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I think it probably sounded and looked pretty fast to most viewers but is it fast ‘enough’ for little birds?\u00a0 Let’s see if it is.<\/p>\n
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1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n I photographed this handsome little male Yellow Warbler with my 7DII\u00a0several days ago in the Wasatch Mountains. Atypical for these frenetic little guys he stayed on this perch for long enough that I was able to get quite a few nice shots of him. But I’m a greedy\u00a0sucker and I really wanted takeoff and\/or flight shots too. I prepared myself for launch as best I could and hoped he’d fly to my left, despite the fox tails in front of him.<\/p>\n Human reflexes just aren’t fast enough\u00a0to keep these little birds in frame if the photographer waits for takeoff to push the shutter. But this time I was able to anticipate takeoff and had already pushed my shutter button down\u00a0with my camera in burst mode so a burst was underway when this shot was taken. Notice that he’s already spread his tail and raised his wings slightly at the very beginning of takeoff.<\/p>\n And yes, he did take off to my left. So, what do you think I got or didn’t get\u00a0in the next frame, 1\/10 of a second later?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n To make it a fair question here’s a different crop of the same photo so you can see all the way to the left edge of the actual\u00a0frame. Given how much room I have in that direction do you think all of the bird would still be in frame 1\/10th of a second later?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/4000, f\/6.3, ISO 800, Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 500mm f\/4L IS II USM + EF 1.4 III Extender, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Nope, I cut off part of\u00a0his right\u00a0wing. Needless to say, little birds are fast!<\/p>\n The\u00a0warbler is a little soft anyway but if he’d been sharp I’d have been very disappointed to have butchered the shot (and the bird), despite the stem in front of him. This happens to me\u00a0time and time\u00a0again – sometimes several times in a single morning.\u00a0It happened one other time on the\u00a0morning this photo was taken.<\/p>\n So yes, when Canon comes out with a new replacement for the 7DII I’ll likely scarf it up in a heartbeat because it will almost certainly have a faster burst rate, among other improvements. I have no interest in changing camera brands or going with a full frame camera (some of which have faster burst rates than the 7D II) so I’ll wait, albeit a bit anxiously.<\/p>\n Admittedly there are\u00a0several variables I haven’t mentioned here that go into determining what burst rate is fast enough for an individual bird photographer. But for me I\u00a0lust for\u00a0more speed when it becomes available.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you’re not interested in this subject as a photographer I would think many bird lovers would be interested in it as a demonstration of how incredibly fast little birds are.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/yellow-warbler-5098b-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"yellow-warbler-5098b-ron-dudley\\"")
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