Settings for 5D Mark IV suggestions for bird photography

Rental 5d Mark IV arrives on Thursday for a few days use. Was wondering if anyone has a source for bird photography settings. Looking for a starting point. In particular BIF. Quick search not coming up with anything

Pauhana wrote in post #19076224
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Rental 5d Mark IV arrives on Thursday for a few days use. Was wondering if anyone has a source for bird photography settings. Looking for a starting point. In particular BIF. Quick search not coming up with anything.
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The camera settings you use should really be based on what lens you will be using it with. . Each lens has its strengths and weaknesses, and the settings you use should be those that maximize the lens' strengths and help it over its weak area.

So, will you be using it with your 100-400mm zoom? . If so, which Canon 100-400 is it? . The version 1, or the version 2?


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100-400 mk ii

Pauhana wrote in post #19076245
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100-400 mk ii
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Well that's fortunate, as that lens is so good that it is tack sharp, even wide open at f5.6

So, when I shoot birds with my 100-400 v2 on my 5D4, I usually shoot wide open. . f5.6 is super sharp, and provides plenty of depth of field because it's only 400mm. . So in most typical bird photography situations, there is no reason to stop down at all.

So because you can shoot at f5.6, in decent light you should be able to keep your ISO down nice and low, and not have that nasty noise grain messing up the darker areas of your images (such as the plumage on the shaded underside of the wings).

Normally, birds in flight are shot in direct sunlight, so when shooting at f5.6 you should be able to keep your ISO at 800 and still have plenty of shutter speed. . But 1600 does yield acceptable results, even for those who are rather persnickety pixel-peepers such as myself.

Personally, I prefer a little bit of subject motion in my BIF shots. . I would usually prefer to have the tips of the wings with a bit of motion blur, rather than having the entire wing perfectly "frozen". . If I photograph something that is in rapid motion, then I want it to look like it is in motion! . And a bit of blur on the wing tips is a great way to give your photo the feeling of motion.

So, I would shoot primarily wide open at f5.6, and only do BIF in direct sunlight, and keep the ISO at 800, or 1600 if you're in a real pinch. . But I would never use it any higher than 1600, unless you have some kind of noise reduction software or something.

In sunlight, I just let the shutter speed take care of itself - whatever speed gives you the best exposure. . In general, I find that many hobbyist wildlife photographers think they need a much faster shutter speed than they really need. . With the 100-400 v2, I have no problem gettin tack sharp images of stationary subjects at 1/30th of a second. . For BIF, I find that it really depends on the species of bird, and whether I am photographing it in full flight, or as it is taking off. . But for most BIF images, anything from 1/1250th of a second and faster gives very acceptable results. . Sometimes much slower shutter speeds can be used on birds in flight - I've gone down to around 1/300th of a second and gotten exactly the results I wanted!

I have tried shooting my 5D4 at 3200 ISO, and believe me, when I view the images at or beyond 100%, they are no where near as clean as 1600 or below. . Noise grain sucks, and I never, EVER want to see any of it in my images.


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Thanks for info

If you're asking for custom setting 5D IV for BIF, such as "Tracking Sensitivity," "Accelerate/Decelerate​," AF settings, etc., an excellent place to start is Grant Atkinson's YouTube video:

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=yy_72JQ-QT4

The following one's specifically for BIF by Paul Miguel:

https://www.youtube.co​m/watch?v=FizSlOHNxZQ

Thanks. Atkinson I was watching last night. Minguel, good stuff. Clear and cool in morning will be putting the camera through it’s paces. Should have swallows and purple martins available for bif, plus good selection of stationary birds

Pauhana wrote in post #19077074
Thanks. Atkinson I was watching last night. Minguel, good stuff. Clear and cool in morning will be putting the camera through it’s paces. Should have swallows and purple martins available for bif, plus good selection of stationary birds

Since most of bird photographers shoot BIF and stationary birds at the same time, as I do myself, I have my 5D IV custom button C1 for stationary birds and C2 for BIF. With the 5D IV, you can program it to always return to the same setting or auto update the setting, i.e., should you change any of the original programming, enabling the auto update would allow you to change without having to register the new set up again. These custom buttons allow me to quickly change as the scene requires. My C3 button is programmed for HDR landscape shooting.

For both settings specifically for birds (C1 and C2), I have my exposure compensation to -1 or -2 since in most cases the birds are darker than the background light. For BIF, I have my AF to expansion 5 points, whereas for stationary, I have a single center point. In either case, I use the spot metering.

I also use Auto ISO but with the ISO upper limiter set not to exceed 3200. I don't like to go above 3200 as I can't stand having to wrestle with the image post-processing. Although I use Topaz DeNoise AI, it's always better to use lower ISO than higher if possible. In those circumstances with good lighting conditions, Auto ISO makes my shooting a whole lot easier.

If you find you must shoot at higher ISOs, there are several great tools out there and videos on how to use them. Shoot raw first and foremost to salvage as much IQ as you can.

ISO 6400 on a crop M50 for the first, ISO 3200 on the second.

Not that I know of. I sometimes browse photos and look at the META data and hope there isn't too much post processing of the image.