Vernon Chalmers Photography: Canon EOS 7D Mark II: Automatic Selection AF Testing Cape Town

20 May 2019

Canon EOS 7D Mark II: Automatic Selection AF Testing Cape Town

Canon EOS 7D Mark II : Automatic Selection Autofocus Testing

Yellow-Billed Duck : Canon EOS 7D Mark II

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens - Birds In Flight AF Testing Woodbridge Island / Cape Town

Objective: Testing the Canon EOS 7D Mark II body / EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens AF / FPS AF point-selection on Auto-Selection 65-Point AF.

I went out this morning with the objective of testing the Canon EOS 7D Mark II in ISO 1250 - 1600 light conditions, using for the first time the camera's AF point selection on Auto-Selection 65-Point Autofocus with initial AF point pre-selected - instead of the usual (Wide) Zone AF that I generally use for fast flying birds in flight photography.

In busy / high-contrast conditions it does not perform as well as the AF Zone areas, but I am satisfied that it could be used in low-contrast and less busy backgrounds i.e. for shots with lots of plain backgrounds / significant depth of field (focus range) between subject and background as seen here with the fast-flying yellow-billed duck. The AF selection I used mostly for Birds in Flight Photography: Wide Zone Selection>>

Canon EOS 7D Mark II Automatic Selection AF

Canon EOS 7D Mark II FPS Shooting Preference

I prefer shooting shorter bursts of 3 to 4 shots per burst to preserve the buffer and not to be caught out with the camera slowing down (and perhaps missing a sudden opportunity in flight / creative movement from the bird).

Lightroom Post-Processing
All images processed in Adobe Lightroom 6. Converted from RAW to JPG. Lens profile correction. Minor colour correction. Some noise reduction

Cape Town Location
Milnerton Lagoon Woodbridge Island, Cape Town

Equipment (Birds In Flight / Action Photography)