Birds XT2 does more birds in flight

[Iansky]

I had the chance to shoot a few more birds in flight last Saturday, I had the XT2 with grip in boost mode, AFC and using the 100-400.

Once again the focus was super fast at picking up flying birds that suddenly appeared, locking on and tracking effectively - a little overcast to start so many are at 3200 ISO.

Very happy is the conservative way to describe how I feel about the performance of the new camera.

 

[KillRamsey]

Beautiful birds. Love the last one.

 

[Iansky]

Thanks Kyle, I am not really a BIF photographer but wanted to reassure myself that the new AFC system delivers as I hoped - it does.
The camera was set to AFC (AFC - Custom setting 2 to avoid times when the birds passed between trees etc), 1/2000 @ f5.6 / 8 - I did however forget to turn off image stabiliser on the lens. The camera locked on quickly (Zone focus 7 x 7 grid) and stayed with the birds. You can see from the images that the light was not ideal hence the ISO being 3200. I processed these in ACR using the Chrome setting.

 

[Britanica]

Very nice shots! I love the couple there, with the male and female. Never understood why male bird always had more colorful feathers. lol

 

[Iansky]

Thanks Britanica, I does seem a little odd but works and makes for some nice photos.

 

[rixpix]

Never understood why male bird always had more colorful feathers. lol

It's mostly to distract predators so they're less likely to go after the more vulnerable nesting females.

 

[Britanica]

It's mostly to distract predators so they're less likely to go after the more vulnerable nesting females.

My mind has just been blown. That makes so much sense! Thanks for sharing that with me. Learn something new every day! haha

 

[rixpix]

My mind has just been blown. That makes so much sense! Thanks for sharing that with me. Learn something new every day! haha

Glad to enlighten ... priority one: protect the eggs & babies!

 

[tom2014]

I'm not as lucky as you. I missed a lot of focus when I photograph birds using X-T2 with 90mm f2. It just won't lock on. I found manual focus with AF-L button works better than AF-S or AC-C. I had feeling that this kind camera is not for bird photography, maybe user's error. lol...

 

[Iansky]

Tom, have you got any longer lenses to try it with? the 90mm being a macro lens is not designed for fast follow work. The camera itself is superb for AFC tracking providing the right lens for the job is used (don't mean that in a rude way) and I have been blown away with its performance - it is far better than the Nikon D810 I used to own.

 

[tom2014]

Thank you for your respond Lansky. The XT2 is awesome camera, love it. I don't photograph birds very often but when I have longer lens, I normally try to. I do have 55-200mm lens but it's kind slow, only f4.8 at long end and to get good sharpness I may have to stop down to f5.6 or so. I was photographing standing birds with busy background, the camera had hard time to focus. I may need to get a bit closer to the bird or use longer lens. I used to have Olympus EM1 with 75mm lens, I never missed focus on that package, fast and accurate. By the way, 90mm is not macro lens, 60mm is.

 

[Iansky]

I am surprised to hear this Tom, I have the 55-200 and it is a superb lens and to date I have not found it slow to focus on the XT2, I have not tried it for flying birds but for static / slow moving subjects it is brilliant and delivers superb IQ. These are some images I have taken with the 55-200 + XT2 and I am very happy with them - 571 Photography: Ploughing and countryside day

 

[tom2014]

55-200mm @200mm f6.4

 

[Iansky]

Nothing wrong with those Tom - it is a very under rated lens.

 

[tom2014]

Yeah, it's a fantastic lens.