Hi. I'm new to the forum, and Canon, though I've been into photography for over forty years. I just picked up a used 1D Mark IV that I hope to configure for shooting hummingbirds. Now all I need to do is figure out how to enable it to trap focus. Any help with this will be appreciated. Now off to search the forums... Mike
Hi Mike, Welcome to our forum. I have a 1Ds, the very first 1D model, and it cetainly can't do trap focus so I am sorry to say that I can't help with that. I will look forward to seeing your humming bird shots.
Hi Ray. Thanks for the reply. I'm beginning to learn the research I've done prior to the purchase of the camera was insufficient. It seems one can't trust everything they read on the Internet. I'll keep looking though, and if I find a solution, will post it here. In the meantime, this is an example of what I capture in my backyard with my other cameras: Mike
Ah, yes, just because you find some information on the 'net does not mean that it is true. But that doesn't mean that the truth is not out there. So, keep looking. Good grief, that hummingbird shot is stunning. How could you improve on that?
Hi Mike, I would like to retract the statement I made above re not being able to help you because now I can. I was searching my user guide last night for something quite unrelated and ended up reading about the AF mode with the strange name i.e. AI Servo. It is designed to focus on moving subjects and I think that is what you are after. I had never investigated it as the name did not suggest its function but it works and does exactly what it says. And the old 1Ds can do it too. I decided that I had to test it and I took a few images of cars coming up the road. I probably should have used a faster shutter speed and I would if I were doing any serious shots but what I got shows that it works. Go to your AF mode and select AI Servo and away you go. You could also select Multi Shot and just hold your finger on the shutter button. Anyway here is what I got: C0EW1669 by rayallen posted Jun 30, 2018 at 8:59 AM C0EW1670 by rayallen posted Jun 30, 2018 at 8:59 AM C0EW1671 by rayallen posted Jun 30, 2018 at 8:59 AM HTH.
Thanks everybody! And thanks, Ray. The photos you posted indicate that focus tracking works with the 1D series, but what I'm looking to achieve is 'focus trap', also known as trap focus, and what Pentax users know as Catch-In-Focus. Pentax has had this feature for more than a decade. And I had a D800, which was supposed to have this sort of feature, but didn't, until a firmware upgrade, after I sold it. It works like this: a) use a MF lens, or AF/MF lens set to MF and pre-focus on where the target (in my case a hummingbird) will be, b) set the AF/MF switch on the camera body to AF, c) set AF to Single shot (as opposed to Continuous), and d) enable Catch-In-Focus in the menus. Having done that, plug in your cable release, and lock it into the On position. When the target comes into position, the camera fires, as long as the target is in focus. If the target moves out of focus, the camera stops firing. If the target comes back into focus, it starts firing again. All day. I made a voltage regulator, hooked up to a 12V battery, and my camera shoots all day. Depending on hummingbird traffic in my yard, , I get as few as 25 shots, and as many as 2900, in a day. My little K-50, will be 3 years old next month. It has taken over 300,000 shots. The 1D Mark IV is a 16MP camera, like my K-50, but the 1D MkIV can fire at 10 FPS. That makes me wonder what shots I'm missing, and why I'd like to try to get it to do the same job. Yes, I'll continue to look for a solution to this challenge...
Hi Mike, I have a K-3 and I am very familiar with Catch-In-Focus and I suspected that was what you were after and AI Servo was the closest thing I could find. I can see that it does not meet your requirements and I'm not even sure whether the latest Canons can do what you want. Well, at least we tried and I had fun trying out AI Servo so all is not lost. I guess you will just have to continue with the K-50 until its shutter gives out. I don't think it is supposed to do 300,000 actuations - but don't tell it that.
