Wildlife settings for a 5DMkII

A friend of mine is lending me her new 5DmkII this weekend, and I plan to take it out hunting wildlife. However, I'm not sure what settings/Custom Functions it would be worth me playing with. I currently have the 350D, and use the * button for AF, I'm assuming the 5DMkII can do the same, but does anyone know what the CF is?


I plan to pair the 5D with my 100-400L and stick the 60mm Macro on my 350D, shooting in RAW on both.

Also if anyone can point me to where I can download the manual from I'd appreciate it.

Cheers,

C

You can get the manual off of Canons site.

http://www.usa.canon.c​om …d=17662#Downloa​dDetailAct

Thanks Monty, seems the 5DMkII has a separate AF-ON button that I don't think the 350D has.

Colin,

You may want to think of shooting 21 mp RAW and cropping. This often more than makes up for what a 1.6 crop factor camera can do.

I use the AF-on button when doing video. I'm not sure how to use it in stills.

Also, I've found the AF to 'lock-on' much better than I have sometimes seen reported on this forum. You may want to try some action shots.

Also, you may want to play with the video aspect of this camera, although you may need a tripod for that.

Have fun.

I certainly intend to have fun with it As you suggest I plan to go with full size RAW I've got both a manfrotto monopod and a manfrotto tripod, so I should be good to go for support.

I've had a quick read through the manual, and nothing really stood out, obviously it can do video, but I've only got 2GB cards, so I'll see how well that works out.

Cheers,

C

I'd invest in a high capacity card then as I doubt 2Gb is going to be anywhere enough for you in raw? But I guess that depends on how much you shoot.

Oops, I forgot to say that whilst I only have 2 GB cards, I do have 3 of them, Of course, one will be in the 350D, so I should probably try and order some more.

It does vary some according to the types of shots, but I get about 480 full size RAW images per 16 GB card, so a 2 GB card should hold about 60 RAW images.

If I remember correctly CF IV is where you can set the rear focus, and it does have a seperate rear button. If you expect for the wildlife to be moving much AI Servo might be worth a try, it's what I leave it set most of the time for wildlife. I also use center point AF much of the time, although I select another single point at times when I am close enough the composition and framing doesn't suit the center point.

Colin Morey wrote in post #8166753
Oops, I forgot to say that whilst I only have 2 GB cards, I do have 3 of them, Of course, one will be in the 350D, so I should probably try and order some more.

I use the 8 gig Sandisk UDMA/45mbs extreme IV CF card.
The picture count reads 256 in full raw mode. The card needs to be faster for the 5DMKII due to the larger file size. If you get a slow card the write speed will be a bottle neck if your shooting AI servo continuous. The FPS will drop. I use the center focus point and set the camera to faithful and zero on everything else. I use DPP to PP my work after it`s on the PC. You`ll probably need to get the Canon software disk so you can load it to your PC. Might wanna get a CF card reader too. You can DL from the camera, but you`ll need the cable to do it.

Thanks DrDiesel,
I've got Sandisk Extreme III cards at the moment, and I use the Card reader built into my monitor, far faster than the 350D internal reader. I'm using Apple's Aperture for my current editting, and I know it can handle the 5DMkII files as I've got a couple of samples from a demo camera at WarehouseExpress. (The mac is an 8 core Mac Pro with 6 GB, so it should be able to handle the 5DMkII files). Your comments on the picture styles are useful.

I'm going to order a couple of 4G Extreme III cards tomorrow I think, I'm just hoping they'll be fast enough.

Cheers,

Colin

Colin Morey wrote in post #8167623
Thanks DrDiesel,
I've got Sandisk Extreme III cards at the moment, and I use the Card reader built into my monitor, far faster than the 350D internal reader. I'm using Apple's Aperture for my current editting, and I know it can handle the 5DMkII files as I've got a couple of samples from a demo camera at WarehouseExpress. (The mac is an 8 core Mac Pro with 6 GB, so it should be able to handle the 5DMkII files). Your comments on the picture styles are useful.

I'm going to order a couple of 4G Extreme III cards tomorrow I think, I'm just hoping they'll be fast enough.

Cheers,

Colin

You`ll need DPP from the Canon disk or at least CS2 to manage and PP the RAW files. Just get the disk when you get the camera and load it to the PC.

Colin Morey wrote in post #8167623
I'm going to order a couple of 4G Extreme III cards tomorrow I think, I'm just hoping they'll be fast enough.

Cheers,

Colin

Colin,

Hope you don't mind the edit.

I used a 2 gig Extreme III card today to both shoot stills and video. It worked fine for both. It was a bit slower downloading to the computer ...no real big deal though.

For wildlife, I use AV mode, and adjust the ISO as needed so that the shutterspeed is 1/1000 second or more.

also, center focus point and AI Servo.

If you haven't already bought the CF cards, You might want to consider a couple of 8 giggers.

I just looked at a wildlife shoot that I went on recently - 304 images in a couple of hours (mosquitos ran me off) shooting nesting Great Egrets and Rosette Spoonbills.

Had I been using the camera you are going to borrow,that would have been over 6 gigs.
That's why I say get a bigger card or two.

Good luck shooting your wildlife.

Mike

drdiesel1 wrote in post #8167889
You`ll need DPP from the Canon disk or at least CS2 to manage and PP the RAW files. Just get the disk when you get the camera and load it to the PC.

perhaps on a PC but Aperture can read and handle the 5D MkII files fine

westernminnguy wrote in post #8167920
Colin,

Hope you don't mind the edit.

I used a 2 gig Extreme III card today to both shoot stills and video. It worked fine for both. It was a bit slower downloading to the computer ...no real big deal though.

Good to know they'll be fast enough, were you doing any continuous shooting? did it have any big effect on the FPS?