Motion detection birds shots

yvesson

mrproper
So why are your tits, I mean birds so out of focus? Is the script taking focus before shooting, or is it using the start focus?

Hej,
Well I don't really know because I don't know much (if anything) about coding. So if someone can explain me details about how works the script I'm using, he's welcome. But I think I read on the wiki page of the script that it locks focus before it shoots.
Anyway the main problem it's what it chooses to focus on... can be the bread, can be the bird, can be the plants behind... It's a matter of luck then. I noticed one serie is often focused on the same thing.
Also one cloud passing by the sun may increase the shutter time too much and blurry most of pics (you need to get around faster than 1/200s to freeze the bird eating).
Also another case is the bird showing the cam only its butt. :/

Also something I don't get : how the hell, being in macro mode, it can focus on the plants more than a meter away ?

mrproper

yvesson
Also something I don't get : how the hell, being in macro mode, it can focus on the plants more than a meter away ?

Depends on the zoom. My A570 can focus up to 4.4m or so in macro mode. I sugges using manual focus values in CHDK or placing something in place of the bread and focus on that. Future subjects picking the bread SHOULD be in that focus plane.

Barney Fife

Deleted

yvesson

Hej,
Well but also there are reasons why I let the cam AF.

MF isn't easy to adjust from where the cam is,
I get birds at the bread but also sometimes much behind the bread (well those at the bread are usually better I have to agree),
I wanna try my luck and get the bird flying off (together with a lot of light but seems AF too slow anyway),

Also about hyperfocal I had read about that in the past and read a bit again just now... Seems I need to use bigger f-numbers to get good results... it's possible on sunny days but each time the light decreases a bit I get too slow shutter speeds and blurry birds too.
I may have missed so. though so please explain more how I could use that here.

Well anyway at first I thought the DOF would be really slim in macro mode but realized that at f2.6 I get enough DOF so that MF could work (on the bread).

Sadly no way to experiment these days since I had shitty weather (windy and cloudy) and had also messed with my script settings :/

yvesson

Hej,
Well two more nice birds today, motion detection, without any food, just noticed they were often going there...
just changed slow mode, chroma detection and increased threshold to 30 due to branches moving a lot with the wind (fudgey script). Jucifer exp. build on A540. auto macro mode, Tv locked F2.6 and ISO100.

Emiiiiiil

Very nice pictures Yvesson,i got cats and they dont go well with these kind of setups,breadcrumbs and
all,would get some pretty grizzely pictures i guess,,,lol.
i did not realise the treshold settings.to get the camera to ignore the trees,but is that a distance
or movement treshold? if its the last the bird needs to move fast enough to breake the treashold??or?

fudgey

Emiiiiiil
i did not realise the treshold settings.to get the camera to ignore the trees,but is that a distance
or movement treshold? if its the last the bird needs to move fast enough to breake the treashold??or?

Neither. Threshold is a luminance (by default, Y channel selected) difference that makes the MD trigger.
Read the documentation in the zip available at Fast MD with burst/preview mode.

Emiiiiiil

Ahh,thx fudgey.even smarter than i expected.

tsdillon

Thought this may be of interest.
Using a A590IS coupled to a Leica Spotting scope. Script used MDFB 080419 Digic III. Lot of movement....lot of images. Images changed to an Animated GIF using ULead GIF Animator.

Terry

yvesson

Hej,
Why don't you put the cam very close to the place where the birds may come, as I did ?
You'd get a much better quality.

*edited* : I have some new shots btw, from this winter :

[OFF TOPIC]
Now with SX10IS, don't need motion detection to get closer (but still hard to get close enough, impossible to get the same quality as macro mode of A540, think about it) :

And anyway this is a white wagtail, and those will never come and eat with the tits, cause it's only interested in insects.

barret

those pictures are truly amazing 😀 nice job!

tsdillon

I agree......put the camera close to the birds. OK for garden birds! My photography is mainly in marshes/estuaries and sand flats. Long distances (25-100m) .......with my compact/scope set up I am working with a focal length of 2-3000mm. The attachement was just checking out this system.

yvesson

Hej,
It's okej, then, if it was for testing... Did you try and shoot the moon with such setup ? You should get something nice at 2-3000mm.
And thanks barret.

Mr_Mel_Quin

yvesson
Hej,
Well I have played a bit with motion detection (the one for A640 by Johan van Barel) (so I'm confirming it works on A540)...

A590is (1.01b) works well too.

I haven't tried anything with fast motion at this time, but this is far more enjoyable than I expected.
Nice shots, BTW, yvesson!

yvesson

Hej,
Thanks, nice shot too, I don't have this kinda bird here. How did you make it come where your cam was ? Is it just a place where it's often seen, as my flycatchers and redstarts ?

Motion detection video works too, btw (fudgey's script) :
[flash=200,200]http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/xjrwgi[/flash]

~~Sorry I have removed all my videos from youtube, since they wanted to force me creating a google account just to have access to my videos again.~~ Reuploaded on dailymotion.

Mr_Mel_Quin

It is a common bird here, but I did cheat a little.
I wedged a few peanuts and sunflower seeds into the bark, actually trying to lure a red-headed one instead of the one I got.
I could try crickets, too, but I don't know if I want to go there. 😀
I checked out www.allaboutbirds.org for tips on luring different types of birds- not a bad site.

cybercom

Great video!!

Old Farseeing Art

Yes, excellent video. Clear, nice and sharp. Good work.

yvesson

Hej,
Back to the still pics, redstarts again :

EtaoinShrdlu

Hi. First post here. I have a SX110 and earlier this week I downloaded CHDK and a motion script. I have a bird feeder outside the kitchen window, so I set up the camera on a tripod just 3 feet away from the feeder and started the motion script. Every few hours I'd change batteries on the camera and twice a day I took out the 4GB chip to move images onto my computer. Over the course of 2 days I took almost 4,000 images. Most of them have no birds, because the wind makes the feeder swing. Nevertheless, I was very pleased with the results. I cropped the images and adjusted contrast and brightness using Photoshop.

Red-bellied woodpecker:

Downy woodpecker:

Juvenile downy woodpecker:

Cardinal:

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