[stoppingdown]

At this point of the year I sincerely hoped to have a sounder statistics basis... Unfortunately in the wildlife sanctuaries I have currently at hand it seems they used a vacuum cleaner on the sky, since there's a never-seen-before scarceness of birds. Sure, August is the worst period, but I've been here in this month for almost 40 years and have photo statistics for about 10, and I've always been luckier. There's also a resident population of pink flamingoes, in the hundreds in this period, but this year they have decided to stay well far from watching people. Probably they have been disturbed - people managing the sanctuary say that wildboars got really aggressive in the peripheral areas, which are those open to the public.

 

But at least there are common sandpipers. They are small, shy, fly fast and in an erratic way, so I hadn't them in mind for the first tests... but I had to do with what was available.

 

I was able only to shoot two bursts so far. Continuous AF, of course, then all boils down to the tracking modes. The burst with "Zone" mode (which should be one of the best tracking option, taking advantage of what Sony calls "4D-FOCUS") was a total failure: no sharp pictures, even close. The burst with "Flexible spot, large sensor" mode delivered 20% of reasonably sharp pictures. Composition is poor, because the bird gave me the ass view  , but that's another matter.

 

Considering that I was sitting on a moving boat, the light was low (near the sunset), it's a good start. BTW, AF-C isn't officially supported by Sigma, but the feature seems to be there (I could see the cursors in the EVF tracking the subject). Reading around I see that a few other people tried it and confirmed the feature is there. Probably is just half-baked, so Sigma doesn't declare it, waiting for a firmware upgrade (which Sigma hinted about).

 

Details: Sony α6000 + Sigma 150-600mm F5-6.3 C @ 562 mm, 1/800 sec @ Æ’/11, ISO 800, AF-C, Flexible Spot L mode, 50% crop, hand-held.

 

[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[JJ_SO]

I'm sure it's no need to ask, but that doesn't stop me:

 

OS of the lens was off?

All available firmware updates were installed? MC-11 as well as 150-600?

562 mm is some kind of magic FL? You don't use the clickstops for 500 and 600 mm?

 

If it's of any comfort for you: Currently AF-C on Fuji cameras is something nobody wants to talk about. Some get angry, others embarassed.

[stoppingdown]

OS was on. It was "1" mode and I'm not sure whether in that case I should have set the "2" mode (the one which supports panning). Indeed the bird was zig-zagging, but I wasn't panning, strictly speaking.

 

All the firmware at the latest update. 562mm is because I placed the ring midway between 500mm and 600mm (and it turned out to be 562mm). The reason is that on one side I wanted the max. focal length, 600mm, but I can preliminary confirm (even though I didn't run specific tests yet) that the sharpness of the lens degrades faster when it approaches the long end, as some reviewers said; so I think it's better to give up to a few millimetres and get somewhat better sharpness. 

[JJ_SO]

Although it's logical that OS is working independently of the camera, I thought your Sony has in-camera-stabilisation, so I would have tried to switch that option at the lens off. I would not expect OS to be powered by the camera, but obviously I'm worng.

 

Did you use the focus limiter?

[Kodachrome 25]

Did you see Gordon Laing's report about the a6300 at the Tour de France? It includes remarks on AF-modes and comparative comments on the a6000.

Seems as there is still considerable room for improvement in machine vision and demanding targets even in a camera with possibly the most advanced capabilities.

[Brightcolours]

Although it's logical that OS is working independently of the camera, I thought your Sony has in-camera-stabilisation, so I would have tried to switch that option at the lens off. I would not expect OS to be powered by the camera, but obviously I'm worng.

 

Did you use the focus limiter?

No, the Sony A6000 does not have in-body image stabilization. It also does not have a shutter slap issue which some other camera, with IBIS, do have.

[Studor13]

Nice shot, actually. Just wondering though, why f11?

 

Wouldn't you get (slightly) better image at f8 and lower ISO?

[Brightcolours]

Nice shot, actually. Just wondering though, why f11?

 

Wouldn't you get (slightly) better image at f8 and lower ISO?

Because of the name "stopping down"? 

[stoppingdown]

Because of the name "stopping down"? 

 

LOL 

 

Actually, I think that the bird was at roughly 15/20m from me and, according to the DoF calculator linked by Klaus, Æ’/8 would have made about 25/40cm of depth of field. Enough for the bird. But... I didn't knew how much precision the a6000 delivers (and I still don't know). Æ’/11 gives about 35/60cm and it accommodates more margin of error. Had the bird presented its head, it would have been ok if part of the body was blurred. Not so if the tail is the only focused part of the body, and I presume the camera focuses roughly on the closer object.

 

In my plans I hoped to shot at least a dozen bursts, starting from Æ’/11 and then going to Æ’/8 and even below, so I could have more information about the focusing precision and the margin to take. Unfortunately, I only managed in having two bursts (there were many sandpipers, but most of them were on the shores, without flying, or too far). It will require a lot of testing to find the best combination of AF configuration and aperture.

 

I saw Gordon Laing's posts about the Tour. Actually his reports from Tour 2015 gave me the hint that the a6000 could start to be interesting for subjects in motion.

[davidmanze]

You did well to get a sharp shot at 1/800 sec. at that focal length, I would double that and use 1/1600 sec, other wise you'll get a fair few blurries, failed opportunities!  

F11 is totally appropriate for the Sigma at the long end, both for DOF and sharpness, it's so tempting to go try and get low noise images, but at the price of camera shake?  up the ISO and get the shot!

 

  Yeah, for BIF first off, you need the birds, all mine here for the moment have flown, I'm down to seagulls and just flamingos (hey nice but) I have a zillion shots already, best time is spring/early summer!