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Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 01-18-2015, 12:38 PM  
Settings for Flying birds
Posted By JimS_256
Replies: 18
Views: 4,070
Thanks for the kind words. I've become very critical when evaluating my eagle shots. This location is extremely popular during "eagle season" and after seeing what other local photographers are getting here, I've come to realize that I have a long way to go. My images do make me smile and I'm pleased that I'm improving.

The third image is a moderate to heavy crop. I hit the focus pretty well, I love the detail in the talons and that the fish is visible near the surface. The fourth image is also cropped quite a bit. I like how the left wing tip is touching the water. The second image is probably my favorite. I love the way the tail feathers are dragging in the water and leaving a small wake. Unfortunately I missed the focus on this one. It's not very noticeable in the re-sized image but at 1:1 on the original, it's obvious. Also this image isn't cropped at all (other than going from 3/2 aspect ration to 4/3), the eagle was quite close. The first image is barely cropped, the bird is flying towards me and I hit the focus and exposure reasonably well. I think it has the most potential, with some better post processing.

When you refer to "matrix mode" are you referring to exposure or autofocus? I'm assuming exposure but I wasn't sure.

On SR, what I noticed was that the SR icon in the viewfinder (that shows when SR is active?) would turn off when I panned. My impression was that the camera (K-50) knew there was too much movement and was automatically disabling SR. Maybe that's not how it works but it's something to look at the next time you're out.

Do you shoot RAW or JPEG? I've tried both but mostly I just shoot jpeg. The problem I have with RAW is that the camera has trouble keeping up and starts to bog down when shooting high speed continuous. This isn't much of a problem with jpeg (I use a SanDisk Pixtor 80MB/s card).
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 01-17-2015, 04:31 PM  
Settings for Flying birds
Posted By JimS_256
Replies: 18
Views: 4,070
The weather finally improved to the point where I was able to get out and practice a little more. While I had some blue sky it was never sunny and I had to use slower shutter speeds, wider aperture, and higher ISO than I would have liked.

Every forum thread I've read on SR says to turn it off when shooting birds in flight but I tried leaving it on as you did and I can't see any difference. The pictures with it on are just as sharp as when it's off. I noticed that the SR icon in the viewfinder goes off when I start panning so I think the K-50 may automatically disable it when it detects large movements. For now I'm going to leave it on and not worry about it.

I tried using "Auto (5 AF Points) for AF active focusing area but it didn't seem to work as well as Spot so I switched back. I may keep playing with this because I can't always keep the bird centered (or even in the field of view).
What do you use for exposure mode? I was using center weighted, again because I wasn't sure I could keep the bird totally centered. I'm definitely not getting as good an exposure as I'd like. Another thing that will require some practice.

Here are some of my attempts. Not too bad but not great either...

K50, DA*300mm, 1/1,600 sec, f/5, ISO 400


K50, DA*300mm, 1/1,600 sec, f/5, ISO 800


K50, DA*300mm, 1/1,600 sec, f/5, ISO 250


K50, DA*300mm, 1/1,600 sec, f/5, ISO 320
Forum: Troubleshooting and Beginner Help 12-20-2014, 12:10 PM  
Settings for Flying birds
Posted By JimS_256
Replies: 18
Views: 4,070
Thanks for posting this thread, I've been thinking of asking the same question. My biggest problem is getting sharp images. I've been blaming it on my DA 55-300 being "soft" but I recently acquired an DA* 300 and while it's an improvement I'm still not satisfied.

Here are some things I'm trying, or have tried:
I've turned off SR and I'm relying on a fast shutter speed. What's the minimum for a 300mm lens and a fast moving subject.
I've been shooting TAv mode, F5.6 to F8 while trying to keep the ISO under 800 and the shutter over 1/1000.
I'm using back button, center point, focus (half press the shutter button is disabled) but I'm wondering is using multiple points (auto selected) might be better. Any thoughts on that?
What about manual focus? I have an old M200mm that I used this summer with some success but a lot of misses too.


LOCO, your eagle images are fantastic. They're exactly the type of image I dream about capturing but so far haven't had much luck.
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