John Harper
New member
Hi There
Looking for some advice on shooting birds in flight with the EF500 on a 1DMKIIN. Those of you who follow my various posts on OPF will be aware that i spend a lot of time at the Hawk Conservancy taking pictures of the various birds of prey that they display there in various flying demonstrations.
I have had some success with my Barn Owl shots, and i am now trying to get some nice action shots of both black Kites and Falcons (Lanner & Peregrine).
Having only just got the 500mm i have had only limited time to practice with it and have been using it handheld with some degree of success. The sort of shots i am trying to get are the Falcons flying near the ground in high speed passes, wings spread and sharp on the eye.
Does anyone feel that i would stand a better chance with this sort of shot with the lens on a wimberley type head or am i better off handheld and just shooting lots of frames in the hope i get a good one ( The old spray and pray technique).
I may well be asking the impossible of both the camera and the lens and or a tripod and wimberley, but i would be grateful to hear from anyone who has had any experience of this sort of thing
I post below a shot showing the sort of shot i am after, but tend to find you either get the framing right but no focus, or focus and lose the framing, or lose both!!
John
Tech Details
EOS1DMKIIN EF500mm F4L 1/5000 @ F4 ISO 800 Handheld IS off AI Servo CF4-3 Focus set to * button center point only.
Looking for some advice on shooting birds in flight with the EF500 on a 1DMKIIN. Those of you who follow my various posts on OPF will be aware that i spend a lot of time at the Hawk Conservancy taking pictures of the various birds of prey that they display there in various flying demonstrations.
I have had some success with my Barn Owl shots, and i am now trying to get some nice action shots of both black Kites and Falcons (Lanner & Peregrine).
Having only just got the 500mm i have had only limited time to practice with it and have been using it handheld with some degree of success. The sort of shots i am trying to get are the Falcons flying near the ground in high speed passes, wings spread and sharp on the eye.
Does anyone feel that i would stand a better chance with this sort of shot with the lens on a wimberley type head or am i better off handheld and just shooting lots of frames in the hope i get a good one ( The old spray and pray technique).
I may well be asking the impossible of both the camera and the lens and or a tripod and wimberley, but i would be grateful to hear from anyone who has had any experience of this sort of thing
I post below a shot showing the sort of shot i am after, but tend to find you either get the framing right but no focus, or focus and lose the framing, or lose both!!
John
Tech Details
EOS1DMKIIN EF500mm F4L 1/5000 @ F4 ISO 800 Handheld IS off AI Servo CF4-3 Focus set to * button center point only.