some recent experience with AF and a question.
I have been for the first time in my life to an animal park very close to home... this is a fantastic place I had never seen before and I definitely have to go back because I couldn't see a third of it... I am a bit ashamed because I have visited lots of zoos and animal parks all over the world and I never took the time to go there...
Back to the subject: D200.
Among other things... there was a birds show (very classical, I have seen those in Vancouver, Singapore, ... very similar) and I tried to catch some flight shots.
My experience is the following:
- sometimes the D200 has problems to follow at all and ends up focusing on the background - all pics unusable
- the closest subject mode doesn't really seem to work for birds flying very fast in your direction.
- group dynamic with continuous AF, and lock on target before the flight started gave me excellent sequences (see hereunder for an example)
- one series was totally wrong - AF completely lost and all pictures overexposed exactly the same way (example below) - anybody an idea of what happened ?
I have been using the D200+70-200VR @2.8-3.5 Aperture priority for the following pictures (C-H mode 5 pics/sec)
#1 target locked before take off
#2 next one
#3 next one - higher resolution to show that it's still in focus
#4 next one in the sequence
#5 and so on... even with an obstacle (I programmed the "medium" delay before the AF jumps)
#6 the last one in the sequence I wanted to show here
the example of the missed sequence (10 pics like that)
and by the way, the performance of the 70-200VR fully open @200mm falls in the category "reasonable"
and another one...
Last thing, there were a few other shooters, many P&S camera's, a few with a D50, D70, Rebel with kit lenses and two more serious photographers... one with the D2Xs+Sigma 120-300 2.8 (very impressive) and another one with Canon 1Ds+L Glass (the longest he had was a 300mm f4). There was the local pro-shooter, selling his pictures.... he shoots up to 5000 pics a day !, has two people full time to help him to process film (yes he is still using film), and is doing this with a Nikon F90. He was impressed by the stuff I had with me... Here is his pic (scanned on my crappy scanner).
I had the D200+70-200VR, the F5+80-400OS and the D70+18-200VR and a number of other lenses in my backpack (to be honest, the D70 has been used by my wife, I didn't touch it... My wife is starting to get interested and has even talked about a D40x.... who knows
Thanks for watching.
Guy
I have been for the first time in my life to an animal park very close to home... this is a fantastic place I had never seen before and I definitely have to go back because I couldn't see a third of it... I am a bit ashamed because I have visited lots of zoos and animal parks all over the world and I never took the time to go there...
Back to the subject: D200.
Among other things... there was a birds show (very classical, I have seen those in Vancouver, Singapore, ... very similar) and I tried to catch some flight shots.
My experience is the following:
- sometimes the D200 has problems to follow at all and ends up focusing on the background - all pics unusable
- the closest subject mode doesn't really seem to work for birds flying very fast in your direction.
- group dynamic with continuous AF, and lock on target before the flight started gave me excellent sequences (see hereunder for an example)
- one series was totally wrong - AF completely lost and all pictures overexposed exactly the same way (example below) - anybody an idea of what happened ?
I have been using the D200+70-200VR @2.8-3.5 Aperture priority for the following pictures (C-H mode 5 pics/sec)
#1 target locked before take off
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
#2 next one
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
#3 next one - higher resolution to show that it's still in focus
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
#4 next one in the sequence
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
#5 and so on... even with an obstacle (I programmed the "medium" delay before the AF jumps)
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
#6 the last one in the sequence I wanted to show here
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
the example of the missed sequence (10 pics like that)
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
and by the way, the performance of the 70-200VR fully open @200mm falls in the category "reasonable"
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
and another one...
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
Last thing, there were a few other shooters, many P&S camera's, a few with a D50, D70, Rebel with kit lenses and two more serious photographers... one with the D2Xs+Sigma 120-300 2.8 (very impressive) and another one with Canon 1Ds+L Glass (the longest he had was a 300mm f4). There was the local pro-shooter, selling his pictures.... he shoots up to 5000 pics a day !, has two people full time to help him to process film (yes he is still using film), and is doing this with a Nikon F90. He was impressed by the stuff I had with me... Here is his pic (scanned on my crappy scanner).
Subscribe to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
I had the D200+70-200VR, the F5+80-400OS and the D70+18-200VR and a number of other lenses in my backpack (to be honest, the D70 has been used by my wife, I didn't touch it... My wife is starting to get interested and has even talked about a D40x.... who knows
Thanks for watching.
Guy
