Spring is well and truly on its way – if the full blossom in my garden and the buzzing of busy bees is any guide!

I thought the bees would make a good challenge for my Sony A7RV and its insect detect autofocus and I spent some time putting it to the test this week. The results were impressive, although the tracking did seem to mistake flower stamens for bees quite often – understandable for an AI I guess… And capturing the little guys in flight certainly isn’t easy!

The blossoms themselves were really beautiful, and in full bloom under blue Hobart skies. I made sure to snap a few blossoms without bees too as a record of this time of year.

Camera settings for photographing the bees

For these shots I used the Sony 90mm macro lens. ISO set to auto, and shutter speeds varying as I tested things out, but faster than 1/1000 second. I also dialed in some exposure compensation to avoid over exposing the delicate pink-white of the petals on what was a very sunny day. Continuous AF with subject recognition set to insect seemed most appropriate for this particular outing.

Bee Gallery – click for larger 🙂

Electronic shutter or Mechanical Shutter – effect on bee wings

Using the cameras electronic shutter rather than the mechanical shutter produces interesting motion in the bees wings known as “rolling shutter effect”. It is an effect that is not true to life, but it does create an impression of movement, not totally inappropriate as the little fellows go about their work! See the effect in the images below.

It can be counteracted simply by switching to mechanical shutter – as seen below.

All in all great fun putting the new gear to the test! Will keep at it 🙂