Pets Trying the RF100-500 lens

[Brian McGovern]

I spent the weekend playing with the RF100-500 lens. TBH I did struggle with BIF with a clear sky as background. Probably user error, but the focus kept losing the subject and once it started focussing to infinity I really struggled to get it back on the subject.

 

[Copterdoc]

I have the Small spot focus set on the AE-Lock button and the Eye Tracking is initiated on the "*" button. This seems to work for me so far. If it loses lock I just punch the AE-Lock to use the small spot to reestablish tracking and then switch back to the eye-tracking using the "*" button. Got this tip from several other birds in flight shooters. Not sure what else I might try as I'm new to this lens as well. Still very impressive.

 

[Brian McGovern]

Yeh, I have the same BBF setup. It worked great and I got lots of really sharp images. It was only the birds in flight against a bright sky background that gave me issues. Once the focus lost the subject it seemed to refocus on the sky and even when I got the subject back in view I couldn't regain focus.. I am pretty sure it was just user error.

 

[Kathryn Milner]

I have been having the same problem and I think it is common to mirror-less cameras. I find if I focus on the ground and then try again in the sky I am able to find the bird and lock on when it won't lock onto otherwise. This is time taken away from a tracking the flying bird however and I miss more shots than I did with my 5D Mk III.

 

[Brian McGovern]

I have just had the RF100-500 lens on loan for the weekend. I specifically wanted to try it out for wildlife, mainly birds, while on walks and in the garden. The lens worked great with any shots on stationary subjects, and I got some great results. However, I was disappointed when trying to capture birds in flight when caught against a clear, sunny sky background. The lens would lock on the bird for a millisecond and then lose it and seemed to focus on the sky and I couldn’t regain focus. I tried various settings; manual, TV and AV and tried all the focus options from Eye detect to expanded 9-point focus and even tried the large zones. No matter what I tried the birds in flight against a clear sunny blue sky was very hit and miss. I am assuming the main issue was operator error due to lack of experience with a longer lens but would love to figure out what I was doing wrong.



The lens has been sent back and I went out this morning with my usual lens, the RF70-200 and, using the same settings (TV mode, spot focus or eye detect), I tried similar shots and had nearly 100% success rate. So, conditions, settings, technique were all the same. The only difference was the lens.



Does anyone have any suggestions about what I was doing wrong?