-= Canon EOS R6 owners unite! Post photos and discuss.

fma wrote in post #19386622
Barn Owl hunting. 18 months owning this camera and I still can't get over how well the tracking just locks on to a subject.

IMAGE LINK: https://photos.smugmug​.com …/_Y0A8636-X3.jpg&lb=1&s=A on Smugmug

That's a very...for the lack of better words, quite a cute photo.

Levina de Ruijter wrote in post #19387304
Paul, as much as I love the baby swan, my favourite is the second shot. The flowers and the low angle make this shot. I think it’s great.

Agree with you about the second shot. The young donkey in the foreground keeps things private (?)

RayinAlaska wrote in post #19387395
Agree with you about the second shot. The young donkey in the foreground keeps things private (?)

I am not sure about that - even the female donkeys appeared to be doing piggy back but there were a few males that I was pleased the kids didn't look too closely

After the snow

Amazing results you are getting

looking at adding a EF 2x to put with my R6 and EF100-400
are these hand held shots?
would be using out in the field & water (on Boat) for wildlife & concerned at the 800 end would be too much - but seeing your results thinking i shouldn't worry too much?
thanks

JMBig wrote in post #19387987
Amazing results you are getting

looking at adding a EF 2x to put with my R6 and EF100-400
are these hand held shots?
would be using out in the field & water (on Boat) for wildlife & concerned at the 800 end would be too much - but seeing your results thinking i shouldn't worry too much?
thanks

Thank you, and yes these are all handheld. There have been a few times that the 2X made it to much on the wide end being at 200mm, but only with aircraft. Having the flexibility of an effective 200-800 with the extra reach on the long end has been very handy.

thanks

order placed

time to share some results as noticed been on here 12 years & that was my first post

I am photographing Puffins next week with the Canon R6 and the RF 100-500 on Skomer Island in the UK.

Birds in Flight is not something I have done a lot of so hoping for some simple tips from you experts.

I generally use single point focus for all my photography and have never used custom modes. I do use the eye focus for photographing static birds and other creatures.

On the island, there is one location where the birds appear from below the cliff in front of you and there is a very short time to photograph them - they do sometimes fly in from an angle.
There is another location where you can watch the puffins fly across from the right to the left covering quite a distance.

I have been before but had a very very low success rate in getting a flying bird in focus - they move very fast! Previously I just set the shutter speed to about 1/2000 and took lots and lots of photos with a lot of disappointment when reviewing the photos. I wasn't planning on taking a tripod or monopod as on prevoius trips I have felt I needed greater movement to follow the puffins in flight.

I would be keen to try a different focus mode and/or technique if it would increase my success rate. I am hiring the 100-500 lens so have never used it before but I do regularly use a Canon 100-400 ii lens.

Thanks in advance

PSteven wrote in post #19388140
I am photographing Puffins next week with the Canon R6 and the RF 100-500 on Skomer Island in the UK.

Birds in Flight is not something I have done a lot of so hoping for some simple tips from you experts.

I generally use single point focus for all my photography and have never used custom modes. I do use the eye focus for photographing static birds and other creatures.

On the island, there is one location where the birds appear from below the cliff in front of you and there is a very short time to photograph them - they do sometimes fly in from an angle.
There is another location where you can watch the puffins fly across from the right to the left covering quite a distance.

I have been before but had a very very low success rate in getting a flying bird in focus - they move very fast! Previously I just set the shutter speed to about 1/2000 and took lots and lots of photos with a lot of disappointment when reviewing the photos. I wasn't planning on taking a tripod or monopod as on prevoius trips I have felt I needed greater movement to follow the puffins in flight.

I would be keen to try a different focus mode and/or technique if it would increase my success rate. I am hiring the 100-500 lens so have never used it before but I do regularly use a Canon 100-400 ii lens.

Thanks in advance

That sounds like a great trip coming up! I've never photographed (or seen) puffins before but guessing they are fast and erratic. With that said, I'm guessing that 1/2000 should be plenty fast enough for captures. If you have clean enough backgrounds, I would be using the animal eye tracking as the primary way for AF, with spot secondary. That combo should be more than capable of grabbing focus as long as you can keep the puffin in the frame. This feels like a scenario where double back button AF is your friend.

ct1co2 wrote in post #19388178
That sounds like a great trip coming up! I've never photographed (or seen) puffins before but guessing they are fast and erratic. With that said, I'm guessing that 1/2000 should be plenty fast enough for captures. If you have clean enough backgrounds, I would be using the animal eye tracking as the primary way for AF, with spot secondary. That combo should be more than capable of grabbing focus as long as you can keep the puffin in the frame. This feels like a scenario where double back button AF is your friend.

Thank you - that is reassuring to hear as means no major change to my current methods as I use the double back button AF already. I didn't have animal eye tracking on my last visit with my Canon 5D Mark IV.

Pre Covid and getting the R6 and RF100-500, I used to regularly go to the Farne Islands to photograph the Puffins and they're not that easy, as you say they move fast. I'm hoping to go in the next month with my new set up (the same as yours) so am in the same situations.

I'm not familiar with Skomer but if anything like the Farnes, the sky could be full of birds so you would need to make sure you could single one out and focus on just that one. Eye focusing then might not always be the best option unless the bird is close to filling the frame otherwise standard zone can limit the area the camera will focus on. Having said that, eye focusing does an amazing job focusing on a bird in flight. For the position where they fly up in from an angle, I would pre focus at a distance they would be so when you pick one out in your frame, hopefully the camera won't hunt.

I would also try and have a decent shutter speed to freeze the action but try and also get as large a depth of field as possible, to keep as much of the bird in focus as you can.

If you can, practice somewhere where there are lots of flying birds. Where I am there's a couple of colonies of Kittiwakes so just before I go, I get my skills and technique up to date photographing them. Honestly, your camera set up will be massively better than what you had before and I'm sure you'll get way more sucess.

fma wrote in post #19388199
Pre Covid and getting the R6 and RF100-500, I used to regularly go to the Farne Islands to photograph the Puffins and they're not that easy, as you say they move fast. I'm hoping to go in the next month with my new set up (the same as yours) so am in the same situations.

I'm not familiar with Skomer but if anything like the Farnes, the sky could be full of birds so you would need to make sure you could single one out and focus on just that one. Eye focusing then might not always be the best option unless the bird is close to filling the frame otherwise standard zone can limit the area the camera will focus on. Having said that, eye focusing does an amazing job focusing on a bird in flight. For the position where they fly up in from an angle, I would pre focus at a distance they would be so when you pick one out in your frame, hopefully the camera won't hunt.

I would also try and have a decent shutter speed to freeze the action but try and also get as large a depth of field as possible, to keep as much of the bird in focus as you can.

If you can, practice somewhere where there are lots of flying birds. Where I am there's a couple of colonies of Kittiwakes so just before I go, I get my skills and technique up to date photographing them. Honestly, your camera set up will be massively better than what you had before and I'm sure you'll get way more sucess.

Thank you Frank. I have heard the Farne Islands are very good too - though I hear you need a hat or your head will get some action. Skomer isn't like that - the sky is not full of birds - they just appear from the direction of the sea. Here is a webcam link: https://www.welshwildl​ife.org/learn/webcams

I will do some learning on the focus zones - I am a bit rubbish at reading manuals. Practice before I go sounds a good idea - lots of birds coming and going in the garden and I get the 100-500 a few days before I depart.

Many thanks for the advice.

PSteven wrote in post #19388140
I am photographing Puffins next week with the Canon R6 and the RF 100-500 on Skomer Island in the UK.

Birds in Flight is not something I have done a lot of so hoping for some simple tips from you experts.

I generally use single point focus for all my photography and have never used custom modes. I do use the eye focus for photographing static birds and other creatures.

On the island, there is one location where the birds appear from below the cliff in front of you and there is a very short time to photograph them - they do sometimes fly in from an angle.
There is another location where you can watch the puffins fly across from the right to the left covering quite a distance.

I have been before but had a very very low success rate in getting a flying bird in focus - they move very fast! Previously I just set the shutter speed to about 1/2000 and took lots and lots of photos with a lot of disappointment when reviewing the photos. I wasn't planning on taking a tripod or monopod as on prevoius trips I have felt I needed greater movement to follow the puffins in flight.

I would be keen to try a different focus mode and/or technique if it would increase my success rate. I am hiring the 100-500 lens so have never used it before but I do regularly use a Canon 100-400 ii lens.

Thanks in advance

Paul, you want to use Face/Eye-AF tracking as your primary tracking method. And then use Zone-AF as a back-up. Spot-AF has been mentioned but I disagree, it will not work, not with your suddenly appearing puffins. Zone-AF will be your best secondary AF mode. More so because the system will search within the Zone area for a subject. That is why it works better than Single-Point with Expansion because that is not a closed box so the AF can all too easily stray to something else, like a cloud. That doesn't happen in Zone-AF. So if the Face/Eye-AF can't find the bird, switch to Zone-AF. Then switch back to Face/Eye-AF and track the bird. If the AF strays, go back to Zone-AF for a moment, then go back to Face/Eye-AF again. Also make sure the white focus preview boxes are activated. They worked even with my swallows in flight. Not always, but surprisingly often and if so, they're a big help.

A few tips:

It has been said already: pre-focus on a point where you know the birds will pass and where you would like to shoot them.

Activate the limiter on your lens so it skips the first 3 meters. Unless they will be flying that close to you.

Choose your shooting location carefully. This is important because birds like to take off and land into the wind (they don't like their feathers ruffled!). So if possible try to find a spot where you have the wind in your back. If it's a spot where you could shoot them coming in, they will slow down almost to a halt and hover in the wind for a moment, which should give you some really nice opportunities.