Clovishound
Senior Member
Today I finally got around to looking at pre release capture on my new Z8. I tried setting it up on a bird feeder, but the birds didn't cooperate. I noticed a bunch of dragonflies in a field and thought I'd try my luck with them.
It worked, although the camera couldn't keep focus lock on such a fast moving subject. Pardon the blurry pics, I was just trying to make sure it works, and I know how to set it up properly. I probably should have switched from bird to animal detection, but I doubt it would have made much difference. The focus box stayed put for the whole sequence.
I started out with .5 sec, but that wasn't enough to catch the insect in flight, I just got a tail heading out of the frame. I then set it to 1 sec pre and 3 seconds post at 30 fps. Probably should have done 60 for this subject, but I don't think it will work well for this subject because of focus, unless I manually prefocus on where I think he'll be. Anyway, this is what I got.
Sitting still.
Wings coming up, ready to take off.
Already in the air.
Almost out of frame. There were no other frames in between in this four shot sequence. There were several before takeoff, and several empty after.
Any advice on using pre release capture welcomed. I thought I might just put it in pre release and leave it, then switch to 30 or 60 fps when I'm ready to use it. I was also concerned about overheating if I sit for a long time with the shutter half pressed. I know about the 30 sec time out, but everyone says just let off the shutter button and then half press it again. I know the Z8 had some overheating problems early on, but was video recording, and, I believe, was the card that overheated. Pre release shouldn't access the card until you release the shutter, but I wonder if there are other components that might overheat. I did an internet search, and everything revolved around the older video issue.
It worked, although the camera couldn't keep focus lock on such a fast moving subject. Pardon the blurry pics, I was just trying to make sure it works, and I know how to set it up properly. I probably should have switched from bird to animal detection, but I doubt it would have made much difference. The focus box stayed put for the whole sequence.
I started out with .5 sec, but that wasn't enough to catch the insect in flight, I just got a tail heading out of the frame. I then set it to 1 sec pre and 3 seconds post at 30 fps. Probably should have done 60 for this subject, but I don't think it will work well for this subject because of focus, unless I manually prefocus on where I think he'll be. Anyway, this is what I got.
Sitting still.
Wings coming up, ready to take off.
Already in the air.
Almost out of frame. There were no other frames in between in this four shot sequence. There were several before takeoff, and several empty after.
Any advice on using pre release capture welcomed. I thought I might just put it in pre release and leave it, then switch to 30 or 60 fps when I'm ready to use it. I was also concerned about overheating if I sit for a long time with the shutter half pressed. I know about the 30 sec time out, but everyone says just let off the shutter button and then half press it again. I know the Z8 had some overheating problems early on, but was video recording, and, I believe, was the card that overheated. Pre release shouldn't access the card until you release the shutter, but I wonder if there are other components that might overheat. I did an internet search, and everything revolved around the older video issue.
