Small Birds in Flight at the Beach

[MikeRegas]

Hi all I am struggling to get focus on small birds on the beach with the water in the background. Mostly they are least terns to give you a size and erraticness of movement. I don't have to much of an issue with the larger slower less erratic moving birds.
I am using as of this morning :
Z9 firmware 4.0
400 f/4.5
Base settings of f/4.5, 1/1250, auto ISO
Focus mode is AF-C (wide) with 3D tracking
Any advice is appreciated

 

[EricBowles]

How far away are the birds? How large are they in the frame? I had no problem with terns in flight with the Z7ii - and the Z9 is a lot better. But when the subject is distant and small, it's more likely the camera can't find the subject.

Try using Wide Small or Custom. Stay away from Area and 3D if you are struggling to find the subject.

 

[MikeRegas]

How far away are the birds? How large are they in the frame?

They tend to be within 20 yards of me in most cases, sometime much closer. Anything farther away than 25/30 yards I don't even mess with really. there size really depends on how close they are but my ideal situation would be about 1/5 - 1/3 of the frame filled.

 

[EricBowles]

They tend to be within 20 yards of me in most cases, sometime much closer. Anything farther away than 25/30 yards I don't even mess with really. there size really depends on how close they are but my ideal situation would be about 1/5 - 1/3 of the frame filled.

That should be fine. Your shutter speed could be faster - probably up it to 1/2400 sec.

Try turning off 3D. Just the regular Wide modes should work. Just pick up the subject early.

 

[arbitrage]

I'd go to a smaller sized Wide Area mode and hand off to Auto, not 3D. For swallow shooting I found handing off to Auto worked better than 3D.

Caveat....this was on FW 3.1 so maybe 4.0 has improved 3D to be as good or better than Auto. Still, starting with the smaller Wide Area made the biggest difference for me with the swallows.