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

Finsnapper wrote in post #19248591
The poor little fella looks a bit ruffled alright. I hope he’s ok.

The little one is still hopping around my garden so all good so far. I am just worried one of the regular cat visitors will have it for supper.

I am going to Skomer island this weekend (weather permitting) to photograph puffins.

I have been getting a lot of practice lately with static birds in my garden but have no knowledge at all of photographing birds in flight.

So if any of you kind birding experts would offer me any advice on settings and focus modes it would be much appreciated.

I am planning to take my Canon 100-400ii and the 1.4x and 2x extenders plus maybe my 24-70 2.8 tho suspect I will use the 100-400ii the whole time.

Any advice much appreciated. I pretty much have always just used a single spot focus point for all my photography to date but happy to try something else and I have never used any of the AI servo type modes.

Thanks in advance
Paul

I haven't been to Skomer Island before buy regularly go to the Farnes to see the Puffins.

Looking at what you have, the 100-400 will be the ideal lens if it's anything like the Farnes. I went with a 500mm lens once and it was too long so normally use my 400mm but that's fixed and would have loved to have the zoom.

Using the R6 will be great. I'm presuming you have two back buttons for your focus? One for eye and the other for normal centre point? Set one of your dials/buttons to switch between the different focusnig points to give you the quick option though my expereiences so far is eye focusing alone does an amazing job of catching birds in flight as it will find the object, then the head then the eye.

I switch between AF modes of AUTO or 4. Puffins are remarkable fast flying. Again, if anything like the Farnes, they will be flying back and forth from all directions making it distracting. Look for one in the distance that's coming in from the see (will have eels so photogenic) just track it coming in through the viewfinder. Pre focus at a spot where you will start the focus tracking so you don't risk that problem with mirrorless cameras, where it looses focus on an object with a distant background then struggles to refind it. Once you've tracked it to the pre focus distance use the eye focus to track it then onwards.

Try and get the fastest shutter speed and a decent depth of field to get the bird in focus and sharp and watch out for the exposure - largely white bird against possibly grey skies. I wouldn't use electronic as you'll probably get rolling shutter. Keep both eyes open when you track the bird. Take plenty of fast cards, be prepared to be overwelmed by the sheer number of birds - the Farnes is like that and have a great time.

I did use a wide lens when going to the Farnes as it has a Tern colony and they attack you go by so I would just stick my camera on my head and they would attack that giving me some very close images.

Thank you very much Frank.

I use one of the back buttons to change focus modes and then a button on the front to cycle through the modes - prob the default functionality of the camera.

I have not really used the eye focus much as when I did initially try it for birds in the hedge I didn't have great success but a bird in the air may work a lot better so I am keen to try again.

My shutter is set to Elec 1st-curtain - again prob the default. Should I change this?

I must read the manual and learn more.....

I do have 10 memory cards and 11 batteries so I should hopefully be fine on that front

There are some things to consider in relation to the Animal Eye focus and AF tracking according to this video. Hopefully it would help some of this forum members:

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=5l5feoIUmdI

In addition to those two buttons, some other photographers setup their R5 and R5 to start tracking at the press of another button, usually the button that is located to the right of the "star" button. I imagine that the idea is not to have Tracking automatically engaged (?).

PSteven wrote in post #19248918
The little one is still hopping around my garden so all good so far. I am just worried one of the regular cat visitors will have it for supper.

That’s good news, thank you! Feed those cats well

PSteven wrote in post #19248919
I am going to Skomer island this weekend (weather permitting) to photograph puffins.

I have been getting a lot of practice lately with static birds in my garden but have no knowledge at all of photographing birds in flight.

So if any of you kind birding experts would offer me any advice on settings and focus modes it would be much appreciated.

I am planning to take my Canon 100-400ii and the 1.4x and 2x extenders plus maybe my 24-70 2.8 tho suspect I will use the 100-400ii the whole time.

Any advice much appreciated. I pretty much have always just used a single spot focus point for all my photography to date but happy to try something else and I have never used any of the AI servo type modes.

Thanks in advance
Paul

I did a quick search for photographing puffins with the R6 and found this: https://edinburghphoto​graphyworkshop.com/pho​tographing-puffins/

I haven’t read it all yet, but it should be of some help. I hope you have a great day. Enjoy!

Action at the Tree Swallows house.

IMAGE LINK: https://www.flickr.com …51254762179/in/​datetaken/

Tree Swallow

I would change to Machnical shutter mode for moving subjects. I believe Elec 1st Curtain is to help prevent 'shutter shock' (good for long lenses on a stationery subject) but may slow down the frame rate(?). I know what you mean about the eye focusing, which is why I have two button back focusing. In the situation you mention, the single focus point would help pick out the bird to then initiate the eye focusing.

I don't know how long they give you Skomer Island - on the Farnes you have less than an hour which goes REALLY quickly. Hopefully you'll have plenty of time to just practice. I was a little disapointed with the R6 when I first got it, but a lot of practice and reading, watching YouTube videos and it's now a different camera to me.

You can also up the EVF frame rate 120 Hz refresh, though be warned, this will use up your batteries quicker. It's one of the reasons I got the battery grip - (even if somewhat over priced)

I envy your day out. The Farne Islands for me compare with any wildlife sight in the world and the Puffins are just so photogenic you can't go wrong.

Thank you for more tips. I get 4 or 5 hours on Skomer if I actually get there. I was supposed to do a boat trip this evening but has been cancelled due to the wind. Fingers crossed! Tho I did book next weekend too as a back up for this very reason.

I have now set my camera up to use the two back buttons as suggested. Tested on some gulls and it seems to work amazingly well.

Hopefully will post some puffin photos in the next day or two.

The 100-400 II is not exactly a macro lens but it does well in a pinch.

IMAGE LINK: https://www.flickr.com …51254476567/in/​datetaken/

Damselfly

The 800 f11 came in handy for this Mississippi Kite on a snag atop a well established tree (i.e., it was way, way up there).

Photo from steveb108's gallery.
Image hosted by forum (1108215)

Todays shots from the James river pipe line trail. All shot with the canon r6 and 800 f11 lens.