Fast, Maddening and Fun...

[David Roach]

At Wako the other morning, these guys were everywhere. Since there was no wind at all, they came from every direction and were maddeningly fun to try and catch!
1DMKIIN 400DO ISO 400 F4.0@1/2000

[Linwood Ferguson]

Have tried doing that recently, tracking with a heavy 200-400Vr. It's called exercise! And I didn't get any nearly that good. I was asked to stop, I was killing too many electrons due to a low keeper rate; electron genecide they called it.

Nice shadow detail under the wing, and nicely sharp. Wish he had been looking at you!

[David Roach]

ROTFL!!!! Hey Linwwod, out of about 50 frames, there were 5 (maybe keepers). So, I killed a few myself!!!!

[Alex Mody]

I'm impressed you kept 5 out of 50. I'd say my ratio was 5 out of 200 when I was trying this. Anyways... I think you did very well considering the conditions and how fast these little guys are. I feel like I'm seeing a little bit of halo around darker spots on the wings, but that may be due to my less than ideal laptop monitor.

[David Roach]

Thanks as always for the comments and critiques. Alex, because I was only on 3 FPS (instead of 8 - usually used for flight) and I only hit the shutter for 2 or 3 images on each try, my ratio was a little better. If I had as usual switched to 8FPS for flight, I would have killed a bunch more electrons! When set to longer focus range (8+ meters) and when I keep the shutter speed up, the 400DO has been a great lens for flight shots! Not to mention, it's relatively light when handholding!!!

[arash_hazeghi]

Nice pose, light is a bit harsh for under the wings, I am guessing you did some NR for under the wings and the head cause there is some loss of detail, if that's the case I'd redo post with less NR.