Af points??

mjb123

mjb123

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Hi, I've been out today trying to practice shooting birds, I was in woodland and trying to capture small birds in trees! I struggled with af as I was trying to focus past branches and leaves and the camera was getting confused!
I found it easier manual focus, would changing af points help with auto focus!!
 
sounds like you need a longer lens?
 
The camera will try to focus on the closest object that it can under whichever focus points you have enabled. So in your situation you are probably best setting just the centre af point.
 
gblades said:
The camera will try to focus on the closest object that it can under whichever focus points you have enabled. So in your situation you are probably best setting just the centre af point.
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That's what I thought! Thanks
 
I've got 3 lenses that I've used for shooting birds in trees. A 70-200 2.8 IS L, a 100-400 IS L and a Sigma 150-500 OS and have tried using all focus points on both my 5D2 and 7D and more often than not I have to switch to MF to get the best shot. Lens length has nothing to do with being able to focus correctly, if you use a 50mm lens from 5ft away or a 500mm lens from 150ft away you will still have to MF if there is items in front of the subject.
I've got the 7D set on spot focus, which is very accurate on small subjects, but I still have to MF even with that. You could also try shooting at f5.6-f8 to widen your DOF to try and include the bird and the twig in front, but then you lose the shutter speed or gain noise by upping the ISO, but if it's nice and bright you could try it.
 
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modchild said:
I've got 3 lenses that I've used for shooting birds in trees. A 70-200 2.8 IS L, a 100-400 IS L and a Sigma 150-500 OS and have tried using all focus points on both my 5D2 and 7D and more often than not I have to switch to MF to get the best shot. Lens length has nothing to do with being able to focus correctly, if you use a 50mm lens from 5ft away or a 500mm lens from 150ft away you will still have to MF if there is items in front of the subject.
I've got the 7D set on spot focus, which is very accurate on small subjects, but I still have to MF even with that. You could also try shooting at f5.6-f8 to widen your DOF to try and include the bird and the twig in front, but then you lose the shutter speed or gain noise by upping the ISO, but if it's nice and bright you could try it.
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With all due respect Stuart then I think you have an underlying problem elswhere :shrug: I have yet to use manual focus on any bird shot I have taken, be it with the 400D, 50D which I had or the 7D. With single spot AI-Servo there should be no problem. In saying that if the subject is completely obstructed by branches then yes manual focus might help but if that was the case then imo it would hardly be worth getting a picture of anyway, if the subject was in full view but at quite a distance then yes manual focus would be good to use as the spots do need some definition to lock on to and with auto it may just keep hunting backwards and forwards, you also have to consider exactly what the conditions were like regards to light as well when the OP tried to get the shot. Here are just a three examples of auto focus, I am more than happy for you to tell me it does not work.


IMG_3094.jpg


IMG_0982.jpg


Bull1.jpg
 
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With ref to the OP specifically saying he wanted to shoot "small birds in trees" and "I struggled with af as I was trying to focus past branches and leaves and the camera was getting confused" was why I suggested using MF. With all due respect I didn't mention having to use MF if the birds were in anything other than in trees with branches and leaves in the way. I was answering a question the OP asked. Over 90% of the time I use AF with spot focussing to get my shots so with all due respect I don't have any underlying problems, but thank you for your assumptions. I assume you actually read the OP's question as you didn't try to answer it, you just tried to pull holes in my advice.
 
modchild said:
With ref to the OP specifically saying he wanted to shoot "small birds in trees" and "I struggled with af as I was trying to focus past branches and leaves and the camera was getting confused" was why I suggested using MF. With all due respect I didn't mention having to use MF if the birds were in anything other than in trees with branches and leaves in the way. I was answering a question the OP asked. Over 90% of the time I use AF with spot focussing to get my shots so with all due respect I don't have any underlying problems, but thank you for your assumptions. I assume you actually read the OP's question as you didn't try to answer it, you just tried to pull holes in my advice.
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I did read the Op`s thread Stuart and you suggested using Manual focus. You go on to say that " I've got the 7D set on spot focus, which is very accurate on small subjects, but I still have to MF even with that, if you use a 50mm lens from 5ft away or a 500mm lens from 150ft away you will still have to MF if there is items in front of the subject.
 My reply was not trying to pull holes in your reply just merely stating I have yet to use manual focus, hence why I put the pics up. The OP failed to give any info on the size of the subject and exactly how far away it was, if looking through the viewfinder the subject is looking smaller than the actual focus point then yeh he could be there all day waiting for it to focus on auto.
 
Snigger................




Laugh.gif
 
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