Getting decent shots of birds in flight: Question: If someone who struggles getting decent shots of birds in flight were to buy a Canon EOS R5 and shoot 8k video at 30 fps and pull a...

John T.

Question: If someone who struggles getting decent shots of birds in flight were to buy a Canon EOS R5 and shoot 8k video at 30 fps and pull a still off of that to enter into a contest, would that be considered cheating?

Asking for a friend.

tgreenhaw

I can't imagine why it would be cheating.

I'm curious to see the single frame quality and will look at the frame quality of 4K from my Rp. Theoretically the 8K resolution should be enough (7,680 by 4,320) but I wonder what kind of compression artifacts and other video related quality hits might occur.

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

It's only cheating if you tell someone that you absolutely did not use the video feature to capture the shot.

via the lens Loc: Northern California, near Yosemite NP

There is no "cheating" in photography unless you are breaking the rules of a contest/competition or flat out lying. Having said that, why not just practice getting enough shots of birds in flight that you get good at it? Wouldn't that at least end up with a shot with some photographic skill involved? Practice is what makes you better at getting animals in motion.

Resqu2 Loc: SW Va

I’m just waiting to see a price on the R5. It’s gonna be costly.

Canisdirus

If your 'friend' is that bad at capturing moving subjects...
Just go out and buy a few bird prints for the wall...
Tell your friend to shoot something else...
The camera isn't the problem...or the solution.

BooIsMyCat Loc: Somewhere

John T. wrote:

Question: If someone who struggles getting decent shots of birds in flight were to buy a Canon EOS R5 and shoot 8k video at 30 fps and pull a still off of that to enter into a contest, would that be considered cheating?

Practice, practice, practice.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Why not just shoot half a dozen in burst mode and pick the best one?

mborn Loc: Massachusetts

BooIsMyCat wrote:

Practice, practice, practice.

My answer also!!

saxman71 Loc: Wenatchee

I'm just speculating here, but isn't it possible it would be just as difficult to get a really good shot of a BIF using the video feature (and pulling a single frame out) as it would be to get a tack sharp shot in burst mode on a high end DSLR?

morkie1891

Sony has a ‘lock on af’ mode where the closest moving object is the point of focus. Using that setting with af continuous will yield a higher percent of in focus captures. Don’t know if other brands have similar modes.

schaut

You're an honest man! Don't lose that!!

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

morkie1891 wrote:

Sony has a ‘lock on af’ mode where the closest moving object is the point of focus. Using that setting with af continuous will yield a higher percent of in focus captures. Don’t know if other brands have similar modes.

Nikon has something similar in Continuous focus. Combined with back button focusing it works well enough.

rehess Loc: South Bend, Indiana, USA

Any high MP high fps “FF” camera might deliver good results. The problem with a 24MP “APS-C” camera is keeping enough pixels on the bird, but this type of camera allows you to crop part of the picture and still have the required quality.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

John T. wrote:

Question: If someone who struggles getting decent shots of birds in flight were to buy a Canon EOS R5 and shoot 8k video at 30 fps and pull a still off of that to enter into a contest, would that be considered cheating?

Asking for a friend.

If you set your shutter speed up to about 1/1250 you might be able to pull that off. I have never tried it on subjects on the move like BIF. I've done it on stills and at 4k video you will net a 12 megapixel image. Probably a jpg image though.....

But if you shoot video at 30/fps and have your shutter at 1/60 as most videographers do, then the wings will be very blurry.