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Birds In Flight Settings For Canon 7D MKII (1 Viewer)

R

Retrodaz

Well-known member
Hi everyone. I've had a 7D MKII for a while now but used it in conjunction with my Canon 600mm IS to try and take photos of the Black Terns that were at Longham Lakes today. Basically most of my shots were rubbish as the autofocus simply didn't want to lock onto the birds, which made for a very frustrating morning. I was wondering if anyone else uses the camera and what settings they use for birds in flight.

This was the best I could manage :(
6L5A2044.jpg
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6L5A2043.jpg
 
Assume you are using single-point AF setting, and AI servo
I use the same set-up, and it will always struggle with a complex background as it is difficult to keep the focus point on the bird. Basically I find you have to take a lot of blurred/out-of-focus shots for the few good ones. Also it helps if you can pick the bird up against the sky, then hold down the AF button as it moves below the skyline...... but I'm just learning too!

Mick
 
I was alternating between all the different settings to try and find the best combo. I took these this evening holding the 600mm handheld, so I think it must have been the poor light and busy backgrounds that were causing the issue.

I used case settings 6 for these and was shooting wide open at 1/3200 and they are heavily cropped and probably overly sharpened... Any advice greatly welcomed.

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What ISO were these at? I assume high numbers.
You shouldn't need that high a shutter speed for birds that don't flap their wings much - 1/1000 should be adequate. That will bring the ISO down and reduce the noise.

Mick
 
I find it helps to focus on the ground or something else below the bird before searching for it in the view finder then be a little sparing with your shots. Refocusing again on the ground if you lose it is quicker than searching the skies for an out of focus bird IMHO. Terns are a good subject to practice on because they are relatively slow flyers and marsh terns esp. because they tend to hunt the same path repeatedly.
 
MTem said:
What ISO were these at? I assume high numbers.
You shouldn't need that high a shutter speed for birds that don't flap their wings much - 1/1000 should be adequate. That will bring the ISO down and reduce the noise.

Mick
Click to expand...

ISO was a 1000
 
Make sure your IS is turned off for flight shots. You don't need it for fast shutter speeds anyway and it confuses the lock-on on moving targets.
 
I have had the best luck using the zone focus (central one-third of available focus points). I have never been able to get a spot focus on a fast moving bird. Of course this is best when you do not have a strong background pattern that grabs the focus points. I also generally need to have at least +1 stop exposure comp due to bright sky background. I also shoot at 1/2000 sec. I preset these settings in the c1, c2, c3 custom modes, with neutral, +1, +2 exposure values such that I can get to them quickly and select based on how bright I think the sky is. I am using the 100-400 series lens with the IS in the no. 3 position. I have not experienced any problems with IS interaction.

The curlews in the photo started out on the sands, then flew up into the sky. Some of the sand shots were not in focus as you might expect. As soon as the background diminished, focus locked on.
 

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I always shoot in Manual exposure for birds in flight and for most other subjects. That way, if the target flies in front of a background that isn't the sky, you're still getting the right exposure for the light hitting it, which is what's important.

Remember to take the exposure down by one-third or two-thirds of a stop for white birds and by a third of a stop or so for birds over water.
 
Once you get the settings to your satisfaction, a good learning curve is to go somewhere like the Farne Islands where you get streams of birds flying in on similar flight paths.
Take hundreds of shots and end up with some good sharpies.
This might not suit the purists but it has worked for me.
I find the old Canon 400 f5.6 still super fast for AF with AI Servo and centre spot focus only.
I stick to Aperture Priority for good bokeh.
 
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