Gull in flight

Leica DMR, R8, Vario-Elmar 105-280+ 1.4x ApoExtender.
This technology (the body and lens are from 1993 and the digital module from 2005) and fully manual… I took it in 2009. Question: How far have we progressed? Have we at all?

The gull is very sharp, Jaapv, which is very difficult to do with manual focus-congratulations. As far as progress, my opinion is a resounding yes. I’ve done a lot of reading of bird photographers and looked at a ton of images starting at the end of the 1800’s when it first became feasible at all. It wasn’t until the advent of autofocus that you saw very many flight shots and photographers were finally able to move away from nest photography-which in my opinion is very good for birds. The best and most responsible photographers were able to do it without disturbing the birds unduly, but any disturbance increases the risk of predation.

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I must confess to preferring manual focus in many cases; in my hands it often is faster, and, more importantly, more accurate. I prefer to place the plane of focus myself :wink: For wildlife, certainly. AF is hopeless on fur. But then again, AF is very convenient.

Hard to get an interesting gull in flight shot, but you’ve certainly managed that here. Excellent sharpness and I feel the background adds a lot to the image, as does the closeness of the gull to the viewer.

I’d say we have definitely progressed, but at the end of the day it still comes down to the skill of the photographer.

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