Osprey with Fish

[Marlo Casabar]

Hello Everyone,

I had just set up my camera/tripod when I heard a loud calling. I looked up and saw this Osprey approaching from the East. It hovered in front of me for about three seconds and then flew off to a tree to eat its meal. The moment I locked on the Osprey, I held down the shutter button and captured 30 frames. I have photos of it starting forward, to the side. Mouth open and mouth closed. I like this one of the most because it is staring at me with its mouth open as it calls out.

I appreciate any advice or comments.

Canon 7D Mk II with 600mm f/4L IS II USM and 1.4x III
1/2500 f/5.6 ISO 800
Cropped and edited in LR6

[Geoff Newhouse]

Hi

I like the dynamic mouth open and aggressive call from the osprey, I also really like the fish with blood on it.

However, the image appears soft so maybe some extra sharpening would help. I also don't like the shadowed/missing right eye and the left wing intersecting with the head.

Funny that my 7DII was useless at these type of shots...I remember a day where I was out shooting trumpeter swans against blue sky and dark trees with 1DX and 7D2 and the 600II/1.4TCIII and every 1DX shot I came home with was tack and every 7DII shot was soft (well not everyone either way but there was too strong of a trend to ignore). One of the reasons I sold the 7DII was because of issue like these. Of course that camera also produced 1000s of great shots for me but it had its issues that overcame the good after awhile for me.

[John Whaley]

Osprey are one of my favorites. You captured a good bif shot but for me the angle is a bit high, focus soft and the head turn too abrupt.

[David Seymour]

Hi Marlo,

As a fellow 7D II owner I too am curious about what may have caused the image softness, which I would not expect to happen when using such high-end optics. The lens-converter combination is 840mm FL, which in the cropped field of view of the 7D II is equivalent to 1344mm on a full-frame body to get the same relative image size on the frame. Nonetheless, I would have thought 1/2500 would be fast enough to avoid any overall image blur due to subject movement or shake - perhaps some of the experts on this site would like to comment? Looking at the image in detail I find it hard to see any evidence of a focus inaccuracy, e.g. the camera focusing on a near or far wingtip rather than the body. However, I would be interested in what your focus system settings were - e.g. did you use center focus point only (with or without 4-point expansion?), or did you use one of the multi-point pattern settings? Did you have the camera set to AI Servo and the highest frame rate, or a lower frame rate? Any other focus-related settings details?

I must say I'm disconcerted by Geoff Newhouse's reported results from side-by-side comparison of the 7D2 and 1Dx with the same lens configuration used on both cameras on the same day, which is part of the reason I'm interested in your experience with this image. If anyone else on the site has some comments about this I think we would both be interested. I think it pays all of us with this type of problem to try and isolate whether equipment issues have played a part or not.

Cheers, David

[arash_hazeghi]

Pose is very dynamic but the issues noted above

soft images happen for a variably of reasons. It could be a simple processing issue (lack of correct sharpening) or it could be soft AF. If the RAW was soft it will be difficult to fix in post. Unfortunately the 7DII struggles with flight shots and moving subjects when a tack sharp image is required. I pointed out this issue when I first tested one almost 3 years ago. However it's not clear if the camera missed the focus here or some other issue

http://arihazeghiphotography.com/blo...-100-400-l-ii/

[gail bisson]

Great pose and I love the view of the fish.
Unfortunately the image is not sharp. Is your RAW sharp? If it is then all this needs is some more sharpening.
Gail

[Marlo Casabar]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I agree with the softness of the photo. When I first bought the 7DII, I was very happy with it - compared to my 7D. But as time has gone on and I purchased the 600mm f/4L, I am finding that the 7DII has limitations. I have been contemplating purchasing either the 5DIV or the 1DXII. CPS is sending me a 1DXII for evaluation loan in March.

Marlo

[Arthur Morris]

Hi

I like the dynamic mouth open and aggressive call from the osprey, I also really like the fish with blood on it.

However, the image appears soft so maybe some extra sharpening would help. I also don't like the shadowed/missing right eye and the left wing intersecting with the head.

Funny that my 7DII was useless at these type of shots...I remember a day where I was out shooting trumpeter swans against blue sky and dark trees with 1DX and 7D2 and the 600II/1.4TCIII and every 1DX shot I came home with was tack and every 7DII shot was soft (well not everyone either way but there was too strong of a trend to ignore). One of the reasons I sold the 7DII was because of issue like these. Of course that camera also produced 1000s of great shots for me but it had its issues that overcame the good after awhile for me.

Might be a good idea to check out Dan Cadieux's images before putting all the blame on the 7D II ... Perhaps that rig needed to be micro-adjusted.

a

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I agree with the softness of the photo. When I first bought the 7DII, I was very happy with it - compared to my 7D. But as time has gone on and I purchased the 600mm f/4L, I am finding that the 7DII has limitations. I have been contemplating purchasing either the 5DIV or the 1DXII. CPS is sending me a 1DXII for evaluation loan in March.

Marlo

Clue: I use two 5D Mark IVs. My 1D X II is usually on the shelf except when I am sending it to Canon to have the sensor cleaned ...

Please consider using this link to purchase one or two 5D IVs :):

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera (Body Only)

a

ps: see my blog for tons more on the 5D IV ...

[Arthur Morris]

Thanks for all of the comments everyone. I agree with the softness of the photo. When I first bought the 7DII, I was very happy with it - compared to my 7D. But as time has gone on and I purchased the 600mm f/4L, I am finding that the 7DII has limitations. I have been contemplating purchasing either the 5DIV or the 1DXII. CPS is sending me a 1DXII for evaluation loan in March.

Marlo

Marlo, How big a crop was this? Where was the AF point?

Many thanks for your membership support.

a

[Marlo Casabar]

Marlo, How big a crop was this? Where was the AF point?

Many thanks for your membership support.

a

The photo was tightly cropped from original 5472x3648 to 4124x2750. I checked the focus point thru DPP 4 and it is on the center point - the bird is to the left. I then checked other photos from the burst. One photo had the focus point spot on the bird's head. That photo was also soft.

Marlo

[Marlo Casabar]

Clue: I use two 5D Mark IVs. My 1D X II is usually on the shelf except when I am sending it to Canon to have the sensor cleaned ...

Please consider using this link to purchase one or two 5D IVs :):

Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera (Body Only)

a

ps: see my blog for tons more on the 5D IV ...

I will check out your blog about the 5D IV. It's interesting that you mentioned the 1DXII sensor cleaning. I was just back at the Fort Worth Nature Center two days ago - dead day. One of my photographer buddies showed up and another photographer asked him about his sensor. He took it to be cleaned and now cleans it himself. I thought that was crazy for such an expensive camera and he shrugged it off as a tradeoff for the speed and abilities.

I don't know if the top of the line DSLRs for Nikon, Sony or others have this problem.

$6K is a lot of money to spend to get into a situation with known problems. As for 14fps vs 7fps. I feel that as I have matured as a photographer, I am much more judicious with bursting my camera. I certainly don't ever hold the shutter down on my 7DII for more than 1 second.

Thanks again!
Marlo

[Mike Hitchen]

A 30% crop should not be a problem for the 7D2 if the focussing is tight. One other thing to consider is the ability of the 7D2 to drive the big whites, especially when also using a teleconverter. I know that Arash has discussed this before and it seems that the 1Dx2 not only has the superior AF sensor but also has bags more power reserve dedicated to driving the lens.

Marlo - what is that combination like for static subjects?

[Arthur Morris]

The photo was tightly cropped from original 5472x3648 to 4124x2750. I checked the focus point thru DPP 4 and it is on the center point - the bird is to the left. I then checked other photos from the burst. One photo had the focus point spot on the bird's head. That photo was also soft.

Marlo

Step on: get the AF point on the bird's eye, face, head, neck, or upper breast. Note however that you need to acquire focus as above then give the system time to track accurately ... 98% of the time when the AF point is on the bird's head and the image is soft it comes back to operator error ... Not enough time for the system to track the subject, or, th AF point on a spot with little to no contrast. There has been lots on the blog on that very subject over the past few months.

a

ps: all of the above applies to me as I am no great flight photographer ...

[Marlo Casabar]

A 30% crop should not be a problem for the 7D2 if the focussing is tight. One other thing to consider is the ability of the 7D2 to drive the big whites, especially when also using a teleconverter. I know that Arash has discussed this before and it seems that the 1Dx2 not only has the superior AF sensor but also has bags more power reserve dedicated to driving the lens.

Marlo - what is that combination like for static subjects?

Morning Mike,

The combination static is outstanding! I took this picture 6/18/2016. I had the new 600mm and 1.4xIII less than a month, so I was still trying to figure it out.

Canon 7DII 600mm f/4L IS II USM 1.4xIII
Aperture Priority 1/100 f/8.0 ISO 1000 Edited in LR cropped to 4999x3333

[Mike Hitchen]

There is not much wrong with that shot. The bird is a bit soft but that is probably the shutter speed of only 1/100 (these critters twitch quite a lot) but the leaves show good sharpness.
So it looks like Artie's suggestion - giving the system time to 'lock on', (not only acquire focus but also for the AF programs to calculate the bird's movements).