I went out to test out the tracking abilities of my new K-3II (previously had canon 50D and K-5). These are what I came home with. Overall I thought it did well, especially with medium to large size birds. Certainly leaps and bound ahead of the K-5 and perhaps in line with the 50D. Too bad my shutter was still at 1/500 when I saw the osprey.

[Heinrich Lohmann]

Wonderful images, all of them. Glad that the combo worked for you and thanks for posting them.

[jpzk]

Superb series of fine images !
Looks like you had splendid light conditions as well ... still struggling with Mother Nature over here!
Would you mind disclosing some of your settings with the K3II and the DA*300/4 ?

Thanks for sharing.

JP

[photolady95]

Really great captures.

Question, how much crop did you have on these?

[JoseFF]

i went out to test out the tracking abilities of my new k-3ii (previously had canon 50d and k-5). These are what i came home with. Overall i thought it did well, especially with medium to large size birds. Certainly leaps and bound ahead of the k-5 and perhaps in line with the 50d. Too bad my shutter was still at 1/500 when i saw the osprey.

awesome!!!!!!!

[RoxnDox]

Wow... And the osprey certainly had his eyes on you!

[Janse]

Great series!

[Rondec]

Awesome set of shots! Thanks for sharing.

[slowpez]

Fantastic images Bryce. You should be proud of them all.

[Venom3300]

Wonderful images, all of them. Glad that the combo worked for you and thanks for posting them.

Thanks

Superb series of fine images !
Looks like you had splendid light conditions as well ... still struggling with Mother Nature over here!
Would you mind disclosing some of your settings with the K3II and the DA*300/4 ?

Thanks for sharing.

JP

Thank you. The lighting was great. Morning from around 8am to 10:30am with no clouds.

I don't claim these to be the best settings as this is my first real outing with this combo, but here it goes:
for BIF: AF-C, 25 points (select 3- not auto), AF hold- Low (will probably used medium now in hindsight), Frame rate- focus priority, 1st shot- focus priority, full manual mode, highest burst speed, back button AF

Really great captures.

Question, how much crop did you have on these?

1st pic is 6.7MP
2nd pic is 6.75MP
3rd pic is 4.4MP
4th pic is 9.65MP
5th pic 4.74MP
6th pic is .836MP
7th pic is 4.07MP

Looking back there is a significant increase in resolution post crop as compared to my K-5 average- which makes sense due to sensor resolution

awesome!!!!!!!

Thanks

Wow... And the osprey certainly had his eyes on you!

Thanks. Yes, he was almost directly overhead.

Great series!

Thank you.

Awesome set of shots! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.

Fantastic images Bryce. You should be proud of them all.

Thank you. I went to a new location and had a new camera with significantly improved performance- those two things deserve a lot of credit as well.

[Unregistered User 8]

These are what I came home with.

I want to come home with photographs like this too Bryce !!! An excellent series of images. All well taken.

[Goosey]

Very cool mate

[audiobomber]

for BIF: AF-C, 25 points (select 3- not auto), AF hold- Low (will probably used medium now in hindsight), Frame rate- focus priority, 1st shot- focus priority, full manual mode, highest burst speed, back button AF.

I use similar settings with a couple of differences; TAv mode, shutter release AF (I agree about AF Hold Medium).
What about SR? I recommend turning SR off for BIF.

[jpzk]

I don't claim these to be the best settings as this is my first real outing with this combo, but here it goes:
for BIF: AF-C, 25 points (select 3- not auto), AF hold- Low (will probably used medium now in hindsight), Frame rate- focus priority, 1st shot- focus priority, full manual mode, highest burst speed, back button AF

No idea what to make out of those settings but it sure looks like it's working for you!
I am still shooting "spot" everything and AF-S, burst mode, TAv.
Maybe I will have to dare going into those settings a bit more.
Thanks again for the tips and for sharing those great shots!

[Venom3300]

I use similar settings with a couple of differences; TAv mode, shutter release AF (I agree about AF Hold Medium).
What about SR? I recommend turning SR off for BIF.

The K-3II SR system was supposedly updated with a "panning detection" feature so that turning SR would no longer be needed. Having said that I never turned SR off for BIF on my K-5. I can't say that Ive ever missed a shot and thought it might be because SR was on- its usually just a flat out AF miss for me.

My .02