RF 100-500 Image Stabilization Mode for Birds??

apersson850 wrote:

Karl_Guttag wrote:

Mode 3 is more for when the subject is jumping about somewhat erratically. You don't want the IS to be trying to stabilize until you are ready to shoot. If your animals are jumping around, then mode 3 might make sense. If the bird is sweeping past you, then Mode 2 would probably be best.

The technical reason for this is that if you constantly have IS on while trying to follow a subject with erratic movement before actually taking the picture, then you risk that the IS has maxed out in the direction it needs to stabilize right when you take the picture. In such a case there's no stabilization possible, as it's "out of range".

By holding the IS until you actually take the picture, you start from center position and can stabilize in any direction.

This is the technical background. I've heard about people having success using this method when shooting ice hockey. If it works for birds I don't know. I don't find them very interesting as photographic subjects.

Yes, a good explanation of why.

I would assume that if your panning is "unsteady," you will also max out the range. I have run experiments of thousands of pictures with a panning subject and mode 2 beats mode 1.

My typical shooting situation while trying to pan with the RF100-500 at a slow shutter speed (say ~200-500mm at 1/60th to 1/200th) is to get the focus locked (using back button focus) and then press the shutter button once I am locked and tracking.  Mode 3 would seem to make this type of shooting very as the viewfinder would be unsteady.  I will fire off bursts of about 1 second (20 to 40 shots, 1 to 2 seconds, with the electronic shutter on the R5/ and usually one to three of the 20 will be very good.

I like to shoot larger birds:

At 300mm and 1/60th - Mode 2 IS on RF100-500 with ND4 (two stop) filter.