A good primer article on shooting fast moving wildlife

Although written in 2011 this article is valid still....maybe even more so with the better tech. I already use several of the tips, and I know at least one top bird shooter who also uses most of these. Remember though technique and practice trumps gear.

Tips for shooting fast wildlife

Great tips, thanks for sharing. You couldn't be more right about practice. Even if I don't shoot action for just a month or so my keeper rate drops.

Point No.6 is interesting.

johnf3f wrote in post #18273686
Point No.6 is interesting.

That has been known for some time, but the lens makers marketing teams try hard to steer around that limitation... it took them years to acknowledge that IS needed to be turned off when using a tripod. Marketing is not our friend. Having said that IS is still quite valuable and should routinely be on unless the subject being sought is known to have flight characteristics that are counter to IS .

Sorry IS is a bit of a little bit of a hobby horse of mine. I really don't like it! So it was nice to see an article that confirmed some of my views.

Some find it useful - personally I do not see why. Certainly on a little point and shoot, where you have to hold the camera at arms length, then IS is great. But hand holding the longest lenses that Canon currently make? For me it just gets in the way.

I should say that some lenses balance terribly so IS can be handy, for example it is quite useful on my 100-400 Mk2 at 1/500 sec or less. On the other hand my 800 F5.6 L IS is fine at half the shutter speed and IS shows little benefit at 1/160. Note I have arms like matchsticks so this is not a strength thing.

Given the choice I would have IS removed from my lenses (except the 100-400 Mk2) and enjoy the improved performance.