Question for 7d birders

I was wondering what most of you use for your metering on your 7d when shooting birds in flight when they are moving between trees and open sky? Also on a sunny day using a 100 to 400 or any slow lens what do you find is your best ISO? I find myself using ISO 800 a great deal of the time.

iso 200

I usually set metering to the evaluative metering or centreweirghted average, generally set to + 0.3 ev as my copy of the 7D underexposes compared to the 50D.

I try to keep my maximum ISO at 640 if I have to go over this I find noise getting more noticeable In Australia we have lots of light so average ISO setting for me would be 400.

Focus for the 100-400L is usually set at alservo for BIF with sensitivity set at fast for around the house where the birds might fly at you and set at zero or slow for larger birds like Ibis, Egret etc at say a wetlands environment.

I shot spot metering and full manual mode with ISO at 800 mostly on the 400 5.6. Sometimes I will bumb the iso to 1000-1250 or down to 640. Noise can be handled with proper exposure and processing in CS5.

I use Spot Metering for bird photography. When shooting with my Bigma at 500mm, i need at least ISO400 on sunny day to get fast enought shutter speed. When i had my 7D, ISO800 was my minimum to get enough shutter speed.

I assume when you ask "between trees and sky" when they're in the trees they're in shade right? Are you asking this question because of an exposure issue in the shade or a noise issue in processing after trying to adjust the exposure problem? Or are you exposing for them in the shade then blowing the subect out when it gets out in the open?

I always shoot in manual, expose for subect and if the background is dark because it was shaded so be it...the subject is exposed properly and that's what I worry about.

When I used my 7D I never went above 400 ISO using my 400mm f/5.6L lens.

Thanks for all of the replies. I was basically wondering if ISO 800 was that unusual for the bif. As to the metering I find myself shooting birds that may start in the trees (either in sunlight or shade) and move into open sky. I generally try and shoot spot metering in this situation.

Here is the great thing about the advice you got today.
All of the people that posted in this thread produce wonderful pictures.
Each person has their own way of getting there.
You'll find the 7d is very capable.

I dont have a 7d but I do have a 60d and they share alot of things.
I use spot metering about 25% of the time and evaluative the rest.
I let my ISO bounce from 100-1600 and havent noticed noise because of it as long
as I dont underexpose.
I shoot manual 90% of the time and AV the rest.

In unchanging light I'll shoot manual exposure. If the light isn't constant then I'll use evaluative with about 2/3 to 3/2 stops EC. I tend to keep ISO up around 800.

I shoot in M mode and 90% of the time I use ISO 400.

I also shoot manual exposure 90-95% of the time. When I'm not sure what settings to use, I take initial metering (Evaluative Metering) on grasses, gravels, or something similar colour/brightness as birds before doing my shooting. With the 7D, I find the exposure of the photo is good with a +2/3 to +1 EC. After awhile, you just know what settings to use in various lighting and you can skip the metering steps.

I really recommend M mode.

M-mode here too. I generally keep it on spot metering, although I expose to the histogram taking some test shots, and work the exposure from there if the lighting changes. It takes a while to just "know" what settings you will need to start from to get shooting as quickly as possible, but I could just never trust the camera to expose the way I wanted consistently enough.

I would rather come home with some improperly exposed shots and know it was 100% my fault, and correct for it in the future, than leave it up to the camera and screw up shots I could have gotten.

I also usually start at IS0 400 and go up and down from there dependant on the lighting and target shutter speed.

"In unchanging light I'll shoot manual exposure. If the light isn't constant then I'll use evaluative with about 2/3 to 3/2 stops EC. I tend to keep ISO up around 800."

Pretty much the same here, although I use a 50d, not a 7d.

Muteki wrote in post #14473905
After awhile, you just know what settings to use in various lighting and you can skip the metering steps.

What he said.