{"id":495,"date":"2012-05-01T22:09:16","date_gmt":"2012-05-01T20:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/?p=495"},"modified":"2012-05-01T22:09:16","modified_gmt":"2012-05-01T20:09:16","slug":"using-nikon-d800-for-flying-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/en\/2012\/05\/01\/using-nikon-d800-for-flying-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"Using Nikon D800 for flying birds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last three weeks, I&#8217;ve been using the Nikon D800 to shoot birds on my vacation in Florida. Here are my unscientific and personal findings for shooting birds in flight from tripod and hand-held with some example photos below:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"main\">\n<li>Auto ISO sensitivity control is bliss if you don&#8217;t use manual exposure mode. For birds in flight or any other wildlife in fast action, I normally have it set to: ISO sensitivity 100 (= minimum), Maximum sensitivity 1600, Minimum shutter speed 1\/1600-1\/2000. For slower moving or more static animals, 1\/640 seconds seems to give good and sharp results. Of course if you have enough light go as fast as possible.<\/li>\n<li>When using CF a general AF problem is that the focus point is often not on the eye. This is not specific to the D4\/D800&#8217;s new AF system (Advanced Multi-CAM 3500FX). So just shoot and hope for the best.<\/li>\n<li>The new AF system seems to be very fast and hunt less than the previous one, especially when the background is the sky.<\/li>\n<li>With the new AF system I don&#8217;t need to overexpose +1 or +2 when shooting flying birds against the blue sky as with the old AF (Multi-CAM 3500DX).<\/li>\n<li>You don&#8217;t need more than 4fps to capture wildlife in action (I already knew this before and couldn&#8217;t understand all the fuss about it being slow).<\/li>\n<li>Having so many pixels at hand is really helpful, since it is easier to catch a bird in flight when it is further away, then just crop to get the right detail. This is a huge advantage over the D4 and I think far more relevant than the 4fps versus 10fps.<\/li>\n<li>If you only want photos that are sharp down to pixel level, be prepared to have to throw away many of your shots (Be aware that this makes sense only if you plan to crop or print in gigantic dimensions).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Photos of flying birds using a tripod<\/h2>\n<p>All photos below were taken with the <a title=\"Nikkor 600mm\/f4 VR\" href=\"http:\/\/imaging.nikon.com\/lineup\/lens\/singlefocal\/Telephoto\/af-s_600mmf_4g_vr\/index.htm\">Nikkor 600mm\/f4 VR<\/a> mounted on a <a title=\"Gitzo Systematic Tripods\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gitzo.com\/photo-tripods-systematic\">Gitzo Tripod GT5541LS<\/a> with a head by <a title=\"Website of Dietmar Nill\" href=\"http:\/\/www.dietmar-nill.de\">Dietmar Nill<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"  \" title=\"Great Egret \" alt=\"Flying Great Egret (Ardea alba) with fish in beak\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/egret.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"483\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flying Great Egret (Ardea alba) with a little fish in its beak. Taken at f5.6, 1\/1600, ISO 640<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"100% crop of egret with fish in beak\" alt=\"Photo of egret with fish in beak\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/egret-cropped2.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">100% crop of above egret photo revealing a little fish in its beak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Egret feet with water dropplets\" alt=\"Photo showing Egret feet with water dropplets\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/egret-cropped1.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">100% crop of photo above showing details of claws and water drops. Using a higher speed than 1600s might have made it sharper.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"Great Egret in flight\" alt=\"Photo of a Great Egret in flight\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/egret2.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo of a Great Egret (Ardea alba) in flight taken at f5.0, 1\/600, ISO 640. Even though it is not 100% sharp at pixel level (see photo below) this doesn&#8217;t show up when downsampled. This is a huge advantage of the 36MP.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Cropped photo egret\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/egret2-cropped.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">100% crop showing that the above photo is not sharp at pixel level.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"Black Skimmer in flight (Rynchops niger)\" alt=\"Photo of a skimmer in flight (Rynchops niger)\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/Skimmer-in-flight.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger) in flight taken at f6.3, 1\/2000, ISO 220. The photo is already cropped to 4338 x 2895 pixels, showing the advantage of having 7360 x 4912 pixels to choose from.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"100% crop of skimmer in flight (Rynchops niger)\" alt=\"Photo showing a 100% crop of skimmer in flight (Rynchops niger)\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/Skimmer-in-flight-cropped.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"483\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">100% crop of the original photo showing only the eye and a part of the beak.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Handheld photos of flying birds<\/h2>\n<p>All photos below were taken handheld from a canoe with the <a title=\"Nikkor 300mm\/f2.8\" href=\"http:\/\/imaging.nikon.com\/lineup\/lens\/singlefocal\/Telephoto\/af-s_300mmf_28g_ed_vr2\/index.htm\">Nikkor 300mm\/f2.8 VR<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"Royal Tern in flight\" alt=\"Photo of flying Royal Tern\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/tern.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"483\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Flying Royal Tern (Sterna maxima) handheld from canoe at ISO 360, f8.0, 1\/1600<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Tern in flight\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/tern-cropped.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">100% crop of photo above. Notice ring on foot.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"terns\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/terns.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Royal Terns (Sterna maxima) taking off from a mussel bank. Photo was taken handheld at ISO 500, f8.0, 1\/1600<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"Royal Terns taking off\" alt=\"Photo of Royal Terns (Sterna maxima) taking off\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/terns-cropped.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">100% crop of above photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Hand-held photo of pelican in fligh \" alt=\"\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/pelican.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Handheld photo of a Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis) in flight taken at ISO 360, 1\/1600, f8.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" \" title=\"Brown Pelican in flight\" alt=\"Handheld photo of Brown Pelican in flight\" src=\"\/articles\/images\/pelican-cropped.jpg\" width=\"723\" height=\"482\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">100% crop of photo above<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the last three weeks, I&#8217;ve been using the Nikon D800 to shoot birds on my vacation in Florida. Here are my unscientific and personal findings for shooting birds in flight from tripod and hand-held with some example photos below: Auto ISO sensitivity control is bliss if you don&#8217;t use manual exposure mode. For birds &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/en\/2012\/05\/01\/using-nikon-d800-for-flying-birds\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Using Nikon D800 for flying birds&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,64,72],"class_list":["post-495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","tag-birds","tag-nikon-d800","tag-photography-2","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.speich.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}