New Oly 100-400 at the zoo

Yannis1976 wrote:

Brandon birder wrote:

Yannis1976 wrote:

Very nice photos, especially the ones from the parrot.

Lens seems indeed great in terms of IQ but for birds (especially small ones) you can’t work at such low shutter speeds unfortunately. For 800mm and in order to compensate for birds slight movement (even breathing) I need at least 1/500 which makes the f6.3 with the m43 sensor a bit limiting. Now if they fly, I need to raise the speed to 1/2000 and ISO can go up very very easily…

I agree with you Yannis but there is a workaround. Setting the frame rate to 18 fps electronic shutter and taking short 1/80s bursts I was able to get small birds during this dark winter. 2 out of 3 showed actual or micro movement but 1 in 3 were spot on. Takes a bit of culling but shows the versatility of An EM1 m III with a 300mm f4 pro and 1.4 TC’s.

First time I hear of this technique and to be honest I am not sure it works. If it does it means that birds while flying move less at some fractions of seconds. Curious to test it…

You’re right I’ve never used it for flying birds as hit rate would be very low, though there is a moment when the wings are static before a direction change. So if panning well it’s possible. May be more so with the higher rate procapture of the OM1.

No I was referring to small active birds in poor winter light and it works very well especially if you watch the birds movement pauses. I've not tried it but procapture may be useful here too. Try it out.