EOS R5 Birds in canopy — blurry!

[catsongs]

Aloha from Honolulu,

Upgraded from a Canon 80D to an R5 to capture white terns in flight.

The R5 can take some mind-blowingly brilliant shots.

But...

But when the terns fly in and dance about above my head in the canopy, I get hundreds of well-composed blurry photos. Very frustrating.

I'm shooting TV with 1/1250 to 1/1600 shutter speed. Using the 70-200mm lens.

The problem is clearly the focusing. The R5 can't find something in the terns' plumage to focus on.

I've tried a variety of AF options, but no luck so far.

I'm attaching a typical (screenshot) of the type of photo that gets trashed!

Honestly, I think I did better under the canopy with the 80D.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received!

Cat

[catsongs]

???

Not sure I'm getting your feedback.

Takk.

[Waddizzle]

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@catsongs wrote:

???

Not sure I'm getting your feedback.

Takk.

---

“ The problem is clearly the focusing. The R5 can't find something in the terns' plumage to focus on.  I've tried a variety of AF options, but no luck so far. ”

Is the problem the camera, the lens, the shooting conditions, or other?  Be careful not to blame the camera for doing whatever you ask or tell it to do.  

Complex shooting conditions are best met with simple camera settings.  For these types of shots with a busy background, I would disable the advanced eye and animal tracking, and just rely on capturing the nearest thing to the camera.

[catsongs]

Aloha,

Yes, I'm realizing the shooting conditions are complex.

Today I set two back buttons, one for (animal) eyes, one for (animal) zone.

I've typically not used zone, so today was an experimental day.

I'm happy to say that I got some great "in the canopy" shots today.

While the eye locator had difficult, even with a tern sitting on her egg, the zone setting got a parent delivery fish nicely! Screenshot:

So my question to you is: What is "keep it simple" shooting a bird over your head under the tree canopy?

My (today's experimental) shoot would suggest TV 1/16000 / Animal / AF Zone.

Takk!

Cat

[catsongs]

Aloha e Trevor,

You inspired me to take a second look at the back buttons.

I set one for animal / eye, and one for animal / zone.

While the Zone didn't seem as good as a multiple point when I'm shooting a tern against a blue sky, I did get a number of great shots in the canopy. Screenshot:

Question —

I found the animal / eye settings frustrating.

Even with a mother tern sitting on an egg, the R5 had real difficulty finding the eye.

When it did: crisp!

What's your method for getting the focus to, say, target the bird's head so the eye locator has a better chance of (quickly) finding the eye (in conditions such as the tree canopy)?

Takk!

Cat

[johnrmoyer]

With my EOS R5, when I want to focus on the eye of a sitting bird, I will focus first on a large high contrast object at about the same distance like a tree trunk and then the camera finds the eye quickly.

For a flying bird, I am often too old and slow to get the shot.

[catsongs]

Aloha e John,

So you'd set a back button for, say, a spot focus, then when you've got the distance, press a 2nd button dedicated to eyes?

I won't ask how "old" you are, but I'm no spring chicken!

I do teach 7 and 8 year olds and they keep me on my feet! As do the terns!

Takk!

Cat

[johnrmoyer]

I do not use back button at all for focus. I point camera at tree trunk and half press shutter button to get approximate focus distance, then point at bird and half press and after eye detection frame the shot and full press shutter button. I might be a Luddite, but I like the half press better than back button. With tracking and eye detection, I have no need to focus first and then frame the shot and then press shutter.

If there is nothing high contrast at near the same distance, I turn the focus ring on the lens and then half press shutter button to detect bird eye.

I am so old that I wrote my first FORTRAN program in 1969. Six bit FORTRAN character set before ASCII, Hollerith code. Although by 1970, there was an ANSI standard for Hollerith code punched cards: https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/Legacy/FIPS/fipspub14.pdf  X3.26-1970

The first computer program I wrote, in 1969, photo made June 10, 2022

https://www.rsok.com/~jrm/2022Jun26_birds_and_cats/2022jun10_punchcard_IMG_9502-9515.html

[catsongs]

Aloha from the North Shore,

No terns today, just parachutists dropping out of the sky and our Basenji tearing about trying to get dry after a rinse to get the salt out of his fur!

Mahalo for your thoughts.

I've been experimenting with the back buttons and I think I'm coming 'round. Just got to hone in on what I want the buttons to do.

Well, you beat me on the age thing, I guess. But at university I was punching cards in some computer class I was taking. Actually, I loathed it so much my girlfriend at the time ran cards for both of us!

But when I saw how a friend was using a mouse on a 128K Mac, well, I got the 512K FatMac and have used computers ever since!

Mahalo for your feedback!

Enjoy the weekend!

Cat

[iCollector]

One option you can try with the ‘joystick’ that may be of use is to chant so that you can move the focus point around with it…. Than you can work with the focus types to see what one gives you the highest success in getting what you want…. BBF was just not for me… I even tried to get it so it would turn OFF focusing…. The nice thing is these can all be played with till you find options that work for you….. there is no ‘only way’.

[catsongs]

Aloha e iCollector,

Mahalo!

I didn't think BBF was for me, but now that I've thought it through and practiced -- and I'm getting good results (if I remember pushing the shutter button down halfway doesn't do anything anymore!) -- I'm sticking with it.

The joystick is a great idea and... still "fighting" to get it to take priority over the AF, especially AF/eye. More experimentation called for!

While the many options Canon provides with the R5 is overwhelming at first -- and I thought my 80D was a big step up from my Rebel, years ago -- now that I've figured out what I need for shooting in the tree-canopy, fast-moving-bird situations I find myself in, I like it that I can quickly switch from settings for a brooding mother tern to a fledgling taking off, or a fish-carrying parent hovering above my head.

Getting there.

It does take a lot of thinking and a lot of work, but it's worth it!

Takk!

Cat