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Can any camera / lens combo instantly focus on small BIF (1 Viewer)

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arjacee

Well-known member
Hi...I was just wondering if any camera plus lens can just pick up a small dark bird in flight with a cloudy sky as the background. People often talk about ability to autofocus but are we asking too much when it comes to a small bird wizzing past our head and just aiming and capturing the image. We all like our cameras but wonder if the next camera up will perform better! Is the ability to do this time and time again even possible! Perhaps we expect too much........thoughts???

Reason I say this is I took out my newly acquired canon 300mm f.4 tonight after work for an hour.........I am truly blown away by the quality of the lens.....I love it......but I ( probably naively ) was expecting it to just autofocus on anything and everything and it didn't.............unrealistic expectations maybe?

Thank you!!
 
AF can be a complicated area and its a property of both the lens and the camera body, but also the user's setup and control and lighting and subject.

First up what camera body were you using and what AF settings did you have it set to - some AF settings greatly improve your chances of getting an AF lock on a small subject.

Also its good to understand the basics of AF operation - at its most basic AF works by detecting the closest point to the camera where it can pick up a difference in contrast to focus on. This is why if you were to focus the camera on something like a pure blue sky or white wall the lack of a difference in contrast would mean AF might well not be able to get a proper lock onto the subject.
However you've also got the lighting to consider - dim light means less for the AF to work with (and remember cameras need a lot more light than our own eyes). So dim conditions - even when there is a contrast difference - can also present a problem for AF.
 
"Small bird wizzing past our head" are one of the most difficult things to nail in any light, with any lens and any Camera so, yes, I think your expectations could be unrealistic.
Like 'Overread' says there are lots of different setting you can use, some will give you a better chance than others but it ain't easy.
Perhaps you could supply your Camera type and setting you are using so we can see if you are doing anything obvious wrong.
 
Small birds whizzing past the head are very challenging. It can be hard enough to get them in the viewfinder at times let alone get focus. Best thing is to practice lots with bigger birds: gulls are a great place to start.
 
If you're shooting gulls make it a proper trip and get some fish and chips as well! Not only do you get a nice lunch/breakfast/dinner - but you also get some free seagull attracting chips and fish as well!
 
I managed to capture some sharp flight shots of a Bobolink and Purple Martin yesterday on a very cloudy, overcast day using a Nikon 300/2.8 VRII + 1.4TCII on a Nikon D300s. Autofocus was very fast, but still couldn't keep up. Still, I think it'll be the best combo I could want for capturing BIF's...
 
I've had decent luck with the fast little guys with my A550 & 300mm F4 - AF-C mode, multi-point focus area. It is usually fast enough to lock on and track the moving bird as long as they stay against a fairly uncluttered background. The variables of course are when they dart in front of bushes or branches which sometimes 'steals' the AF system away, or my own ability to keep them in the frame while panning around with them, since sparrows and swallows and such make such fast, random directional changes. Still, the limitations are mostly my own, not the camera's - I have with this combo managed to at least get in-flight shots of sparrows & martins and the like.
 
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