This article features some handheld images from a recent flies in flight test I conducted in my backyard, and provides some related commentary.

Like any test session, my objective was to push myself and my camera gear so I could better understand my current capabilities, as well as identify opportunities for improvement.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

This flies in flight test was fundamentally about three things. Eye/hand coordination. Shutter release reaction time. And auto-focusing speed.

Given the speed and erratic nature of flies, I wasn’t expecting to capture a lot of useable images during this flies in flight test.

Another limiting factor was the impact of rolling shutter… which I fully expected would be significant on most of my attempts to photograph this subject matter.

To ratchet the test up a couple of notches, I decided to shoot my M.Zuiko 90 mm f/3.5 PRO IS macro lens fitted with the MC-20 teleconverter. This produces a focal length of 180 mm (efov 360), along with a loss of 2 stops of light.

Most of the flies in flight test images in this article were subject to some severe crops… so the overall image quality is nothing to write home about. However… all things considered, it was a worthwhile test.

I learned that the auto-focus performance of the M.Zuiko 90 mm f/3.5 PRO IS macro lens is both fast and accurate. As individual flies entered into my predetermined shooting zone I had to very quickly frame them in my EVF and acquire auto-focus on them.

Since I was using Pro Capture H at 60 frames per second with my E-M1X, the first frame locked focus and exposure for the rest of the image run.

This meant that I had to continually re-acquire auto-focus on subject flies as they moved around on individual blossoms. The E-M1X with the M.Zuiko 90 mm f/3.5 PRO IS and MC-20 teleconverter… was up to the auto focusing challenge.

I used my standard Pro Capture H settings for the photographs featured in this article. My Pre-Shutter Frames and Frame Limiter were both set to 15. This gave me 1/4 second of response time to capture flies in flight as they took off from a perched position.

Depending on the flight angle of the individual subject fly, this proved to be a sufficient amount of time to acquire auto-focus on it, and begin to spool images into temporary memory.

Then.. I had to anticipate the flight path of the fly before fully depressing the shutter release on my E-M1X. If I did that correctly… at least some of the resulting photographs in the run would stay in focus before the fly moved physically out of the in-focus range… and out of my composition.

As is my standard practice with all of my photography, I used a single, small AF point for all of the images featured in this article.

A good amount of concentration was required in terms of keeping track of where the flies were landing, as well as my shutter release timing when they took flight.

Flies tend to be very skittish, and I don’t think I could have captured these images if I tried to use my M.Zuiko 60 mm f/2.8 macro. I simply would not have been able to get in close enough before the subject fly became airborne.

The additional focal length of the 90 mm macro lens, combined with the use of the M.Zuiko MC-20 teleconverter gave me a more realistic working distance.

Like most animals, even flies have some predictability to their movements… although this did vary greatly between individual flies. Some would only take flight once they were on top of a blossom. This gave me a second or two to reacquire focus on them.

Others would move rapidly, flying from one blossom to another that were in close proximity. In a few cases this allowed me to capture two or three successive image runs of the same fly in flight.

Even though I was shooting at either f/10 or f/13 with the MC-20 teleconverter, I found that the image quality was certainly acceptable for my purposes. Especially since most of the flies were lightning fast when taking flight.

I’m still in the very early stages of recovery from cataract surgery on my second eye… so this flies in flight test was a welcome challenge that I could do on my back deck.

As the insect season continues to evolve I plan to do some additional experimentation with the M.Zuiko 90 mm f/3.5 Pro IS macro lens and my teleconverters.

I’m looking forward to taking advantage of the extended photographic potential that the 90 mm f/3.5 PRO IS lens provides.

One can never predict the photographic opportunities that Mother Nature will decide to give us. All we can do is try our best to be prepared when those fleeting moments appear.

Technical Note

Photographs were captured handheld with the camera equipment and technology noted in the EXIF data. All images were created from RAW files using my standard process in post. This is the 1,385 article published on this website since its original inception in 2015.

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