How to get a focus on a flying small?

[Desmond Chan]

Hi all,

I have seen some of you posted full frame shots of flying small birds. I wonder if you mind sharing you tricks of getting that kind of shots, especially how you get a focus on the bird. Right now, the longest lens I have is a 400mm of the 200-400 VR and I generally have difficulty picking out a moving small bird, or a far away large bird for that matter, from even a simple background such as a big blue sky. My D300 doesn't help either. Every time I try to focus on the bird - assuming I have pointed the lens at the right spot in that big sky to begin with - the lens hunt. And of course while the lens is trying to focus, the bird has moved to a new position already. I read that with a zoom, I can use the shorter focal length to pick out the target then zoom in. But what about with a fixed focal length such as a 500 or 600 mm lens? How do you guys actually do it?

Thanks!

[Alfred Forns]

Desmond it is all a mater of tracking and the longer the focal length the more difficult.

The 200-400 is my favorite by far and will be using most of the time. Do use it with the D300 most of the time and converters.

Advice to prefocus and keep the point on the bird. If its hunting you are not keeping the AF point on. Might want to try with less magnification and work your way up. The 300 f 4.0 combined with the D300 makes a sweet package and can use with the 1.4X with good results. Imagine is just practicing. I'm sure you will be nailing the little guys in no time!!!

[Doug Brown]

But what about with a fixed focal length such as a 500 or 600 mm lens? How do you guys actually do it?

Practice, practice, practice! No surprise there. When using a big lens, I set my focus distance on the lens using the slider (10 meters to infinity, for example). That way the camera doesn't bother trying to focus on anything closer than 10 meters. I mostly use center point AF and AI servo focus. I bump my focus periodically rather than try to AF all the time (a trick I learned from Jim Neiger). What that means is you focus on the bird, take your finger off the AF button, and track the bird, fine tuning the AF periodically. It helps to learn how birds fly. And you've got to take a lot of photos. Good luck!

[Desmond Chan]

Practice, practice, practice! No surprise there. When using a big lens, I set my focus distance on the lens using the slider (10 meters to infinity, for example). That way the camera doesn't bother trying to focus on anything closer than 10 meters. I mostly use center point AF and AI servo focus. I bump my focus periodically rather than try to AF all the time (a trick I learned from Jim Neiger). What that means is you focus on the bird, take your finger off the AF button, and track the bird, fine tuning the AF periodically. It helps to learn how birds fly. And you've got to take a lot of photos. Good luck!

I just read Jim Neiger's posts today. One thing that I definitely will try is bumping the focus. Hopefully I'd get better luck out of that :)

Thanks Al and Doug for your replies !!