catch in focus. How do you do it?

I am interested in using the catch in focus feature on my k5 for birds with the sigma 150 500mm. can someone talk me through it as i don't have a clue!

Sure, its quite easy.

All you have to do is put a manual focus lens on the camera and press and hold the shutter button. The camera then doesn't fire until something comes into focus, as soon as something comes into focus the camera then fires.

This means you can use it two ways.
a) You can do as above holding the shutter release button down and tracking something like a flying bird while trying to focus manually. As soon as you achieve focus the camera then fires.
b) You can focus the camera on a static target such as a bird feeder and then leave the camera pointing just above the birdfeeder where the background is out of focus and again hold the release button down. Now when one of the birdies obligingly stands in the in-focus position the camera fires and you get your picture.

This obviously works better if you have some form of remote release that saves you having to physically hold the shutter release down. There are also posher versions of remote releases called 'interval timers' that allow you to take a whole series of photograps like this completely automatically - however be aware that there is a shutter release delay and if the birdies are moving at all quickly most of the shots will be of missing or partially present or blurred or otherwise badly posed subjects

I doubt if this will work properly with a tele-lens.

I've never met anyone who knows how to work it even with
a 50mm lens

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Yes can't say I've managed consistent results with it. Quite frustrating. Could be down to the K5's 'there you go, oh no wait a minute just let me make sure... OK there you go' auto focus.

I wonder if it works better on the MKii?

so i have to change it to manual on the lens?

Using it hand held as a focusing method with manual lenses has worked well with any lens I have tried. OK trying it with a 500mm mirror lens on birds in flight wasn't very successfull (in fact entirely unsuccessful) but that was down to me being unable to keep the bird in the viewfinder

Using it with an interval timer in 'static unattended' mode also worked well with the 200mm and 300mm lenses I used. Don't expect to get photos of a bird flying through the focus point though - it may achieve focus lock and trip the shutter but by the time the shutter fires the bird will have gone.

The tequnique works (or doesn't work) independent of focal length. The generally shallower apparent depth of focus (choosing my words extremely carefully here ) from a tele lens at longer distances can either be a hindrance or benefit according to what you are trying to do. i.e. grerater depth of field means the bird is more likely to be in focus, but less likely to be in the place you want.

It's fun - give it a try. If in auto mode you get one usable shot in 50 that's still a shot you wouldn't have otherwise had.

Yes. Just switching the body to manual focus mode is not sufficient, it has to be a manual lens or an AF lens switched to manual. If you have an AF lens not equiped with manual switch you are out of luck, or have to get creative with silver foil shorting out lens contacts.

The body needs to be in AF. S and you need to enable "catch in focus" custom menu 25.
Works on my m50 f1.7 but for some reason I can't make it work on the vivitar f2.8 macro.

Jim.

Works with K5, AF-S & c-i-f enabled & Sigma 150-500, set on manual.

Roger.

works with every lens I own. lens must be manual focus, or have electrical contacts covered with scotch tape....
works best in good light or on high contrast subjects... best with a cable release when possible.

Excellent guys. Tell me this, is it activated the moment something enters the frame and can you set it to fire off multiple shots?
I'm thinking of birds landing on branches etc

It is activated as soon as focus lock is achieved. In practice this means as soon as something enters the frame AND is in focus AND is sitting in one of your selected AF points. I strongly recommend choosing a single AF point when doing this.

Yes your camera can take multiple shots. It's just like taking a normal shot except there is the additional delay of waiting for something to come into focus, so once it takes the shot it will do whatever the camera is set to at the time i.e. take a single frame, a bracketed set or a continuous sequence etc. At least it will do so as long as your subject obligingly remains in focus and in continuous mode you can fill up a memory card pretty quickly at times.

What I have done is to purchase a very flexible remote release/interval time from ebay for £20 or so. With this I tend to do one of two things:
a) Camera in single shot mode and set the interval timer to take one shot every minute 'holding the release down' for 55 seconds of that minute. This means that I either get nothing at all or one shot per minute of something in focus (or empty space where something was once in focus but then flew off very quickly).
b) Camera in continuous mode and set the interval timer to take one shot every thirty seconds 'holding the release down' for four seconds each time. This gives me short bursts of images without filling up the card completely with 100's of shots of the same thing.

My K7 has an interval timer that in thory sounds as if it could do the same thing. In practice if I set it to take a shot every minute it would , even if nothing came into focus, still take a blank shot at the end of each time interval. I found this sufficiently annoying to spend the £20, the K5 might have a better timer of course.

Just have a play. It's fun. Frustrating, but fun. I hope you like photo's of tails of birds that have just almost flown out of shot, or are facing the wrong way or ...

P.S. don't be as naive as I was and expect to get pictures of birds flying at high (or low) speed though a focus point, focus lock isn't quick enough and even if it was the camera's shutter lag wouldn't be. Unless its a humming bird or dragonfly or something that hovers in the same place for a while I guess.

I've tried this a few times over the years, but I can't remember any successes. In my Experience it is just too slow.
One thing I thought it might be good at is catching the eye of some insect popping into focus as I lean into the shot, but invariably I'm better than the camera at recognising this point (that's not saying much!)
However, this thread has inspired me to try harder!

what about birds flying directly towards the camera?

Duck?