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Why isn’t AF picking up these birds?

Started 10 months ago | Questions thread
OP Texchappy Contributing Member • Posts: 598
Re: Auto mode

Andy01 wrote:

It seems unlikely that Auto would have selected such a slow shutter speed or small aperture at 400mm.

I think all of the images you have shown here, including the first one were at 1/60th - perhaps check that you are not in Manual or Tv modes ?

As mentioned above, even with good IS, at 400mm you want to be at a minimum of 1/400th, preferably faster to get good sharpness. Also, for many (most ?) lenses diffraction is becoming evident at f16. With my EF 100-400L ii I generally only stop down to around f6.3 or f7.1 and often use f5.6 at 400mm to maximise shutter speed, so I would expect f8 or f9 to yield decent results with your lens.

Your latest photo, while better, is still incorrectly focused - IMO the light below the feeder appears to be much sharper than either the bird (the bird is very OOF) or the feeder - perhaps both were moving across the slow 1/60th, or something has gone wrong quite badly with the focusing.

Colin

Checked the AF point and it shows basically the top of the bird’s head. Thought I was on the A+ auto mode but it’s possible I was on something different. I’ve started using the flexible priority mode as I’m paying more attention to other aspects of the camera as I’m getting comfortable with it.

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