the D-500 was second nature to me, the result of 20 years of being a Nikon shooter and reading everything Steve has written or videoed about Nikon DSLRs. The past year has mostly been learning the idiosyncrasies of the OM-1. Plus, I am almost another year older.
Why might my new rig be better?
1) Looking at my past photos, I think having a zoom will help the most. Too many shots showed the BIF but only part of it. The 100-400's long zoom range will allow me to back off and give the bird room to spread its wings. The camera's ability to focus on the eye will help also. I was in AF GRP shooting BIF with the D-500.
2) 20 f/s which is my normal setting will also help.
3) Procapture 25 f/s autofocus and the faster fixed focus ProCapture will help a bit also.
In addition, I have a 300f4 lens which I have basically not shot with. I will set the normal f/s to 50 so I will get lots more images BUT I am concerned that I am back to a fixed length lens. Yes, a 150-400 F4.5 would be great under these conditions but only when I don't need to carry it far.
I will also try HisRes mode for perched birds.
It will be interesting.
Tom