mike wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> suggested:
> Probably the only chance you have of capturing bats is to use trap
> focus. Manual focus lens prefocused, camera on autofocus (with any
> option to only trip the shutter if focus is correct _on_) and then
> wave it around in the general direction of the flying mammal with
> the shutter button pressed.
First, that's only going to work early enough for there to be
enough sky light for the AF system to work -- I _should_ get
such an opportunity most evenings while I'm at Pennsic, but
based on observations during past attempts, it'll be a _very_
brief window. After that, I'll have to try to predict far
enough ahead to compensate for my reaction time (using pre-focus)
and trip the shutter myself.
I'm thinking of pointing a few slave flashes at the sky so I can
get away with stopping down enough to compensate if the bats
aren't _quite_ at the pre-focussed distance when I push the button.
If I get the shot, I'll offer prints of it to neighbouring camps
to apologize for the artificial lightning coming from my camp.
(Though I have learned not to use that trick when photographing
the Viking-boat-burning memorial service on the lake at the end
of the War.) It'll likely be the only thing I use flash for the
whole two weeks, unless I start using daylight fill flash.
Second, I've been surprised to find trap focus only working some
of the time, and I need to dig through the manual or experiment
more to try to figure out the pattern to when trap focus works
and when the camera will just fire anyhow. (Or, silly me, just
mention it here and hope one of y'all will hand me the answer on
a silver platter ...)
Third, thanks for the reminder that I need to fake up a cable
release before then. (As far as I can tell by poking stuff
into the hole, it's just a matter of shorting two contacts
together, right? So if I can find the right sized plug at
Radio Shack, I'll be five minutes from having a cable release?
Somebody please tell me it's just a submini phone plug ...)
And as long as I'm tossing such questions in here: I have GIMP
and I now have 'dcraw' as well; between those two, am I missing
anything the Pentax software would give me, or with thoise tools
in hand is it not worth asking for the CD accidentally left out
to be mailed? (Or, for that matter, can I download the software?
So far I've only found downloads of an upgrade that requires
already having a previous version installed.)
-- Glenn
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