House finch in flight.

[Tonytee]

Outstanding job in getting such a sharp image of a subject in flight. Not easy to do. Thanks very much for posting.

TT

[Lmcfarrin]

Thanks.

... all my shots are manual focus and at times I use lenses as wide as 50mm when I need to get extreme perspectives.

[mroeder75]

That is a cool shot. With cropping, makes it appear we are about to see a bird of prey. I don't know how you could manually focus it.

[Lmcfarrin]

I never said I was holding the camera - prefocused, tripod, and wireless trigger.

It's more in depth than that, but that's how its done. These backyard birds are to fast, to small, and to unpredictable to use AF. If you are able to use AF all of your shots overtime will have the same view perspective - side of the bird or back of the bird (as bird is leaving the feeder). To get these type of shots requires a TOTAL committment to a different way which doesn't include AF. I shoot minimum 4 cameras up to 6 cameras at once. The faster fps your camera the more proficient your keeper rate will be. My Oly EM1 II = 60fps, Sony RX10 III = 14fps, Sony A6000 = 11fps, Oly EM5 = 9fps, K3 II = 8.3fps, K5 = 7fps. This style is capture first resolution second. This is not suited for a K-1 II - that's like asking a linebacker to guard a wide receiver. My keeper rate after a series of shooting/pursuing these types of shots (head on or underneath) totals from all cameras is about 1%.

As I stated, its alot more in depth. Fortunately for the RX10 III and the EM1 II I shoot with electronic shutter as not to batter my shutter, but the other mentioned cameras unfortunately have extensive mechanical shutter use.

I've evolved this style going on 4 years now. I'm now venturing into the realm of birds in flight portraiture where I compose my shot to include what I want to appear in the background and the capture of the bird completes the composition.

[Lmcfarrin]

.... Examples of bif portraiture

---------- Post added 04-09-19 at 10:06 PM ----------

As you can see, the vintage lenses put these pics in a totally different class. Lens used for the Junco and Blue Jay is the Meyer Optik 58mm 1.9.

[Lmcfarrin]

.... Examples of bif portraiture

---------- Post added 04-09-19 at 10:06 PM ----------

As you can see, the vintage lenses put these pics in a totally different class. Lens used for the Junco and Blue Jay is the Meyer Optik 58mm 1.9.

.... example of smc takumar 55mm f2. New glass can't compete with these types of lenses without breaking the bank. And if you look at the EXIF you'll see these were taken recently.

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Last edited by Lmcfarrin; 06-19-2019 at 07:33 PM.

[Lmcfarrin]

I have the 15, 35, and 40 limited lenses. I would say the rendention of the limited lenses is a bridge/merger of modern and vintage = I'll at some point be getting the 70 limited too. When I adapt lenses to m43 my focal length doubles. So a 70mm becomes a 140mm. I commonly use a tamron 70-200 macro, it becomes a 140-400 equivalent. M43 allows for some advantages due to the crop factor, but suffers when adapting to go wide.

[mroeder75]

I never said I was holding the camera - prefocused, tripod, and wireless trigger.

It's more in depth than that, but that's how its done. These backyard birds are to fast, to small, and to unpredictable to use AF. If you are able to use AF all of your shots overtime will have the same view perspective - side of the bird or back of the bird (as bird is leaving the feeder). To get these type of shots requires a TOTAL committment to a different way which doesn't include AF. I shoot minimum 4 cameras up to 6 cameras at once. The faster fps your camera the more proficient your keeper rate will be. My Oly EM1 II = 60fps, Sony RX10 III = 14fps, Sony A6000 = 11fps, Oly EM5 = 9fps, K3 II = 8.3fps, K5 = 7fps. This style is capture first resolution second. This is not suited for a K-1 II - that's like asking a linebacker to guard a wide receiver. My keeper rate after a series of shooting/pursuing these types of shots (head on or underneath) totals from all cameras is about 1%.

As I stated, its alot more in depth. Fortunately for the RX10 III and the EM1 II I shoot with electronic shutter as not to batter my shutter, but the other mentioned cameras unfortunately have extensive mechanical shutter use.

I've evolved this style going on 4 years now. I'm now venturing into the realm of birds in flight portraiture where I compose my shot to include what I want to appear in the background and the capture of the bird completes the composition.

That is very impressive.

[Lmcfarrin]

8

That is very impressive.

Thanks. All of my bird shots are with them in flight, no matter the weather.