Birds in Flight Tracking

WillNicholls

WillNicholls

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Hi - I'm about to leave to the Isle of Skye. I'll be photographing sea eagles and I'm told there may be a chance of golden eagles too!

However the sightings will be few so I will have to get it right first. I just wanted to check what the best way to track a bird in flight is?

I have a Nikon D700 with a Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR lens on.

I've set it to 21 focus points, put AF-Lock on level 2, turned dial to continuous focus, and flipped the focus point dial to the solid rectangle. Is this correct or should I be doing something else?
 
WillNicholls said:
Hi - I'm about to leave to the Isle of Skye. I'll be photographing sea eagles and I'm told there may be a chance of golden eagles too!

However the sightings will be few so I will have to get it right first. I just wanted to check what the best way to track a bird in flight is?

I have a Nikon D700 with a Nikon 200-400mm f/4 VR lens on.

I've set it to 21 focus points, put AF-Lock on level 2, turned dial to continuous focus, and flipped the focus point dial to the solid rectangle. Is this correct or should I be doing something else?
Click to expand...

Yes that should do it, but the focus point switch should be in the middle position (the one below the solid rectangle), to give you the 21 point Dynamic.
 
WillNicholls said:
ah the little box with the four dots around? I see - and does that mean it locks onto something and tracks? I'm guessing you have to keep the subject in the center always?
Click to expand...

Yes in the area of the 21 points.

Have a read of this, I found it enlightening LINK
 
WillNicholls said:
Oh? The article suggested that a brown bird against a blue sky would be tracked best on 51 3D?
Click to expand...

That setting is better suited to large bold coloured things like football players, worth trying, provided you have no other distracting elements in shot it should work.

I have never had any joy with it, but that is with birds considerably smaller than an Eagle, and with confusing backgrounds.
 
I suspect the same would apply to the D300 looking at the menu settings, it's about what i use but putting it into practise isn't easy, i had a go at a Barn Owl last night and forgot to flick 'C' i was shooting in 'S' doh !
 
Andrew,AWP, swears by 3d tracking. I have tried it many times for wildlife and ,on anything moving faster than a sloth, it is useless.

In my opinion I hasten to add.............:)

I pretty much use what Martyn does.
 
Martyn... said:
There is a small D3 Technical Guide available as a .pdf on the Nikon site, whilst written for the D3 the general settings etc are the same for the D700 LINK
Click to expand...

Seriously thanks for that link. I've just had a quick read of it and a lot of that appears directly applicable to the D7000 as well. Nice one.
 
WillNicholls said:
Hi - I'm about to leave to the Isle of Skye. I'll be photographing sea eagles
Click to expand...

Go on one of the boat trips from Portree and you should be able to get some good shots. We went on the Lady B. and the Skipper seemed to know his stuff.

Scotland%20080508%20007.jpg
 
Good links there - thanks for spending the time to post them, very helpful
 
Practice, practice and - oh yes - Practice.

If the sun is out at the weekend I spend time at the local Wetlands Wildfowl Trust snapping ducks in flight.
 
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