I’ve been working over the last few years on techniques for filming bumble bees in flight and foraging on flowers in natural populations. I recently produced a 9 minute video that uses extensive slow motion cinematography to capture these behaviors. The entire video was filmed on location in a high quality tallgrass prairie on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. All of my videography / photography is handheld without supplemental lighting. https://youtu.be/fQsnPAWQqcI
I shoot 4k video at 120 fps with the Canon R5 mirrorless camera. Most closeups were shot at 400 mm with Canon’s RF 100-400 mm telephoto zoom lens (F 8.0) I shoot with a telephoto lens, rather than a macro lens, so that I can capture images of bees visiting flowers 3-4 meters away. The 4k video is so detailed that I can further crop the image to provide an even narrower field of view. So I typically do 30-50% video crops in post to fill the frame with bee and flower.
My study site is ½ mile from Lake Michigan, and there is always at least a 10 mph wind. Fortunately the R5 camera has outstanding in-camera stabilization, ensuring smooth telephoto video. I shoot most of my video handheld, but sometimes use a monopod on very windy days. I use single point autofocus for most of my video.
One thing I do a bit differently than most people shooting slow motion video is that I use a shutter speed of 1/1000th sec to minimize motion blur. Thats why you can see the bumble bee wings flapping so clearly.
I would love to hear thoughts from others who film insects in the wild. What equipment and settings do you use to shoot insects on the wing?
Super informative video. I’ve only done a little macro filming or insect filming at all, but when they are landed, not on the wing. Handheld and tripod depending on the situation. Once for a long spider taking down a June bug video, I used a monopod. I like the idea of a high shutter speed for this as it did provide a lot of clarity in those wings. Curious about your other settings given that. Did it push your ISO or did the bright day work to your advantage here? Probably the ISO isn’t an issue. I also used single point focus for a lot of things, but also used a group focus pattern because these guys can move so quickly. I tried filming Tiger beetles once. Once. They’re just too fast.
Hi Kris: Thank you for your comments! Most of the video was filmed in full sun (over three seasons). To shoot at 1/1000 shutter speed (and sometimes at 1/2000) I typically push the ISO on the Canon R5 to 3000. R5 video can handle the higher ISOs very well up to ISO 3000, but noise starts to increase markedly above that value.
I use the RF 100-400 (a consumer lens), rather than the RF 100-500 (an L-series lens) because it only weighs 1.4 lbs (635 grams), less than half of the weight of the RF 100-500 lens which weighs 1365 grams. I find the RF 100-400 much lighter to hand-hold, and image quality is very good in the center portion of the lens.
When shooting with the Canon R5 I use single point autofocus rather than zone AF because zone AF will often focus on the object closest to my camera. Since I’m shooting in a tallgrass prairie, if my camera is set to zone AF it will often zoom in on blades of grass in front of my target flower / pollinator.