R7 from my car ?! What the heck ?!?!

Ephemeris wrote:

Chris Wolfgram wrote:

MarshallG wrote:

Chris Wolfgram wrote:

BirdShooter7 wrote:

I’m not sure what is causing the issue you’re experiencing but I definitely get great results shooting from my car with the R7 and various long telephoto lenses and I also mostly use ES. I wish I could offer some helpful advice but I can’t think of any at the moment other than keep trying and hopefully you can figure out what is causing the problem.

TY Birdshooter. Ya know, the more I think about, maybe even with my R5, my results from inside of the car, were not as good as they have been shooting outside of the car, certainly when using a tripod. Last year, I used to blame that all on focus pulsing with my Sigma 150-600. Now that I'm using my 800 F11 almost exclusively, my sharp perfectly focused shots are way up.... But I haven't done auto routes with it, like I did last Winter. Instead, the little bit of shooting I've done from the car, has not produced many sharp shots with the 800 F11 either. Hmmm.

I'll keep trying with birds that are not super important to me if I miss them. But for important birds, I'm getting out and using the tripod.

Chris, are you shooting with image stabilization on while bracing the lens or camera against the car with the engine running? With an 800mm lens, any high frequency vibration will show up in the photo. Sometimes it’s better to turn IS off, believe it or not.

I think you have a solvable problem.

Always with IS on. I've read a lot about how it used to be best to turn this off on DSLR's, but that with the latest mirrorless cameras, it will never hurt to have it on and can help. Even on a tripod, at 1280mm, I can definitely see my image bouncing and shaking a LOT more with IS turned off.

Oh, but as for "the car running".... I drive a Prius Hybrid, so the motor is not running 85% of the time, if I'm not rolling, even though the car is powered up.

To add to BirdS thoughts. We do shoot from vehicles also but not the R7.

We can be susceptible to others moving in the vehicle (usually a discovery or defender) or even the radio/infotainment system.

I think the basic message is keep fibration muted.

Do you shoot through glass? Could air buffeting be a problem?

I know that doesn't obviously a

Definitely never through glass. I'm really leaning towards the heat in the car, mixing with cold damp air outside / buffeting ?

nswer the difference between the two setups but just some ideas.

As for the difference between the R5 and R7, maybe it's not as great as I was thinking. I actually did use to have a lot of not critically sharp shots with the R5 too, but I had written that off as focus pulsing with the Sigma 150-600 I used to use on it. Maybe that was not the whole thing.... Maybe only a small part of it ?