Sony recently introduced a new firmware update for the already impressive A9 mirrorless camera. This firmware update introduced a new feature called “Real Time Tracking.” This new feature is supposed to lock focus on a target and never lose it. How does Sony’s Real Time Tracking work with bird in Flight Photography? Let’s find out.
Sunrise at the beach. A magical place where the Atlantic ocean mixes with sun bleached sand and birds seem to appear in the sky from out of nowhere. A beautiful golden light helps set the stage and highlights wind swept waves as a single brown pelican scans the golden colored water below. You could think of this bird as a scout who is ready to call in reinforcements because the ocean below is teeming with fish and as the fish move through the inlet, the pelicans multiply. A couple of pelicans quickly becomes many and seeing them falling out of the sky is exactly what we are looking for. Let’s get some shots!
Our first pelican in the spotlight is a younger one you can tell this bird is young because of its somewhat drab brown coloring. I have seen this specific bird here several times and it good to see it diving in the water because this bird has had a rough life. Check out its right foot or lack of. This bird has somehow lost its foot and in spite of missing a foot, this bird does quite well for itself and for those of you out there that don’t know, Brown pelicans come crashing into the water headfirst and just like that, they disappear under the surface of the water where they hopefully fill their pouch with tasty fish.
There was no shortage of brown pelicans falling out of the sky and this second bird is and adult. The difference in color is pretty obvious and as you can see from these shots, the real time tracking feature of the A9 seems to be handling these big birds with no problems at all. Not a single shot is out of focus but these two birds were showing us their backsides. Let’s see if we can get a better view of these beauties.
That’s much better. Now you can really see some of the beauty on this adult brown pelican as it comes falling out of the sky. I love the water drops trailing off its head and being able to capture the moment the bird’s head comes into contact with the water is just amazing and just like the other two birds, this one disappears with a huge splash.
You know what would be cool? If we could get both the adult and the juvenile bird diving at the same time like this!
The adult is in the front and that is where my focus was locked and when you see them both in the same shot, it is easy to tell the difference but what’s really amazing is the fact that these two birds are completely synchronized down to the millisecond. That’s pretty crazy!
The Sony A9 kept the focus locked tight on the pelican in the front in spite of another bird appearing in the frame right alongside it. Let’s see if we can find some other flying birds.
What’s this? A group of Cattle Egrets in full breeding plumage. These awesome birds are currently in full swing building nests and this set of trees makes for the perfect nesting material. Let’s see if we can get some shots of these beautiful little birds flying with sticks!
The A9 had no problem locking onto this bird and keeping it in perfect focus through the entire series of shots. It looks like this Cattle Egret is literally walking in the air but it doesn’t have any nesting material. I really want to show you what these awesome little birds look like flying with sticks.
There we go! Look at the size of the branch this little bird managed to grab. It is about three times longer than the bird itself! Talk about over-achiever.
This Cattle Egret is going to have one happy mate back at the nest and again, the A9 had no issues locking on and keeping the bird in focus. In fact, one of my favorite things about using this camera is just how responsive and light it is. You can have it at your side and see something amazing happen, bring it to your eye press the focus button and fire away all in under a second’s time. Sometimes that speed is necessary especially when a Savage Great Blue Heron suddenly appears in the sky with a massive fish like this.
Man, that is brutal. Great Blue Herons use their long spear shaped beaks to spear their prey and this case it appears as if the Savage heron has speared a huge tilapia right in the eye. Being able to have a light and very responsive camera in your hands is very helpful in moments like this one and another interesting thing to note is the fact that this series of shots has some pretty strong back lighting but that didn’t prevent the a9 from locking focus and keeping it locked.
And here’s the Savage Great Blue Heron now showing off its huge catch. In case you are wondering, the Heron did swallow this fish whole but I am saving that brutal series of shots for a future post. Let’s head back to the beach and see if our osprey are ready to fish!
There’s our amazing hunter and those open talons can only mean one thing, this bird has locked onto something under the surface of the water and it doesn’t mind diving feet first to snatch whatever it saw lurking below.
Notice how the wings go back for a more streamlined water entry and splash, the bird hits the water with and amazing amount of energy and the only part of the bird that isn’t completely submerged are the tips of its wings. This entire process just completely blows my mind no matter how many times I am lucky enough to witness it.
Now the big question is this. Was the bird’s amazing plunge into the water worth the effort? No, this bird came up with nothing but a nice healthy dose of turquoise sea water stuck to its feathers and because its talons are empty, we get a really good look at them.
They are massive and definitely prehistoric looking. The osprey ascends a little higher and turns to face me. Our eyes meet and for a brief moment that is all that exists.
What an amazing creature. This one may have come up with nothing but another osprey a little further away has just emerged from the water victorious!
This is what I’m looking for, an osprey with a massive catch and its catch is a huge Ladyfish. The fish looks like it is about the same size as the bird’s body. What an impressive act of survival and take a look at those talons ready to grab this massive fish and keep it locked tight in the osprey’s deadly grasp.
Simply amazing and there is one more amazing osprey circling the skies above. Let’s see if it manages to pull a fish from the water below.
This osprey has managed to pull a very prized fish from the water. Its catch is a pompano, a fish that many local fisherman would love to catch but this bird has no intention on sharing its prized fish with anyone and I don’t blame it.
This bird’s only goal at this point is escaping with its catch and in order to do that, it must grab the fish’s head with its right talons in order to make it easier to carry in the air. Osprey will almost always turn the fish headfirst so that it is more aerodynamic. It is pretty crazy to think that they know to do this but what’s really crazy here is the amount of shots I got in this series.
In total, I took 68 shots and not a single one of them was out of focus. I’m not showing all 68 here because well, I don’t think I could come up with enough commentary to talk over all 68 shots!
One impressive bird and the Sony A9 with its new real time tracking system is one impressive camera not that it wasn’t impressive to begin with.
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