Autofocus most likely limitations, my camera or lens? (Or me!)

Ad12 wrote:

SergioThor wrote:

Took a lookt at your photos, great pictures

Puffins and other small birds in flight that sometimes is really hard to get close to are probably hardest scenerio to shoot so even a higher-end sports camera would not be a bulletproof solution

been shooting puffins and they always have give me trouble when in flight because they are very unpredictable, if you are far enough you might wanna set MF to inifinity and just fire in manual focus, or pre-adjust to the zone where birds patch might be in

Thank you. Ive been reading quite a bit today about the AF settings of the 7dii and 80d. The 7dii seems best for that, but an older sensor and very large.

The 80d seems to have lots of customisable options, which according to some YouTube videos and old posts from DPR, do allow a better hit rate to be achieved with a tweak. On my camera i cannot make any adjustments at all. For example, I saw the 80d has about 20 options in the AF settings. My Camera has no setting for this.

I like the idea of setting the 1st and 2nd shot priority between speed and focus. Some of the settings look useful.

Does anyone know whether tweaking the 80d settings can lead to a significant increase in keepers? My XT30 while small has these custom AF settings on it, its a shame Canon didn’t put any on my camera.

You've exhausted me. At the end of the day even the pros can't guarantee shots. They lug around several cameras and lenses and waste shots and try this camera and then that one. They say... this is the best, and then a year later, it's nope this has the same problem

The answer is to get out and SHOOT AND KEEP SHOOTING. Keep notes.... Post to Flickr and turn on the EXIF info so you can review your settings.. Spend a lot of time THINKING about your settings in EXIF.

Here are a few shots of pintails in flight.. At my Flickr site you can also search the BIF folder.. Please do!!!!!!!

https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=37432113%40N08&view_all=1&text=pintail

https://www.flickr.com/photos/cdmazoff/albums/72157696009809041