[Leica] Shooting Eagles with the D4 and 80 - 400 VR zoom

[cummer at netvigator.com (H&E Cummer)]

Hi Luggers,
Yesterday I went to Otter Bay with the D4 and the 80 400 VR zoom but the 
eagles did not appear.

Today I had more luck - they were there - and I arrived as the Stand owner 
was about to feed them.

I cranked up the D4 - with AFC and 10 fps and fired away - using various 
focus patterns to try and
catch the birds. I was not as successful as I hoped and have asked Luggers 
with D4's off list
for their tips on what focus setting is optimal to capture in focus flying 
birds. Who know who you are!! :-)

Here are the best of today starting with:

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/7334.jpg.html>

Eagle landing on dead tree.

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/7337.jpg.html>

Eagle taking off from the ferry dock

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/7339.jpg.html>

Close up of the flight

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/7340.jpg.html>

Flying at me

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/7394.jpg.html>

Wing tip over water - I really like this reflection kind of shot 

<http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/Eagles2014/7544.jpg.html>

Flying against a blue water background back to the nest.

Please look large. C&C always welcome.

Howard

PS : I would add that processing 16Mp images is much faster on my old I Mac 
computer than 36Mp images from the D800E
but I do miss the vast acreage available for cropping from the 800.