Camera Labs

Those are living in a small park behind my home. Active only at night, flying from tree to tree very fast, I have less than a second to catch them in flight, and in the trees they are invisible behind the foliage.
Lighting, apart from some dim street lights, there is nothing that helps. So there is no chance, even if I had more time, for AF. So I opted for the EF 50/f:1.4 stopped at 7.1, ISO 3600, 1/1000s with the 580EXII in high speed mode. I have to keep the camera raised at a high angle for long periods of time and use live view, so camera shake is too much for the 1/250 sync speed.
I need a wide field, I think, otherwise I have no chance to catch anything in less than a second. I’ve focused in live view on the tree tops and switched the lens to manual, f:7.1 gives me about 15m DOF, the focusing distance is about 10 meters. I’m not sure if my approach is the right one, so I’d like to have your suggestions to solve this puzzle.
Here are a few examples, cropped (some almost 1:1), noise reduction and sharpening in Photoshop.

RC_20110702_Bats_0066-Edit.jpg by Radu Coman, on Flickr

RC_20110702_Bats_0036-Edit.jpg by Radu Coman, on Flickr

RC_20110702_Bats_0015-Edit.jpg by Radu Coman, on Flickr

RC_20110702_Bats_0035.jpg by Radu Coman, on Flickr

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Radu
Canon PowerShot S100
Canon 50D , SIGMA 10-20 f3.5 ,Canon EF 24-105 L IS USM, Canon EF 100/2.8 macro Canon EF 50/1.4 ,Canon EF 85 f1.8,Canon EF-S17-85 4-5.6 Old Tamron 28-300 inherited from my Canon Rebel G film camera
Canon580EXII
http://www.errre.net

My only suggestion is to ditch the fast shutter and rely on the flash to freeze motion. This assumes you can get enough flash power so that ambient is overpowered.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Thanks popo, I’ll try that tomorrow. I’m thinking to bring a tripod too, the 50 covers enough field between the trees.
I’ll bring a chair and some coffee and keep shooting until I have some decent frames.

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Radu
Canon PowerShot S100
Canon 50D , SIGMA 10-20 f3.5 ,Canon EF 24-105 L IS USM, Canon EF 100/2.8 macro Canon EF 50/1.4 ,Canon EF 85 f1.8,Canon EF-S17-85 4-5.6 Old Tamron 28-300 inherited from my Canon Rebel G film camera
Canon580EXII
http://www.errre.net

And a big scarf for around your neck

Actually an umbrella is needed, those flying rats like doing their "number 2" in flight.
Culdn't make it yesterday, hope for more luck tomorrow.

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Radu
Canon PowerShot S100
Canon 50D , SIGMA 10-20 f3.5 ,Canon EF 24-105 L IS USM, Canon EF 100/2.8 macro Canon EF 50/1.4 ,Canon EF 85 f1.8,Canon EF-S17-85 4-5.6 Old Tamron 28-300 inherited from my Canon Rebel G film camera
Canon580EXII
http://www.errre.net