During a trip to Riverbend Park on 09 May 2017 to observe the annual mass emergence of Cobra Clubtail dragonflies (Gomphurus vastus), I experimented with my Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera, Fujinon XF55-200mm zoom lens, and Fujifilm EF-X500 shoe mount flash.
The first photo shows a male perching on the pavement near the boat ramp at the park. Regular readers of my photoblog know I’m fond of head-tilts in which the dragonfly seems to display some of its personality.
200mm (300mm, 35mm equivalent) | f/11 | 1/500s | ISO 800 | +1 ev
The last two photos show a female, perching on a fence rail.
200mm (300mm, 35mm equivalent) | f/11 | 1/500s | ISO 800 | 0 ev
200mm (300mm, 35mm equivalent) | f/11 | 1/500s | ISO 800 | 0 ev
Tech Tips: My Fujifilm X-T1 digital camera was set for manual aperture, manual shutter speed, and automatic ISO; the EF-X500 external flash was set for ETTL.
I like to use relatively fast shutter speeds in order to reduce camera shake, resulting in more tack-sharp photos. The default flash sync speed of the X-T1 is 1/180s. (Actually, up to 1/250s works.) My new EF-X500 external flash is high-speed sync compatible so I was able to shoot at shutter speeds faster than the sync speed of the camera, in this case 1/500s. The reciprocal rule says I should have used a shutter speed of at least 1/600s at a focal length of 300mm, but I decided to go conservative and shoot at a slightly slower speed. Most of my photos turned out to be acceptably sharp.
At f/11 and 1/500s, the camera increased the ISO to 800. That’s higher than I prefer to shoot, but hey, the photos look relatively noise-free so no problem.
In my opinion, the EF-X500 external flash was consistently underpowered in ETTL mode. During follow-up testing, I rediscovered something I learned a long time ago: If you want to control the way a photo turns out, then Manual Mode is the way to go.
Copyright © 2017 Walter Sanford. All rights reserved.
Tags: Cobra Clubtail dragonfly, female, gear talk, Gomphurus vastus, head-tilt, male, Potomac River, Riverbend Park
walter sanford's photoblog 
June 11, 2017 at 5:07 am |
These are fantastic shots of this beautifully coloured and patterned dragonfly, Walter! Yes, I found manual is the way to go. But considering the high ISO they have turned out super. I have gone up to 1600 ISO on some shots, depending on light conditions and upping the f/stop, but with these modern cameras they seem to keep the noise down pretty good.