Canon EOS 7D Mark II: Wide Zone Autofocus Testing Cape Town

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm Lens

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens - Birds In Flight AF Testing Woodbridge Island / Cape Town

Objective: Testing the Canon EOS 7D Mark II body / EF 400mm f/5.6L USM lens with AI Servo / Wide Zone selection.

Earlier in the week I went out testing the Canon EOS 7D Mark II using (for the first time) the camera's AF point selection on Auto-Selection 65-Point Autofocus with initial AF point pre-selected. The AF struggled a bit on birds in flight with fairly busy backgrounds - I was more satisfied in conditions with cleaner backgrounds and more depth of field (distance from bird to immediate background).

Birds in Flight with Large / Wide Zone AF Selection

In my shooting environment the coots, like the geese / ducks are relatively fast / mid-sized birds, with the pied kingfishers / swift terns being fast and at time erratic flying smaller birds. The bigger birds (flamingos / herons / pelicans) are all relatively slow which is much easier to shoot across the AF selection range of the Canon EOS 7D Mark II. On most days and for any given bird in flight opportunity I will use the Large  Wide Zone AF selection. A list of bird species I regularly shoot: view here>>

Canon EOS 7D Mark II Wide Zone AF Selection

After the Auto-Selection 65-Point AF testing shoot I went back the next morning to use the Large /  Wide Zone AF Selection option. I didn't spot the same birds in flight, but opted to carry out some testing on a few red-knobbed coots that came scooting down the Milnerton Lagoon. 

Short bursts for six consecutive images
For the captures below I just pre-focused, panned slightly and press the shutter for two short burst of three to four images each. The six consecutive images are in my opinion all of consistent focus and sharpness.

Lightroom Post-Processing
All images processed in Adobe Lightroom 6. Converted from RAW to JPG. Lens profile correction. Minor colour correction. Some noise reduction

Cape Town Location
Milnerton Lagoon Woodbridge Island, Cape Town

Equipment (Birds In Flight / Action Photography)

• Canon EOS 7D Mark II DSLR camera body 
• Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM Lens 
• Lexar Professional 800x / 120MB/s 32GB CF Card 

Manual Mode Settings

• Shutter speed: 1/5000s 
• Aperture: f/6.3 
• Focal length 400mm 
• Auto-ISO (ISO 1000) 
• Continuous shooting mode (10 fps) / AI Servo 
• AI Servo / AF Mode Option (Large / Wide Zone AF / Case 1) 
• Lens AF On / No IS / Handheld

(Click to Enlarge)

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm Lens (Wide Zone AF for Birds in Flight) Cape Town

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm Lens (Wide Zone AF for Birds in Flight) Cape Town

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm Lens (Wide Zone AF for Birds in Flight) Cape Town

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm Lens (Wide Zone AF for Birds in Flight) Cape Town

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm Lens (Wide Zone AF for Birds in Flight) Cape Town

Canon EOS 7D Mark II / 400mm Lens (Wide Zone AF for Birds in Flight) Cape Town

Canon EOS 7D Mark II - Birds in Flight Photo Gallery
Canon EOS 7D Mark II - Birds in Flight Photo Gallery

Birds in Flight Photography Cape Town
Birds in Flight Photography Cape Town