Z8 and self Capture - am I expecting too much?

[Mountainwalker444]

I thought I would experiment with the auto capture settings on my camera.

I have my Z8 and 180-600 set up on a tripod and focused on a hummingbird feeder about 12 feet away.

Initially I had auto capture set up for subject detection and let the camera be. I checked on the camera about 5 minutes later and was shocked to see hundreds of photos on the memory card. The camera is on silent mode so I did not hear it working. Not one photo of a hummingbird in any shot ( no, I did not check every single one ) On reexamination I find that subject detection AI "thinks" the feeder is a "bird" so the camera recorded nothing but the feeder - willy nilly. So much for the flawed wonders of AI. As a side note, if you see a self driving car coming at you, get the heck out of the way. This stuff works - sometimes!

So, I adjusted the auto capture menu to respond to movement as well as subject detection. I watched a hummingbird land on the feeder multiple times - the camera did not go off once. Arg!

I realize I'm a big part of why this is not working. If anyone can offer some ideas/helpful hints, any suggestions would be much appreciated.





The photo shown is a handheld shot of an Anna's hummingbird in the rain on a nest I discovered in my yard.

 

[N Deacon]

You need to set the distance range, especially with such a small/close subject. If left to default, the default focus tends to be too far away, to the point that the totally out of focus subject is not identifiable by the sensor/software. If you get the camera set up and rack the focus manually between a little too close and a little too far, and feed the distance readings from the viewfinder into the auto capture setup table, you will greatly aid the subject detection algorithms in finding your subject. Even then, I still find it rather unreliable in cluttered settings, but much better with a less complex scene. Been there, done that ... ;-)

 

[f16falcona46]

Perhaps try limiting the area used for Auto Capture detection.

 

[A Owens]

I thought I would experiment with the auto capture settings on my camera.

I have my Z8 and 180-600 set up on a tripod and focused on a hummingbird feeder about 12 feet away.

Initially I had auto capture set up for subject detection and let the camera be. I checked on the camera about 5 minutes later and was shocked to see hundreds of photos on the memory card. The camera is on silent mode so I did not hear it working. Not one photo of a hummingbird in any shot ( no, I did not check every single one ) On reexamination I find that subject detection AI "thinks" the feeder is a "bird" so the camera recorded nothing but the feeder - willy nilly. So much for the flawed wonders of AI. As a side note, if you see a self driving car coming at you, get the heck out of the way. This stuff works - sometimes!

So, I adjusted the auto capture menu to respond to movement as well as subject detection. I watched a hummingbird land on the feeder multiple times - the camera did not go off once. Arg!

I realize I'm a big part of why this is not working. If anyone can offer some ideas/helpful hints, any suggestions would be much appreciated.



The photo shown is a handheld shot of an Anna's hummingbird in the rain on a nest I discovered in my yard.

It would be useful to see a snap of the scene that your camera sees. That might inform suggestions regarding settings etc. I use auto capture from time to time and find it to be very good. These are of a swallow pair which took residence in our basement over summer to raise a brood. They were taken using auto capture one morning while I was inside drinking coffee.... Unfortunately the light was terrible so ISO is too high for decent quality at larger sizes but those are the breaks.

 

[Mountainwalker444]

Nice shots of the swallows. A less cluttered background than I have - laurel hedge.

I am trying again but as of yet no hummingbirds have come to the feeder. I am using manual focus on the perches on the feeder and am relying on the subject recognition software as well as the "movement" option to trigger the camera. Perhaps the hummingbird is too small (wings are basically invisible) to trigger subject recognition? Also, I have noticed that this shooting method drains the battery very quickly.

All this is an attempt to figure out the system as I plan on setting the camera up on the nest I presented in my initial post.

Thanks for your help.

 

[Mountainwalker444]

i have isolated the perimeter of the image but not in a major way as I figure the camera needs the sensors active to detect movement

Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[Mountainwalker444]

I have used manual focus to try to eliminate focus issues. I'm hoping the depth of field will compensate as I am focused on the primary perch and the birds are very small.

Thanks.