Michael´s Eighth Year

[michael-ibk]

299/E51) Eurasian Hobby (Falco subbuteo) / Baumfalke

 

Mils, Tirol, 21/8. Uncommon so I was really delighted to see one.

 

[michael-ibk]

300/E52) Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) / Eisvogel

 

Inzing, Tirol, 18/5. The first bird I photographed after I got my new R7 after complaining about the first one´s faults. I hope it will bring me luck. Certainly the closest I´ve been to a Kingfisher in Tirol.

 

[TonyQ]

A great bird for your 300, and many beautiful photos with your new camera. Good to see you are able to get out birding again.

 

Mirrorless questions 

Set up. I use two back buttons for focus. AF-on uses tracking, animal detect and eye detect. Shutter button sets exposure and takes pictures but does not focus.

Most of the time I use a focussing area that is a bit smaller than the full frame (avoids catching vegetation at the edges) I use one of the cross keys to change frame size when I need to (not often)

 

I use the * button as single small point, no tracking. When a small bird in vegetation I often switch my thumb between these, but the small point helps (it is not as small as the 7d point)

 

Bird in sky, I focus quickly on something very roughly at a similar distance to where I expect the bird and this seems to help the camera “see” the bird and grab focus

 

I use another cross key for changing frame rate. I usually use 3 fps for still birds.

 

I use theMfn button set only for exposure compensation, it allows changes when shooting Manual with auto iso which I use when I want depth of field and to set the shutter speed

 

Sorry to break the flow of your very enjoyable thread!

[michael-ibk]

No need to say sorry Tony, thank you so much, that's all extremely helpful and exactly the kind of information I was hoping to get!

 

1 hour ago, TonyQ said:

Set up. I use two back buttons for focus. AF-on uses tracking, animal detect and eye detect. Shutter button sets exposure and takes pictures but does not focus.

 

Ah, good, that's what I do, always nice to get confirmation. 

 

1 hour ago, TonyQ said:

Most of the time I use a focussing area that is a bit smaller than the full frame (avoids catching vegetation at the edges) I use one of the cross keys to change frame size when I need to (not often)

 

I've been playing around with the focusing areas. The full frame is amazingly effective but what you are saying makes a lot of sense. Also good idea about the cross keys to chane the size, the default setup is quite cumbersome, I will try that. 

 

1 hour ago, TonyQ said:

I use the * button as single small point, no tracking. When a small bird in vegetation I often switch my thumb between these, but the small point helps (it is not as small as the 7d point)

 

Exactly my setting, read it somewhere, and really liked that idea. I noticed the small single point is a bit bigger as well. There's no way to minimize its size, is there? 

 

1 hour ago, TonyQ said:

Bird in sky, I focus quickly on something very roughly at a similar distance to where I expect the bird and this seems to help the camera “see” the bird and grab focus

 

OK, thanks again, this is so far the biggest minus point for me, I'll just have to get used to this then. This was no issue with the 7d, instantly saw the general shape of a flying bird in the viewfinder without focusing. 

 

1 hour ago, TonyQ said:

 

 

1 hour ago, TonyQ said:

I use another cross key for changing frame rate. I usually use 3 fps for still birds.

 

Another excellent suggestion, thanks. 

 

1 hour ago, TonyQ said:

I use theMfn button set only for exposure compensation, it allows changes when shooting Manual with auto iso which I use when I want depth of field and to set the shutter speed

 

 

Same here! 

 

Thanks again Tony, really appreciate your help. 

Edited August 22, 2023 by michael-ibk

[pedro maia]

Congrats on #300 and of course on the new camera, I wish I could give you some tips but I’m not helpfull with technical stuff and I’m still struggling myself, especially when I don’t use the camera for a few days.

 

Your results with forest birds are very good, I find them very difficult to photograph with this camera, but I haven’t practice much.

[PeterHG]

You’re building up a beautiful collection again, Michael. Quite a few birds I’ve never seen or haven’t seen for ages. I fully understand that the switch to mirrorless takes some getting used to. I cannot really comment on the setup for your Canon as I have a different brand, but some aspects I do recognize. The electronic viewfinder is one of them. I do not feel this problem occurs as often or as explicitly as you describe, but the ‘waking up’ of the EVF is still a major difference with the DSLR even though it is much better than it was in the older mirrorless cameras. I often find myself just pressing the focus or shutter button when walking about when I expect birds to fly by, to keep the camera alert. I do this even when the camera is hanging by by my side, so not really focusing on anything in particular.

I put a lot of trust in the bird detection AF and, for birds in flight, I use all focus points ( as I understand you do). I have a button dedicated to quickly turn the detection on and off and I can also quickly change the focus area to single point ( which in my case is quite small). Although I use back button focus,but for birds in flight I have set it up so that I can also focus with the shutter button. Sometimes I feel that is just a little quicker. I have dedicated one of the custom modes (C1) for this. I seem to use the 4 different custom modes much more than I did with the DSLR. All in all I am very happy with the switch to mirrorless in spite of the few quirks every now and then. I do hope you’ll feel the same. You have shown us a lot of great results already, but then, you also did with the 7 D  

[michael-ibk]

Thanks @pedro maiaand @PeterHG!

 

Good advice Peter, thanks again. It is definitely a learning curve. There are so many options for settings - hard to say often which one to choose. For BIF I´m still playing around a bit with the focus fields - so far all fields are surprisingly good but I will have to gain more experience to make a better decision on this. Your tip with enabling/disabling detection is a very good one, and I will also try the shutter button for focus for BIF on C1.

 

@TonyQare you activating/deactivating the "Autofocus Preview"?

 

I´m pondering if the Back Button Focus is still worth it with the R7 - I really saw the advantages with the 7D. But now with the detection mode you can change the frame anyway since the AF sticks to the bird.

 

Ok, back to birds:

 

301/E53) Eurasian Blackcap (Sylvia atricapilla) / Mönchsgrasmücke

 

Gaisau, Tirol, 23/8. Another one that will soon be gone.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

302/E54) Icterine Warbler (Hippolais icterina) / Gelbspötter

 

Gaisau, Tirol, 23/8. We have a few breeding birds here but I mostly see this one during migration.

 

[michael-ibk]

303/E55) Eurasianaka Spotted Nutcracker (Nucifraga caryocatactes) / Tannenhäher

 

Venetalm, 25/8. Quite common and conspicuous higher up in the forests.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

304/E56) White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) / Bachstelze

 

Mils, Tirol, 26/8. One of our very common birds.

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

305/E57) Carrion Crow (Corvus corone) / Rabenkrähe

 

Mils, Tirol, 20/8. Over and done with.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

306/E58) Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) / Stockente

 

Tiebelmündung, Carinthia, 12/8. All out of colour now.

 

 

 

[PeterHG]

Great shot of the Icterine Warbler! 

58 minutes ago, michael-ibk said:

Quite common and conspicuous higher up in the forests.

Lucky you! Well, we don’t have ‘higher up in the forest’ here, so that explains it

[TonyQ]

Nice additions @michael-ibk, many we do not get here.

Autofocus Preview. I had to check what it is which suggests I have it deactivated . I think it uses a lot of battery as it is focussing all the time. I don’t really see an advantage to it, but I only tried it when I first got the camera.

[Soukous]

On 8/27/2023 at 12:34 PM, PeterHG said:

Well, we don’t have ‘higher up in the forest’ here, so that explains it

 

 nor do we. At least nowhere close to home. I wish we did.

[Soukous]

Michael, great to see that your new camera is delivering the results.

I know it is rude to compliment the camera rather than the photographer, but your latest images are - to me at least - much crisper than your previous camera/lens combination delivered.

[michael-ibk]

Thanks! For Nutcrackers - just visit, one species I can (almost) guarantee.

 

On 8/27/2023 at 2:02 PM, TonyQ said:

Autofocus Preview. I had to check what it is which suggests I have it deactivated . I think it uses a lot of battery as it is focussing all the time. I don’t really see an advantage to it, but I only tried it when I first got the camera.

 

Thanks Tony, I mostly disabled it, but left it on for my BIF settings in C1 (at least for now).

 

8 hours ago, Soukous said:

Michael, great to see that your new camera is delivering the results.

I know it is rude to compliment the camera rather than the photographer, but your latest images are - to me at least - much crisper than your previous camera/lens combination delivered.

 

I don´t really see it that much myself to be honest. Might be a bit equipment, a bit user. And another thing I have been whining about a couple of times already - I don´t know what I am doing wrong but Safaritalk is treating my images quite harshly, they lose a lot of sharpness. For some reason they look sharper when I click on them though (at least for me), and that has also been the case with the 7d for some time now. Maybe a bit more even, I don´t know. I guess I´m to blame myself since I seem to remember we are supposed to choose certain sizes/pixels for uploading but I really don´t know anymore what they were.

[michael-ibk]

307/E59) Red Knot (Calidris canutus) / Knutt

 

Thaur, Tirol, 31/8/23. A huge rarity for my area (and very rare in Austria in general), and a new one for my Tirol list. Discovered two days ago. I was quite surprised it was still around this morning but as I could observe a lot of food probably kept it. We had lots of rain recently, and some of the industrial vegetable fields are flooded - good place for a wader to stop.

 

 

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

308/E60) Mandarin Duck (Aix galericulata) / Mandarinente

 

Thaur, Tirol, 31/8. Always tricky if this one is "countable" but we do have long-standing feral populations. Impossible to tell though if it belongs to one of those or if it´s an escapee.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

309/E61) Eurasian Collared Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) / Türkentaube

 

Thaur, Tirol, 31/8. Quite rare in my area.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

310/E62) Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) / Star

 

Thaur, Tirol, 31/8. Another one much more common out of the Alps. They leave in late autumn.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

311/E63) Willow Warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) / Fitis

 

Thaur, Tirol, 31/8. Not a very nice perch but time is running out for me for this one - leaving very soon, certainly already a migrating bird here.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

312/E64) Common Buzzard (Buteo buteo) / Mäusebussard

 

Thaur, Tirol, 31/8. Our most common bird of prey.

 

 

 

[michael-ibk]

313/E65) House Sparrow (Passer domesticus) / Haussperling

 

Fulpmes, Tirol, 31/8. Still had my camera on the passenger seat when I came home and it was sitting on the fence, so why not?

 

 

[TonyQ]

A lovely Red Knot photo with the reflection, and your Europe list is coming along nicely.

(from memory- so not the most reliable source- photos need to be less than 1200 pixel across or Safaritalk software resizes it. Someone might have a better recall than me!)