Butterflies, Moths and Assorted Insects...

First butterfly shot of the season for me and the first with the 200-800. The Peacock was very skittish and I had very little opportunity to get a shot. I was a bit shocked at first because I was at 637mm and I had to be a bit over 3m away to be more than at minimum focal distance. I zoomed out to 200mm and got closer, and the smaller image had better overall focus, as expected.

309A2428-DxO_Peacock_butterfly_637mm.jpg309A2431-DxO_Peacock_butterfly_200mm.jpg
 
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Second outing with the R7+100-500L, first butterfly shots of the year!
I do need to look at the button setup again, I use 'spot AF' as override on the AF-ON buttons on all my R bodies, the R7 really wants to track subjects instead of keeping that spot-AF point in place. I have a lot of shots where the spot-AF was on the eyes and the subject detect decided to wander off and track the grass in the background. I fixed that on the R8, so I have menu comparision session scheduled during the rain today :)

I'm very excited for this macro season!

20240331 1326 IMG_0169 Canon EOS R7 - Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM at 500.0 mm - 1.21 ...jpeg20240331 1323 IMG_0146 Canon EOS R7 - Canon RF 100-500mm F4.5-7.1L IS USM at 500.0 mm - 1.21 ...jpeg
 
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Second outing with the R7+100-500L, first butterfly shots of the year!
I do need to look at the button setup again, I use 'spot AF' as override on the AF-ON buttons on all my R bodies, the R7 really wants to track subjects instead of keeping that spot-AF point in place. I have a lot of shots where the spot-AF was on the eyes and the subject detect decided to wander off and track the grass in the background. I fixed that on the R8, so I have menu comparision session scheduled during the rain today :)

I'm very excited for this macro season!

View attachment 215768View attachment 215769
Where did you take these photos? What is the butterfly on the second one?!
 
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Second outing with the R7+100-500L, first butterfly shots of the year!
I do need to look at the button setup again, I use 'spot AF' as override on the AF-ON buttons on all my R bodies, the R7 really wants to track subjects instead of keeping that spot-AF point in place. I have a lot of shots where the spot-AF was on the eyes and the subject detect decided to wander off and track the grass in the background. I fixed that on the R8, so I have menu comparision session scheduled during the rain today :)

I'm very excited for this macro season!

View attachment 215768View attachment 215769
I've always used centre spot AF on butterflies - they often have faux eyes to confuse predators and eyeAF!
 
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Yesterday it was so warm that I could spot several species of butterflies.
I was especially happy to see peacocks and comma butterflies. Those have been rare last year.
Here is the first one that I could get a photo of, an orange tip
R6m2, @500mm, f/16, 1/500, ISO800

orange_tip_2024_01.JPG
 
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First shot of an Orange Tip. This was from my wife with the R5 100-400mm on the R7. I had the RF 200-800 on the R5, and mine were not as good. I got the first Painted Lady with the longer lens. The RF 100-500mm will be my weapon from now.

3R3A7996-DxO_Orange_Tip_Butterfly-1.jpg309A3892-DxO_Painted_lady__butterfly_481mm_f16.jpg
 
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In my garden a Small White doing what it should be doing, first sucking nectar through its proboscis then getting covered in pollen for its next job (R5 + 100-500mm).

309A4276-DxO_small_white_butterfly.jpg309A4280-DxO_small_white_butterfly.jpg
 
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Female Orange-tipped Butterfly. Not nearly as pretty as the male. I had the RF 200-800mm on the R5 in the garden for birds. I rushed inside to get the R7/RF100-400mm for this.

3R3A8263-DxO_Female_Orange_tip_butterfly_f8.jpg
 
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