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Focusing on black bird (CP4500) (1 Viewer)

njlarsen

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This morning, I had a smooth-billed ani sit in the top of a tree a little from our veranda. The distance was a little large, but should have been able to give a "bird in landscape" type picture usable for the WEB. I was not able to completely fill the focusing bracket with the bird, but i shot about 10 pictures hoping that one of them would be good. However, in every instance the focus was on a branch far behind the bird. I am aware that I could have tried to move closer and fill the bracket to maybe have the camera focus where I wanted, but my question is: Is there any setting on the camera that I have overlooked that would have helped on my problem?

Thanks
Niels
 
Niels,I think there is a very simple answer to your query,unfortunatley I am not able to give you the same,but I do know there will be someone who will do so for you.
 
Hi Niels,

The techniquie that works for me in such circumstances is to set up the camera as you have done using the focus bracket and then when I'm ready to take a shot, just half depress the shutter button and use the scope focus control to finely focus via the LCD. If you have the 'focus assist' activated it is a big help as you can easily see the in focus area move across the LCD as you adjust the scope focus control.

On a Blackbird exposure can sometimes be a problem as if you expose for the body of the bird, everything else comes out too light. It's a good example of when the EV +/- comes into play - usually 0.7 is enough adjustment or if you're a little closer to the bird, the yellow bill works well for exposure.
 
Thanks for the replies. I should have included the fact that I was using the TC-E3 ED at the time. The best would probably have been to use manual focus for the shots - however, the bird flew off even when I was taking the ordinary first shots.

Thanks
Niels
 
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