The D200 AF system for bird tracking


I have been for the first time in my life to an animal park very close to home... this is a fantastic place I had never seen before and I definitely have to go back because I couldn't see a third of it... It is a bit stupid because I have visited lots of zoos and animal parks all over the world and I never took the time to go there...

Back to the subject: D200 autofocus.

Among other things... there was a birds show (very classical, I have seen those in Vancouver, Singapore, ... very similar) and I tried to catch some flight shots.
My experience is the following:
- sometimes the D200 has problems to follow at all and ends up focusing on the background - all pics unusable
- the closest subject mode doesn't really seem to work for birds flying very fast in your direction.
- the simple (one focus sensor only) modes do not work properly for fast moving targets like birds (probably a "locking" issue)
- group dynamic with continuous AF, and lock on target before the flight started gave me excellent sequences (see hereunder for an example)
- one series was totally wrong - AF completely lost and all pictures overexposed exactly the same way (example below). This could be related to a shutter/diaphragm lever issue I have had later with the camera.

You can find an excellent document describing the Nikon autofocus system on the Nikonians site; see here


I have been using the D200+70-200VR @2.8-3.5 Aperture priority for the following pictures (C-H mode 5 pics/sec)

#1 target locked before take off


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#2 next one


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#3 next one - higher resolution to show that it's still in focus


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#4 next one in the sequence


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#5 and so on... even with an obstacle (I programmed the "medium" delay before the AF jumps)


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#6 the last one in the sequence I wanted to show here


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the example of the missed sequence (10 pics like that)


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and by the way, the performance of the 70-200VR fully open @200mm falls in the category "reasonable"


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BTW from another flight series, a shot I liked... even if the head is a bit overexposed



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Again I have been impressed by the performance of the D200. I could never get those shots with my D70. On the other hand, in some sequences, AF was totally lost... a bit unpredictable.