Bob Whitmire wrote:
> Boy, I hope this is more than hype. While in Florida, wasting away on
> a condo balcony overlooking the ocean, I spent a good deal of time
> trying to photograph pelicans flying by--well, actually soaring on
> updrafts off the pavement, and I don't think a single shot from the
> 510 and 50-200 was in focus. The birds were flying toward me, at an
> oblique angle, and no matter how I set the autofocus, or how many
> points I used, nothing seemed to work. Complete crap.
>
That's distressing. I've took several shots of pelicans in flight at Pt.
Lobos and they were pretty much all in focus. This one would have
benefited from lower iso and shutter speed, but there's no doubt about
the focus
<http://moosemystic.net/Gallery/MPhotos/Calif/PtLobos/LobosPelican.htm>.
The others are nothing exciting, but the focus is correct on all of
them. I almost never use anything but the center focus point. So in
another shot with a different angle and less DOF, the central bird of a
trio is in focus and the ones on either side slightly less so.
I know you know all this, but:
Enough shutter speed? I'd think at least 1/1000, more if possible, for
handheld moving critters at 400 mm eq.
How are you using the shutter release? Because I so often use a half
press to lock focus, then wait for something and/or reframe, I find
myself taking even action shots with a moment's hesitation between half
and full press. That really doesn't work with fast moving things and I
have to discipline myself to press right through smoothly. On the 5D,
setting continuous focus fixes that, but I don't always have time to switch.
Did you try it with the IS off? Various IS systems interact in
unpredictable ways with different lenses and moving subjects. I assume
you had it at least in a horizontal tracking mode.
Is this the old 50-200? It was awfully slow to focus when I tried on on
an E-1 when they came out. Some may have been the E-1, but I think that
lens may just be slow. That was one factor that led me to the 300D.
Is the E510 focusing system supposed to handle this situation? As Chuck
has elucidated, the 5D has fairly sophisticated predictive AF. I don't
know about E-thingies. But the 300D did a good job with such things and
it's older design and entry level. lack of predictive AF and a slow to
react lens could be the trouble.
Moose
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