A couple of issues coming out of my Namibia trip

Astacus

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Robert Beynon
This trip was a little different and maybe developmental for me. I took a lot more video clips mostly using the A7S3. Main camera was my trusted A1 - the camera I have had for the longest period, with no intention of changing.

This made me delve into video settings a lot more - thank you YouiTube!

But also raised some issues..

1. Using zebras
In addition to movie mode, I added zebras to still shots,. I set it at 90%, and this was a little bit of an error. I was driven by the need to avoid blown highlights, so kept adjusting exposure, typically by up to -2EV to suppress these. I was using centre weighted metering.

In LR, as expected, these came out too dark on screen. However, they are readily recovered, often using the 'Auto' button.

Lesson - I'll keep zebras on but have now set them to 100% - which to me means 'actual' blown out highlights.

2. Focus point
Without delving into details - accidental setting touch focus and 'nose focusing' etc, - is there a way to permanently fix the focus point to dead centre. Subsequently, can then follow focus using tracking etc, but during a transient appearance of a small bird, the time taken to 'find' the focus square can be critical. I know it sounds like I'm turning my A1 into a P&S, but it is very rare for a bird to occupy much of the frame.

3. Auto ISO

I tend to use auto ISO most of the time, setting upper limit as required. However, there were times when I could dump the camera out of auto ISO to the lowest ISO setting, (bad news). This was becuase the control wheel was set to adjust ISO value, which I did not want. I disabled this.

All in all, the 18,000 images I took will be reduced to about a couple of hundred, so there is plenty a leeway!

Rob
 

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Great stuff and some nice info.
 
This trip was a little different and maybe developmental for me. I took a lot more video clips mostly using the A7S3. Main camera was my trusted A1 - the camera I have had for the longest period, with no intention of changing.

This made me delve into video settings a lot more - thank you YouiTube!

But also raised some issues..

1. Using zebras
In addition to movie mode, I added zebras to still shots,. I set it at 90%, and this was a little bit of an error. I was driven by the need to avoid blown highlights, so kept adjusting exposure, typically by up to -2EV to suppress these. I was using centre weighted metering.

In LR, as expected, these came out too dark on screen. However, they are readily recovered, often using the 'Auto' button.

Lesson - I'll keep zebras on but have now set them to 100% - which to me means 'actual' blown out highlights.

2. Focus point
Without delving into details - accidental setting touch focus and 'nose focusing' etc, - is there a way to permanently fix the focus point to dead centre. Subsequently, can then follow focus using tracking etc, but during a transient appearance of a small bird, the time taken to 'find' the focus square can be critical. I know it sounds like I'm turning my A1 into a P&S, but it is very rare for a bird to occupy much of the frame.

3. Auto ISO
I tend to use auto ISO most of the time, setting upper limit as required. However, there were times when I could dump the camera out of auto ISO to the lowest ISO setting, (bad news). This was becuase the control wheel was set to adjust ISO value, which I did not want. I disabled this.

All in all, the 18,000 images I took will be reduced to about a couple of hundred, so there is plenty a leeway!

Rob
Liked the camile beeater shot Robert...... (y)
 
I like the Jackals and the eye level shot is perfect.
 
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