Many shots acquired in recent days, hopefully still more to come in the next few. It’s been interesting, to say the least, seeing how the R5 performs in situations other than what I’m accustomed to on home turf.
Just after I sang its praises to a friend recently, it seemed that the R5 couldn’t grab focus on anything in foliage. Spot AF either balks or zips past any foreground object to the rearmost subject in the frame. Still, something told me that the problem was either my unreasonably high expectations OR, just maybe, a wrong setting.
Well, thumbing through the menu this afternoon for something unrelated, I realized that, as my R5 is configured, I was using spot AF as my initial focus point. It’s nearly impossible to put that square on the subject without seeing the subject in focus first, which made me realize I should have wide AF and nearest object on when I attempt to acquire, before back-buttoning to eye AF.
A test on static subject matter appeared to substantiate my guess, but I’ll have to try it on a bird in front of foliage or something similar to know for sure. The balking, still to be deciphered, but that’s probably on me, too.
After seeing a glazed look on shots in strong light with the RF 100-400mm/2X combo, a hunch told me to take of the filter and ride EV depending on the subject. I got far better than the small improvement I was expecting. While noise and atmosphere will negatively impact fine details in most shots with this combo, it’s still a fantastic tool for getting distant subject matter. Second shot below was shot through a bit of heat shimmer, with the osprey at least 120 yards away. Not bad for those conditions.
Yes, I know . . . the RF 800mm is a stop faster. But this combo is a heck of a lot easier to pack!
