Question for 7D shooters (1 Viewer)

[CaperSue]

Hi, I'm new to birdforum. Just bought a 7D as a reward for quitting smoking Anyway, was wondering what settings you use for shooting birds. I usually use manual, sometimes AV. I use Spot metering . AF mode I use one shot, sometimes AI Servo but I find this is blurry for me, so I figure I am doing something wrong. What settings do you use?? Also, I am using the kit lens that came with my rebel xsi, a 75-300, which works best up close to the subject. I find some of the pics noisey too on the high iso numbers, and I bought the 7D for the higher iso numbers! for lower light conditions. Any thoughts?? I appreciate any new info from the experienced!
Cheers
Sue

 

[Huntso]

Hi Sue

I'm thinking maybe you need a new lens (if you drink perhaps give that up too for justification money)

Your settings sound fine and by all counts the 7D is a great camera (afraid I still smoke and i'm stuck with a 40D) but reckon you would see a great improvement with a better lens to make the most of all your cameras 18mp

Have heard some people say they didn't get great results with their 7D until they had mastered the many AF points and settings, might be worth googling that

No idea what to suggest lens wise, Canon 100-400 is always popular or perhaps the new'ish Tamron 70-300 VC which is cheaper and seems to be the pick of the lenses in that sort of range

Are you selecting the ISO or letting the camera choose? try restricting it to max of 800 and see what its like. Maybe a stabilised lens would give you the extra stops you need to prevent going too high on the ISO to presumably keep the shutter speed up.

Trial and error i'm afraid and possibly some extra outlay, sure you will have it sorted soon though especially when the 7D users come along with some advice

Cheers
Rich

 

[CaperSue]

lol I don't drink, unless I'm at the family cottage in summer, then it's a different thing! I'll keep slugging away with those AF points, and maybe look for a lens. Would still like to hear what other 7D people use for settings tho. Thanks Rich!

 

[Roy C]

Would be good if you post a picture or two Sue with the EXIF, that would help a lot.

For what it is worth here are my 7D setting for bird photography:
Always RAW
AI Servo (all the time for me - but single shot is fine for stationary birds if you like)
Av mode (but manual for flyers sometimes)
High burst mode
Evaluative metering (with exposure comp as required)
AF area mode = Single focus point (usually the centre point)
Single point expansion for flyers (some like zone AF for flyers)

Here are just a few of the custom functions I would recommend:

Auto Light Optimiser: OFF
Highlight Alert: ENABLE (this shows you if you have clipped the highlights on the Camera preview).
Highlight tone priority: DISABLE
AI Servo Tracking sensitivity: SLOOOOOW

Hope this helps Sue.

 

[IanF]

Pretty much the same for me as Roy though always JPEG highest setting.

I perfer shooting at ISO 200 whenever possible.

 

[Roy C]

The other thing that I am using a bit these days is Auto ISO in Av mode, especially handy for hand held stuff. I do know all about the so called pitfalls of using intermediate ISO's but thus far I can see no problems with the IQ or noise which is what counts at the end of the day. In Av mode you just set your desired aperture (and exposure comp if required) and it gives you a shutter speed of around focal length * 1.6 (crop factor of Camera), ideal for hand holding and you are getting the lowest possible ISO for the settings.

 

[Boy George]

The other thing that I am using a bit these days is Auto ISO in Av mode, especially handy for hand held stuff. I do know all about the so called pitfalls of using intermediate ISO's but thus far I can see no problems with the IQ or noise which is what counts at the end of the day. In Av mode you just set your desired aperture (and exposure comp if required) and it gives you a shutter speed of around focal length * 1.6 (crop factor of Camera), ideal for hand holding and you are getting the lowest possible ISO for the settings.

Hi Roy,

This is interesting. Having just yesterday received my 7D body in the post, I am a little nervously getting to grips with the settings - not TOO bad as it's an upgrade from a 40D for me. Mind you, some of the instructions, although written in English, might as well be Double Dutch for all the sense they make to me!
However, I digress. Can you please explain how you know that the shutter speed achieved is 1.6 x the F/L of the lens in use? If true (and I'm sure you wouldn't have mentioned it if not correct) it would be most useful to set Auto ISO and feel pretty confident about the resulting shutter speed, particularly since the noise performance of the 7D seems to be so good if that were to be bumped up in order to achieve the desired correct exposure.

Regards

Adrian

 

[Keith Reeder]

It's just observation, Adrian - I've also seen (and just tested again) that Auto ISO will maintain a shutter speed of about 1.6 * FL: I got 1/640 pretty consistently (once or twice dropping to 1/500) at 400mm just now.

Mind you, I'd still prefer to pick my own lower shutter speed, the way you can with Nikon and Pentax Auto ISO.

It's funny though - I was recently reading on a Nikon forum that some of those guys wished their cameras automatically picked the shutter speed based on FL the way the 7D does!

 

[Roy C]

Hi Roy,

This is interesting. Having just yesterday received my 7D body in the post, I am a little nervously getting to grips with the settings - not TOO bad as it's an upgrade from a 40D for me. Mind you, some of the instructions, although written in English, might as well be Double Dutch for all the sense they make to me!
However, I digress. Can you please explain how you know that the shutter speed achieved is 1.6 x the F/L of the lens in use? If true (and I'm sure you wouldn't have mentioned it if not correct) it would be most useful to set Auto ISO and feel pretty confident about the resulting shutter speed, particularly since the noise performance of the 7D seems to be so good if that were to be bumped up in order to achieve the desired correct exposure.

Regards



Adrian

Just by trying different focal lengths Adrian as Keith says. When I use my 300 with a 1.4 converter (420mm) I get 1/640 or 1/800 every time - I have also had similar results with my 100mm macro and 70-200 at both ends of the zoom.
This does not suit me when shooting on a tripod as you can get away with much slower shutter speeds but for hand held stuff (with I.S. on) I find this a comfortable shutter speed.

 

[Boy George]

Thanks Keith and Roy - most helpful as usual.

Regards

Adrian

 

[CyberKat]

Like some others already mentioned, I also use AI servo all the time. I have Canon 400mm f5.6 so I set aperture to 5.6 & ISO mostly to 400 (I don´t have 7D, I have 50D).

However, recently I talked to a friend of mine, who uses 7D (and also 400mm prime) and he suggested different settings. He says that he uses Manual settings, he sets the shutter to 1600, f to 8 (I still think 5.6 for 400mm prime is good enough), and he sets the ISO to AUTO so that it can change as the light changes, to always get shutter 1/1600 which is fast enough for most bird shots (he also uses spot metering). On a side note he never uses tripod, so this is his settings for hend-held use. I tried to use those manual settings but I encountered strange problem that no matter what I do I can not change the aperture on my 50D (it is stuck on f 7.1?!?), so I given up the idea...

 

[Roy C]

Like some others already mentioned, I also use AI servo all the time. I have Canon 400mm f5.6 so I set aperture to 5.6 & ISO mostly to 400 (I don´t have 7D, I have 50D).

However, recently I talked to a friend of mine, who uses 7D (and also 400mm prime) and he suggested different settings. He says that he uses Manual settings, he sets the shutter to 1600, f to 8 (I still think 5.6 for 400mm prime is good enough), and he sets the ISO to AUTO so that it can change as the light changes, to always get shutter 1/1600 which is fast enough for most bird shots (he also uses spot metering). On a side note he never uses tripod, so this is his settings for hend-held use. I tried to use those manual settings but I encountered strange problem that no matter what I do I can not change the aperture on my 50D (it is stuck on f 7.1?!?), so I given up the idea...

The trouble with auto ISO in manual mode is that you can never set any exposure compensation.
Strange that you cannot change the aperture in manual mode, are you sure you are using the right wheel/button? (on the 7D in manual you change the shutter speed with the small top wheel and the aperture with the large front wheel by default).

 

[Keith Reeder]

The trouble with auto ISO in manual mode is that you never set any exposure compensation.

Which would be even more important if you're using Spot metering.

 

[Roy C]

Which would be even more important if you're using Spot metering.

Absolutely Keith - although if I was using spot metering all the time I would not have a clue what compensation to set for some shots :eek!: Spot metering has its place but to use it all the time !!!!!!!

 

[CyberKat]

Strange that you cannot change the aperture in manual mode, are you sure you are using the right wheel/button? (on the 7D in manual you change the shutter speed with the small top wheel and the aperture with the large front wheel by default).

it is strange, and I found here http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=859997 that someone was having the same problem like I do, and I tried to put the switch to ON all the way up and than turn the wheel, but still it will not change. Now I am really clueless what else to try...

 

[Keith Reeder]

That's not the same issue, Kat - that was user error.

 

[CyberKat]

I apologize for off topic, but I found the solution for my problem... after I did "clear all custom func." aperture adjustmens works normal now, so there was something wrong with my c.settings.

 

[CaperSue]

thanks everyone. I'll be sure to keep reading all the 7D questions that people post. I cleared the custom function button. started over. the pictures do seem better, but still don't have a great lens, making do with what I've got!
Going to try some of Roys' suggestions.........thank you!

 

[Suffolkringer]

Single point expansion for flyers (some like zone AF for flyers)

Here are just a few of the custom functions I would recommend:

Auto Light Optimiser: OFF
Highlight Alert: ENABLE (this shows you if you have clipped the highlights on the Camera preview).
Highlight tone priority: DISABLE
AI Servo Tracking sensitivity: SLOOOOOW

Hi

I am newish to this game with my 7D also, can you tell me:

1) Why slow AI Servo?
2) What does the highlight tone do?
3) What the hell is single expansion point? and how do I set this up in camera?

Ta
Jon

 

[Roy C]

Single point expansion for flyers (some like zone AF for flyers)

Here are just a few of the custom functions I would recommend:

Auto Light Optimiser: OFF
Highlight Alert: ENABLE (this shows you if you have clipped the highlights on the Camera preview).
Highlight tone priority: DISABLE
AI Servo Tracking sensitivity: SLOOOOOW

Hi

I am newish to this game with my 7D also, can you tell me:

1) Why slow AI Servo?
2) What does the highlight tone do?
3) What the hell is single expansion point? and how do I set this up in camera?

Ta
Jon

Jon, When shooting flyers in AI servo mode on Cameras without a tracking sensitivity adjustment (like the 40D), the split second you lose a bird over the focus point the AF will latch on to something else in the background thus throwing the focus wildly out from the bird, this makes it very difficult to get back on the bird. The AI servo tracking sensitivity governs how much of a delay (if any) that the Camera takes before it latches on to something else - if you set it to slow then you will have several seconds to get back onto the bird before the focus tries to latch on to something else. This does not effect initial acquisition or tracking speed. If you were shooting say, soccer, in AI servo mode and you wanted to switch from one player to another very fast then you would set the tracking sensitivity to fast. Mine stays at slow all the time.

Highlight Tone Priority (HTP) is a feature designed to deliver more highlight range (see page 209 of the manual), once enabled, the usable ISO range starts at ISO 200 -(ISO 100 is no longer available). In this mode the camera basically underexposes to give give you more headroom with the highlights. One of the drawbacks is that it can increase the noise in certain areas as it pushes them back up to correct exposure. If you need more detailed info just google it where you will find umpteen discussions on it. While HTP could have some use it plays no part in bird photography IMO.

Single AF point expansion is just another AF area mode along with single point AF, zone AF, auto select 19 point AF and spot AF. It uses not only the AF point you select but also the 4 points surrounding that single point thus expanding the focus range. This is useful for birds in flight because if you lose the bird with your single point then it can be picked up by one of the surrounding points. see page 89 of the 7D manual. In order to use single point expansion (and spot AF) you need to enabled it via C.Fn III-6.

Hope this helps Jon. (I am sure others will come in with a more detailed explanation but I have tried to make it a simple as I can)