[stoppingdown]

After one year of a previous edition of the test with the a6000 and the Sigma 150-600mm C, I did it again with the a6300, to see whether things have improved with a better autofocusing system.

 

They did, definitely.

 

Test conditions: sunny day, hand-held, 1/1000 sec, Æ’/8, auto ISO; focals from 480mm to 550mm. I classified shots in three classes: ok! (perfect sharpness), decent (acceptable sharpness), ko. The focusing mode was "lock-on", that is I first focused using the center sensor, then the camera tracked the subject (so it took into account the fact that I couldn't precisely track the subject, and/or I could decide to place it into another position) and I was able to see the active sensors around the subject; so I could visually confirm where the camera was focusing. When the tracking was lost, I restarted the process.

 

The original test set was composed of 210 shots:

 

50 (24%) ok!
53 (25%) decent
107 (51%) ko
 
But I must take into account a strange thing: starting from a certain point (the latest 67 shots), auto-focus always failed - got it near, actually, but far from decency. I don't know what happened; perhaps I was tired of hand-holding (but the problem is not motion blur, is mis-focus)... or ... who knows? I recall I could confirm that the camera had a harder time putting the highlighted sensors around the subject.
 
If something happened - for instance, some error of mine - not taking into accounts the latest failure sequence numbers would be:
 
143 photos
50 (35%) ok!
53 (37%) decent
40 (28%) ko!
 
That is, one third/one third/one third.
 
The camera had a harder success ratio when the background, instead of the sky with or without clouds, was the slope of surrounding mountains: sometimes the camera was fooled and tracked it. But even in this scenario, some good shots turned out.
 
All in all, that's good. It should be definitely fine for BIF with a predictable motion.

[davidmanze]

Hi stopping down!

 

   Looks like you are doing well with camera that isn't really designed for sports with the recently tested Sigma "C".

    I go often to Millau  which is renowned as a paragliding center for France, many people come from all over to make the jump, in the morning when thermal activity hasn't got going they just make the flight down, they call it "Le plouf".

  I'm off up there again tomorrow as it's too hot here, it's alt. is 820 mts, hope to get some more vulture shots and do another feeding shoot.

 Here's a couple (it refused three images) 

 

 

  Post a few of yours, a few pics say more than words!

[stoppingdown]

 

Post a few of yours, a few pics say more than words!

 

Sure, I was waiting for my website to get the latest updates... Here we go:

 

http://stoppingdown.net/diary/2017/07/08...70710-0286

http://stoppingdown.net/diary/2017/07/08...70710-0313

http://stoppingdown.net/diary/2017/07/08...70710-0324

http://stoppingdown.net/diary/2017/07/08...70710-0486

 

Taken at 293mm, 187mm, 531mm, 150mm.

[davidmanze]

 Some very nice shots, the scenery is fantastic there!

[Studor13]

Sure, I was waiting for my website to get the latest updates... Here we go:

 

 

I can't seem to get access to your site.

 

Anyways, here is one from my heyday flying tandem somewhere in Nepal, and these days from a much safer place.

 

First one by the wife on film, second with the D800 + 200mm f4 @f5.6.

[JJ_SO]

I like your black & white ensemble with 4 non-birds  ^_^

 

Here is also a take-off place for them. On some days it's like flies around a lamp. And one day I managed to sit on a rock they pass closeby



This was the 300 + 1.7× converter

 

 

[Studor13]

I forget where you live now, Jo. I'm guessing it's in the Swiss-German speaking part.

 

I flew quite a bit in Switzerland, and one time took off near Geneva and somehow landed in France. Back in those days you could walk back over the border through some farmer's land without a passport.

 

 

[JJ_SO]

I never paraglided, but with a bicycle you also can cross the border without being stopped - heck, Europe is no past, it's very present and the future, even when the Brits first want get out and now make no effort to speed up the process...  ^_^

[stoppingdown]

I like your minimalistic B&W too.

 

PS My site is sometimes down for maintenance, for a minute or two... I'm preparing for an upgrade as soon as I'll have a few uninterrupted hours to work on it.