Nearly but not quite: Woody

Light was intermitent today. Have been playing with the flight shots for days to come. Nearly there but not critically sharp enough on the head.

To days learning point - in bright light switch off IS - it slows focusing down.

As you say Tom, nearly but not yet.

One of the reasons I opted to sell my new 400/2.8 IS was for the very reason you have found here. IS does slow down AF and no matter what Canon or some of their disciples say, it is fact and it is annoying to say the least. IS does have it's advantages, but not for moving targets.
Interestingly, I'm in the middle of editing some shots from today taken with the non IS 500, and of the thousand or so I've gone through, so far, only a handfull have missed the mark in terms of critical focusing. This beats the supposedly faster focussing 400/2.8 IS into an early submission. Easy enough to say "switch the IS off then", but the difference of over 2 grand in price makes it a pretty expensive switch.

I'd still be happy to have the doo shot in my portfollio though.

John

John,

To day was fast enough that you didn't need the IS on. My fault I forgot to check the kit setup before I started.

The above was 1/1600' ish and hand tremor at that speed on a 300mm would be negliable. I hit focus on the wing just to the RHS of the head

I assumed it was your 500.
Hell I wouldn't know what to do with IS on a 300. Camera shake hasn't happened with that one yet, maybe when I'm old it will make a difference

Even better shot now that I know it was taken with a 300.

John

Very pleasing on the eye,The colours of the bird work very well with the background,The bird is perfectly positioned in the frame with the wings making a nice diagonal,I would be very pleased with this one

It looks good at web size Tom, like the bg.

Whats IS?