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Post by MJB on Oct 1, 2024 6:36:23 GMT
The wildlife machine gun nest again. I've just seen a Facebook post of a photo of a Bearded Reedling with the comment "one of 1700 photos taken in 2 hours". Given that 4k video cameras are reasonably affordable now surely it would be quieter and easier to use one of those as and lift a frame from the resulting footage?
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Post by zou on Oct 1, 2024 6:47:39 GMT
The wildlife machine gun nest again. I've just seen a Facebook post of a photo of a Bearded Reedling with the comment "one of 1700 photos taken in 2 hours". Given that 4k video cameras are reasonably affordable now surely it would be quieter and easier to use one of those as and lift a frame from the resulting footage? Seems reasonable, but consider the shutter speed, it's quite possible that the stills won't be critically sharp. But with my birding hat on, I'd rather several short videos showing the birds doing what they do than 500 stills of which I'd only share a handful. |
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Post by peterob on Oct 1, 2024 7:00:33 GMT
The wildlife machine gun nest again. I've just seen a Facebook post of a photo of a Bearded Reedling with the comment "one of 1700 photos taken in 2 hours". Given that 4k video cameras are reasonably affordable now surely it would be quieter and easier to use one of those as and lift a frame from the resulting footage? I don't understand "machine gunning" either but I think it is "because you can". Burst rate seems to be a key selling point for cameras these days. I sometimes take more than one frame but as an aid to minimise camera movement more than the need to have more than one [nearly identical] picture. I guess sports photographers may find a rapid burst useful because the placement of a fast moving object such as a ball, say, can be key but even that only makes sense if there is a back office of interns employed to search through for "the one". I suppose not everybody likes video. I don't. The only time I use it is for the safety camera I have on my bike and even then picking out a 5 second sequence to show that some idiot driver did a close pass is a real pain. The camera takes rolling 5 minute sequences so, remembering the rough time/location usually only means sorting through 2-3 sequences but at 30 fps 5 mins is 9,000 frames (yawn). In the specific case of Bearded Reedlings. They are quite cute. I could look at a dozen pictures without too much ennui. It is quite difficult to get a good shot of one and they are quite rare. Locally we had some [six birds they thought] on Burton Mere Wetlands for two years but I saw them only once.  BV9R3431.jpg by Pete, on Flickr |
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Post by gray1720 on Oct 1, 2024 7:28:38 GMT
I assume that we no longer call them bearded tits in case we mix them up with (insert appropriate silly beard wearer here)?
I can only assume they have the patience of a saint to go through that many pics. I am more semi-automatic than machine gun for cricket (though the D7000 is faster than the D200, so I might have more frames from the same shutter press IYSWIM) but even so I may shoot up to 400-450 frames a game. I don't have time to go through those in season - I just dump all the jpegs into Elephants, automatically resize, and stick up on Dropbox for people in the club to see. I don't go through until the end of the season when I am putting the photobook together and even a swift flick through using Photos with the jpegs takes a good while, especially as I keep stopping to drop the good ones into the folder for the book - which will be about 200 photos in the folder, not all will get in.
I think I'm with Zou here - if you are doing birdies, why not come up with video of them doing birdie things rather than fill your hard drive with 99% pics of their arses disappearing?
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Post by peterob on Oct 1, 2024 7:51:39 GMT
I assume that we no longer call them bearded tits in case we mix them up with (insert appropriate silly beard wearer here)? Yes they are still known as bearded tits. They are not members of the tit family. |
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Post by gray1720 on Oct 1, 2024 8:04:13 GMT
Ah, but given a choice of technical correctness and potential for humourous smut, where do you think I would stand?
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Post by Fenris on Oct 1, 2024 9:19:25 GMT
I don't understand "machine gunning" either but I think it is "because you can". I call that "Spray and Pray". No technique or skills required, just point the camera and press the shutter and hope that you get a decent photo. The first time I saw this technique was from someone who had spent thousands of pounds on Canon equipment but didn't bother to learn how to use it. When he didn't get the quality photographs that he'd seen professional wildlife photographers get with the same gear, he sold all the Canon gear - because it didn't work - and bought the Nikon equivalent to what he had with Canon. Used exactly the same technique again, didn't get the results he wanted... surprise surprise! Didn't want to spend the time or energy learning the craft so he sold all the Nikon gear and gave up photography. |
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Post by peterob on Oct 1, 2024 9:54:11 GMT
I don't understand "machine gunning" either but I think it is "because you can". I call that "Spray and Pray". No technique or skills required, just point the camera and press the shutter and hope that you get a decent photo. The first time I saw this technique was from someone who had spent thousands of pounds on Canon equipment but didn't bother to learn how to use it. When he didn't get the quality photographs that he'd seen professional wildlife photographers get with the same gear, he sold all the Canon gear - because it didn't work - and bought the Nikon equivalent to what he had with Canon. Used exactly the same technique again, didn't get the results he wanted... surprise surprise! Didn't want to spend the time or energy learning the craft so he sold all the Nikon gear and gave up photography. I usually call it spray and pray too. However there are two behaviours. Photographing action, where spray and pray may [with luck] produce a result, and boredom relief which involves taking hundreds of pictures of the same scene to no apparent photographic purpose. This I tend to think of more as "machine gunning". I've come across it in bird hides where there is a good view of a bird doing more or less nothing and still someone takes dozens or hundreds of exposures on burst. Absolutely pointless. |
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Post by zx9 on Oct 1, 2024 9:59:18 GMT
I don't understand "machine gunning" either but I think it is "because you can". I call that "Spray and Pray". No technique or skills required, just point the camera and press the shutter and hope that you get a decent photo. The first time I saw this technique was from someone who had spent thousands of pounds on Canon equipment but didn't bother to learn how to use it. When he didn't get the quality photographs that he'd seen professional wildlife photographers get with the same gear, he sold all the Canon gear - because it didn't work - and bought the Nikon equivalent to what he had with Canon. Used exactly the same technique again, didn't get the results he wanted... surprise surprise! Didn't want to spend the time or energy learning the craft so he sold all the Nikon gear and gave up photography. The above fuel the used equipment market in many hobbies and pass times, in that respect they are to be applauded.  |
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Post by dorsetmike on Oct 1, 2024 11:24:48 GMT
I admit to having used this technique at the Bournemouth air shows, holding the button down for 5 or 6 shots of a flypast or for a few more of some of the aerobatics. Then only keeping what I considered the best of each "set".
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Post by gray1720 on Oct 1, 2024 11:47:19 GMT
I admit to having used this technique at the Bournemouth air shows, holding the button down for 5 or 6 shots of a flypast or for a few more of some of the aerobatics. Then only keeping what I considered the best of each "set". Yes, but for an airshow short bursts are fine, for a bird on a stick machine-gunning is just silly. |
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Post by El Sid on Oct 1, 2024 12:04:07 GMT
I don't understand "machine gunning" either but I think it is "because you can". I call that "Spray and Pray". No technique or skills required, just point the camera and press the shutter and hope that you get a decent photo. The first time I saw this technique was from someone who had spent thousands of pounds on Canon equipment but didn't bother to learn how to use it. When he didn't get the quality photographs that he'd seen professional wildlife photographers get with the same gear, he sold all the Canon gear - because it didn't work - and bought the Nikon equivalent to what he had with Canon. Used exactly the same technique again, didn't get the results he wanted... surprise surprise! Didn't want to spend the time or energy learning the craft so he sold all the Nikon gear and gave up photography. All the gear and no idea...  It's not just photography either, many years ago a new novice member of my local rifle club similarly splashed out on the top model target rifle, spotting scope and all the latest and best in shooting jacket, trousers and assorted accessories. Must have cost him several grand but for all that he failed to learn any proper techniques and basically couldn't have hit a barn door even if he sat on the latch - eventually flounced off after selling the whole kit at a huge loss... Similarly a colleague at work was very into golf and he'd seen the same approach many many times... |
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Post by peterob on Oct 1, 2024 12:30:33 GMT
I admit to having used this technique at the Bournemouth air shows, holding the button down for 5 or 6 shots of a flypast or for a few more of some of the aerobatics. Then only keeping what I considered the best of each "set". Not the same category really. I would probably do that for a flypast with the camera set to 3 or 5 frames per second. Once you get to 10 fps it's almost impossible to not take 5 frames with a touch of the shutter release and cameras these days will go much faster. The specifications say mine will do 40 fps (with AF on every one) using an electronic shutter and there are cameras that will do much more. |
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Post by andy on Oct 1, 2024 13:27:56 GMT
Must be a really serious photographer if he takes 1700 shots of something.  |
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Post by peterob on Oct 1, 2024 13:59:11 GMT
Must be a really serious photographer if he takes 1700 shots of something. I think some people do value quantity. I see posts on another forum that suggest 5,000 shots is not considered abnormal for a weekend and posts full of angst about not having enough storage. From memory my photo count for the year to date is just close to 1,200 - this ignores discards but I don't delete many. I've got the smallest capacity CFExpress card I could buy in the camera and that holds 2000 raw files. |
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