Excellent shot. sharp, well composed and a lovely smooth background. (Good these Canon's)
As you know I shoot in Av mode and I guess i've just got used to glancing at the shutter speed in the viewfinder. The real pain with a 20d (not sure if its the same with a 30d) is altering the iso. You have to look at the lcd on the top plate and twiddle the relevant dial and thats a crap idea. ISO should be displayed in the viewfinder. Rant over!
I have a 20D too and I agree with Paul.I use a 300/4 IS with 1,4x extender(wich makes 672mm).I shoot with Av and keep my ISO between 200-400.ISO 800 gives problems when I want to crop a lot(noise).A shutterspeed of 1/60 is acceptable thanks to IS,exept when your object is moving.For semi-macro(I can focus at 1,5 meter) I use servo-focus.
I don't have any real worries about shutter speeds like this (it's the main reason I like stabilisation so much), but generally speaking I'd still prefer to keep it higher than that just to reduce movement blur - I've got a stonechat picture from last night where the tail is just a smudge!
It seems I need lessons. My brain cannot get into gear the control needed. I must be wrong in what I do. To make any accurate assessment of wing beat, tail flick, flight speed of a subject and available light as in your stonechat shot there are so many variables to consider. I do not know how one can possibly compute this information. I simply assess the light from experience. If it is a dull day I will probably go to ISO400 set the apperture at what ever and if my readings are not right I will change the ISO to suite. We nearly always want to get the fastest shutter speed that we can get away with to keep subject blur to a minimum. If I am missing out on someting please let me know. This is pure ignorance on my part and no a critisism. I think it is simply a matter of approach using what we are most familiar with. If I can be convinced to shoot manual I will do it . That is what the forum is for. If I have to ask dumb questions I am OK with that. Be sure I will ask them.
It's just that with my Nikons the camera looked after the ISO for me, leaving me to pick the shutter speed and aperture and get on with shooting.
Now that I'm using Canon, I need to get back into the habit of doing a wee bit more for myself - as you say, it's just a case of getting into the swing of judging the light, picking a likely ISO and giving it a go.
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