Why isn’t AF picking up these birds?

Texchappy wrote:

Got my R6 today and tried to get it set up. First with the 24-105l and this one with the RF100-400, the AF just isn’t finding these birds. What am I doing wrong?

It kept locking on the fence. Earlier when I was using the shorter lens, it kept locking on a lawn chair in the corner.

Simple answer - they're too small in the shot.

Texchappy wrote:

And finally got a nit horrible one of the red winged black bird

Strangely enough, in spite of being at lower ISO (3200 vs 5000), the second shot has a LOT more noise than the first shot - IMO unacceptably noisy.

Are you doing any post processing ? Like shadow boosting (dark birds are a challenge though), highlight taming & noise reduction ? I think these shots (and the others) would benefit from all three.

To me the focus still looks a bit off - I don't think that anything in these shots is really sharp (in your previous shots there was usually something sharp - often not the bird, but something) - perhaps the high ISO is exaggerating that effect ?

Colin

Texchappy wrote:

...the AF just isn’t finding these birds. What am I doing wrong?

Those birds are tiny! (in the frame)

Andy01 wrote:

Texchappy wrote:

And finally got a nit horrible one of the red winged black bird

Strangely enough, in spite of being at lower ISO (3200 vs 5000), the second shot has a LOT more noise than the first shot - IMO unacceptably noisy.

Are you doing any post processing ? Like shadow boosting (dark birds are a challenge though), highlight taming & noise reduction ? I think these shots (and the others) would benefit from all three.

To me the focus still looks a bit off - I don't think that anything in these shots is really sharp (in your previous shots there was usually something sharp - often not the bird, but something) - perhaps the high ISO is exaggerating that effect ?

Colin

I’m using Lightroom. Often I see how the auto adjust looks but I can’t remember if that’s what I did with either of those.  Re sharpness, the last day or so I’ve been shooting through a window so that might be it.