Weird question:But how does the OM-1 AI subject tracking work with whales? Is it able to pick up the whale as an animal?I”m guess the bird/dog AI would be the best option to use?Thanks!

Does a whale look like a dog to you?

RSTP14 wrote:Does a whale look like a dog to you?Very helpful. No, neither does a bison, deer, or many other animals out there look like dogs, yet the cat/dog (Animal) AI works perfectly for them.To be honest, thank God this forum is closing so people don’t get stupid responses like that.Sometimes this Micro Four Thirds forum can be very toxic!

Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Does a whale look like a dog to you?Very helpful. No, neither does a bison, deer, or many other animals out there look like dogs, yet the cat/dog (Animal) AI works perfectly for them.To be honest, thank God this forum is closing so people don’t get stupid responses like that.Sometimes this Micro Four Thirds forum can be very toxic!I can understand a squirrel being interpreted as a small pet. AI works terribly on deers in my experience, and I would certainly not expect that AI would recognize a dark blob on an expense of water as even an animal. There is no intelligence in AI. Simple pattern association.

RSTP14 wrote:Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Does a whale look like a dog to you?Very helpful. No, neither does a bison, deer, or many other animals out there look like dogs, yet the cat/dog (Animal) AI works perfectly for them.To be honest, thank God this forum is closing so people don’t get stupid responses like that.Sometimes this Micro Four Thirds forum can be very toxic!I can understand a squirrel being interpreted as a small pet. AI works terribly on deers in my experience, and I would certainly not expect that AI would recognize a dark blob on an expense of water as even an animal. There is no intelligence in AI. Simple pattern association.Yeah...reason for asking is my Canon R5 picked up a whale consistently. Even just the dorsal fin coming out of the water.

Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Does a whale look like a dog to you?Very helpful. No, neither does a bison, deer, or many other animals out there look like dogs, yet the cat/dog (Animal) AI works perfectly for them.To be honest, thank God this forum is closing so people don’t get stupid responses like that.Sometimes this Micro Four Thirds forum can be very toxic!I can understand a squirrel being interpreted as a small pet. AI works terribly on deers in my experience, and I would certainly not expect that AI would recognize a dark blob on an expense of water as even an animal. There is no intelligence in AI. Simple pattern association.Yeah...reason for asking is my Canon R5 picked up a whale consistently. Even just the dorsal fin coming out of the water.Interesting, which mode?

RSTP14 wrote:Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Does a whale look like a dog to you?Very helpful. No, neither does a bison, deer, or many other animals out there look like dogs, yet the cat/dog (Animal) AI works perfectly for them.To be honest, thank God this forum is closing so people don’t get stupid responses like that.Sometimes this Micro Four Thirds forum can be very toxic!I can understand a squirrel being interpreted as a small pet. AI works terribly on deers in my experience, and I would certainly not expect that AI would recognize a dark blob on an expense of water as even an animal. There is no intelligence in AI. Simple pattern association.Yeah...reason for asking is my Canon R5 picked up a whale consistently. Even just the dorsal fin coming out of the water.Interesting, which mode?Servo AF, Animal Tracking. Snapped right to the whale body when it breached, or tail or dorsal fin.Makes me think that the Autofocus systems don't necessarily solely rely on an "animal" shape...but also different shapes in general from the other parts of the scene (For example a whale body has different texture and color from the surrounding ocean).I was curious if the OM-1 did something similar with its AI as it tracks other animals than just dogs and cats...(and birds).To further support this, in a recent Ask Me Anything from OM-System, they talked about using Bird AF for surfers (and they suspected the form of a surfer, with outstretched hands, would mimic a bird shape)

Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Does a whale look like a dog to you?Very helpful. No, neither does a bison, deer, or many other animals out there look like dogs, yet the cat/dog (Animal) AI works perfectly for them.To be honest, thank God this forum is closing so people don’t get stupid responses like that.Sometimes this Micro Four Thirds forum can be very toxic!I can understand a squirrel being interpreted as a small pet. AI works terribly on deers in my experience, and I would certainly not expect that AI would recognize a dark blob on an expense of water as even an animal. There is no intelligence in AI. Simple pattern association.Yeah...reason for asking is my Canon R5 picked up a whale consistently. Even just the dorsal fin coming out of the water.Interesting, which mode?Servo AF, Animal Tracking. Snapped right to the whale body when it breached, or tail or dorsal fin.Makes me think that the Autofocus systems don't necessarily solely rely on an "animal" shape...but also different shapes in general from the other parts of the scene (For example a whale body has different texture and color from the surrounding ocean).I was curious if the OM-1 did something similar with its AI as it tracks other animals than just dogs and cats...(and birds).To further support this, in a recent Ask Me Anything from OM-System, they talked about using Bird AF for surfers (and they suspected the form of a surfer, with outstretched hands, would mimic a bird shape)I'd be very surprised if the OM-1 picked up a whale given my less than successful experience with large mammals in general. My guess is that the OM-1 algorithm is more specific and limited than the Canon's, and it all depends on what images are fed into the AI databank. I would think that recognizing a whale is simpler than most other animals (though very similar to a boulder, does your Canon pick up rocks as animal?), but the right images need to be applied to the AI engine. The OMDS rep comment suggests shape plays a dominant role in their AI process.

We went to Alaska last August and honestly the OM-1 with the PL 100-400mm tracked whales just fine in bird detection mode. There were lots of Eagles flying around so I when the whales showed up I forgot to change the setting. It worked just fine so I left it alone.

RSTP14 wrote:Captive18 wrote:RSTP14 wrote:Does a whale look like a dog to you?Very helpful. No, neither does a bison, deer, or many other animals out there look like dogs, yet the cat/dog (Animal) AI works perfectly for them.To be honest, thank God this forum is closing so people don’t get stupid responses like that.Sometimes this Micro Four Thirds forum can be very toxic!I can understand a squirrel being interpreted as a small pet. AI works terribly on deers in my experience, and I would certainly not expect that AI would recognize a dark blob on an expense of water as even an animal. There is no intelligence in AI. Simple pattern association.I use it on squirrels, deer, Black bear, groundhogs, foxes, and birds.  I find it works well as long as there are visible eyes.  I regularly shoot deer and Black bear and it works fine even with the old FTs 50-200 SWD.It really is not that species specific.  The attached HHHR shot of a deer (just checking it out at ISO 8000) was shot with bird detection and it focused on the eye to the left in the photo.  When I am out shooting small birds and a squirrel appears, I rarely bother the change it to the pet setting.

Captive18 wrote:Sometimes this Micro Four Thirds forum can be very toxic!Yeah, I hope that nonsense doesn't get carried over to the new forum(s)  It is tiring...

rreichar wrote:We went to Alaska last August and honestly the OM-1 with the PL 100-400mm tracked whales just fine in bird detection mode. There were lots of Eagles flying around so I when the whales showed up I forgot to change the setting. It worked just fine so I left it alone.Thank you!

Captive18 wrote:Weird question:But how does the OM-1 AI subject tracking work with whales? Is it able to pick up the whale as an animal?I”m guess the bird/dog AI would be the best option to use?Thanks!I guess I get to be the first to give you a no-BS answer. This is based on my own experience shooting humpbacks and orcas using the OM-1.No, Animal AI does not work with whales.Your best chance is to place the AF point directly on the whale and shoot. I set up a custom area mode which was basically a horizontal bar, which allowed for easier focusing on the dorsal fin. The OM-1 reliably focuses on the nearest object in the AF area if AI modes are turned off.I am surprised that bird AI worked for someone here. I too had Bird AI "lock" on to a whale's tail, but when I looked at the photos, many had focus on sea waves. So Bird AI confused whale tails AND waves with bird wings, and was not reliable. Maybe it works better in calmer conditions.My guess is that Animal AI needs an eye and a face to work. I have had it work well with deer, frogs, lizards etc.

I am with faunagraphy here - subject recognition won't work and AF, when shooting whales, is very straightforward.I have photographed whales and dolphins quite a lot over the years with many different bodies - Minolta Maxxum, Canon 20D and 7D, Panasonic GH2, Olympus E-M1 and E-M1.2. I have an OM-1 but haven't yet used it for whales or dolphins. I have photographed whales and dolphins in Hawaii, Mexico, British Columbia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Canaries and the Caribbean.AF is very easy when photographing whales - they are large targets and move slowly in straight lines. Even breaches are quite slow, typically 2-3 seconds, compared with dolphin jumps of less than a second. With something like a humpback, deep dives are signalled way in advance and you have plenty of time to get ready, focus and wait for the best moment, normally when the water starts to stream off the back of the tail.Straightforward C-AF (AI Servo on Canon) or even S-AF ( single shot focusing) work fine. Two of my best breach shots were taken with a Minolta Maxxum film SLR, one of the earliest bodies with (very slow) AF, and a Panasonic GH2 with CDAF only. The difficulty with breaches, unless you are very lucky and find a whale doing repeated jumps, is picking up the whale in the viewfinder when the breach can occur without warning anywhere around the boat. I find a red dot sight useful for that.Photographing dolphins, especially jumps, is a totally different matter.

Chris R-UK wrote:I am with faunagraphy here - subject recognition won't work and AF, when shooting whales, is very straightforward.I have photographed whales and dolphins quite a lot over the years with many different bodies - Minolta Maxxum, Canon 20D and 7D, Panasonic GH2, Olympus E-M1 and E-M1.2. I have an OM-1 but haven't yet used it for whales or dolphins. I have photographed whales and dolphins in Hawaii, Mexico, British Columbia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Canaries and the Caribbean.AF is very easy when photographing whales - they are large targets and move slowly in straight lines. Even breaches are quite slow, typically 2-3 seconds, compared with dolphin jumps of less than a second. With something like a humpback, deep dives are signalled way in advance and you have plenty of time to get ready, focus and wait for the best moment, normally when the water starts to stream off the back of the tail.Straightforward C-AF (AI Servo on Canon) or even S-AF ( single shot focusing) work fine. Two of my best breach shots were taken with a Minolta Maxxum film SLR, one of the earliest bodies with (very slow) AF, and a Panasonic GH2 with CDAF only. The difficulty with breaches, unless you are very lucky and find a whale doing repeated jumps, is picking up the whale in the viewfinder when the breach can occur without warning anywhere around the boat. I find a red dot sight useful for that.Photographing dolphins, especially jumps, is a totally different matter.Thank you! Straightforward answers and real-world experience are helpful!

Yes I agree.  The OM-1 did not work well with subject ID on whales.  I to used a custom focus pattern that was wide but skinny.  Having a smaller pattern helps to get focus on the whale and not the water.  The rolling waves of the water it is easy to catch focus way in front of the whale.  Have a great trip!