E-M1 + 40-150 pro shoots Dragonfly in flight

Took these photo's of an Australian Emerald Dragonfly while out birding a few days ago. Since it was my 1st attempt at a Dragonfly in flight with the combo I was very happy with the results.
This is the 1st Australian Emerald I have seen close up this year and it presented itself for a few short moments by the waters edge. I fired a group of 8 bursts for the first 4 photo's and got 3 off before he came back for the last photo. Surprisingly all 8 were keepers from the 1st 4 photo's (I had a hard time choosing 4 of them all sharp and focused well lol) and the 2nd time he came (last photo) I got 2 sharp keepers and one that was slightly out of focus.

Anyway here are the photo's
Enjoy!

Great stuff.  I have not had much luck with AF and dragonflies using the 50-200 SD on my EM-1.  However,  I always seem to have dark water with lots of contrasty reflections behind the little buggers.

well done, that is some achievement getting one and getting them all, well..

Those are really great.  I have not been able to maintain the focus on even one of a burst shoot of dragonflies

Great job getting these sharp, detailed pictures.

The fourth and fifth pix are the standouts for me in a very good set.

How did you focus?

9 box focus, H mode and CAF

randallktodd wrote:

I'm always curious as to how cameras are set up, and what the settings were for successful photos. Would you care to share some of those details? Like, focus point size, c-af or not, etc.

Great shots!

Thanks

Hen3ry wrote:

The fourth and fifth pix are the standouts for me in a very good set.

How did you focus?

-- hide signature --

Geoffrey Heard
Down and out in Rabaul in the South Pacific
http://rabaulpng.com/we-are-all-traveling-throug/i-waited-51-years-for-tavur.html

Splendid inflight captures Vas, not easy

thank you John

klythawk wrote:

Splendid inflight captures Vas, not easy

Fabulous well done
--
Adrian

http://www.majestyofsteam.com/

Really nice capture on #5 Vass; especially these smaller dragons. I can nail some of the bigger ones in flight but not these smaller ones.

I am really impressed that you got these, so 2 questions:

* Does your camera have phase detect autofocus?

* was this against a very busy background?

Only my GX7 fails to lock onto dragonfly's if it is flying in front of a high contrast busy background!

Once again, congratulations.

LarsPolarBear wrote:

Thanks Vass, great caputre!!!

vass wrote:

9 box focus, H mode and CAF

I am a little confused, what is "H mode"???? Surprised that the CAF got that one... E-M1's C-AF seam much better than E-PL7...

H is high speed although I thought AF was disabled in that mode.

Thanks,

Lars

randallktodd wrote:

I'm always curious as to how cameras are set up, and what the settings were for successful photos. Would you care to share some of those details? Like, focus point size, c-af or not, etc.

Great shots!

Thanks

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Randall

Hen3ry wrote:

The fourth and fifth pix are the standouts for me in a very good set.

How did you focus?

--
Geoffrey Heard
Down and out in Rabaul in the South Pacific
http://rabaulpng.com/we-are-all-traveling-throug/i-waited-51-years-for-tavur.html

-- hide signature --

[url] http://www.flickr.com/photos/14869355@N07/ [/url]

Thank you
Yes it has PDAF hybrid system
background is water

Adrian Harris wrote:

I am really impressed that you got these, so 2 questions:

* Does your camera have phase detect autofocus?

* was this against a very busy background?

Only my GX7 fails to lock onto dragonfly's if it is flying in front of a high contrast busy background!

Once again, congratulations.

High speed burst mode. The 1st frame locks the AF. Well with this one I moved with the dragonfly after it locked the 1st frame if you know what I mean.
I like to use both H mode or L for BIF. For H u just keep refocusing with short bursts or u can use L mode to let the AF continue between shots, depends on the bird and flight path really.
The intended target was birds here, the dragonfly just flew by me so I used what settings I had at the time.

LarsPolarBear wrote:

Thanks Vass, great caputre!!!

vass wrote:

9 box focus, H mode and CAF

I am a little confused, what is "H mode"???? Surprised that the CAF got that one... E-M1's C-AF seam much better than E-PL7...

Thanks,

Lars

randallktodd wrote:

I'm always curious as to how cameras are set up, and what the settings were for successful photos. Would you care to share some of those details? Like, focus point size, c-af or not, etc.

Great shots!

Thanks

Heck Vas, how many times have I tried this and with no result so far. Brilliant shots and work Vas. Sure wish they were mine, I guess I just have to keep trying.

All the best over there Vas, fantastic shots !!.

Danny.

vass wrote:

High speed burst mode. The 1st frame locks the AF. Well with this one I moved with the dragonfly after it locked the 1st frame if you know what I mean.
I like to use both H mode or L for BIF. For H u just keep refocusing with short bursts or u can use L mode to let the AF continue between shots, depends on the bird and flight path really.
The intended target was birds here, the dragonfly just flew by me so I used what settings I had at the time.

LarsPolarBear wrote:

Thanks Vass, great caputre!!!

vass wrote:

9 box focus, H mode and CAF

I am a little confused, what is "H mode"???? Surprised that the CAF got that one... E-M1's C-AF seam much better than E-PL7...

Thanks,

Lars

randallktodd wrote:

I'm always curious as to how cameras are set up, and what the settings were for successful photos. Would you care to share some of those details? Like, focus point size, c-af or not, etc.

Great shots!

Thanks

High speed no longer locks the AF with the first shot,as of firmware 3. It will C-AF at 9FPS.