7D setting for BIF

I can't seem to get sharp shots with my 7D for BIF.
What is the best CFn setting, apature, shutter speed, and auto focus setting when shooting BIF?
Thanks

in my oppinion, leave cfn settings alone. aperture low, shutter speed high (like 400 or so), al servo focus and very importantly, image stablisation OFF.

There are quite a few that can be good but try this, tracking speed slow - lens wide open and at leased twice or three times the focal lenth in shutter speed i.e 300mm 1/1000 sec . single focus point or if a clear sky background pick a point and use expand ,Zone can also be good .
Rob.

Take a look at this guide by Doug Brown a professional bird photographer.

For sure don't turn off your image stabilization, that's what it's there for there.
On most lens there are two stabilization modes one when you are sitting still
and one when you are tracking.

I saw the other day where a guy bought a new 400 5.6 L and took 1,000 shots
before he felt he got one he was really happy with. It is something that takes
work and trial and error.

Good luck, hope Doug's guide is of some help.

http://www.deepgreenph​otography.com …ing-up-your-new-canon-7d/

Those are some interesting suggestions. I had the Tracking speed on Fast so I'll try the slow setting.
I had my shutter at only 1x the Focal Length so that could be a major factor.
Any suggestion on setting C.Fn III-2, -3, -4, and -7 ?
The Doug Brown guide looks very good ...I'l try his suggestion too.
Thanks

If we assume you are shooting against the blue sky, then you can also experiment with more than one focus point. Sometimes it's difficult to keep one point on the bird. The drawback is of course that a point may focus on the wingtip or something.

Tracking timeout slow is good. Reduces risk of loosing focus.
The other Servo AF custom functions you can leave at default. It takes more complex situations than a bird on the sky to make them useful. Set the range limiter on your lens to the longer distance.
Short shutter speed reduces movement blur, and also neutralizes the effect of IS. Which means it doesn't matter much if you have it on or off.

We do not see any indication on the lens you use - it is as important (more) than a specific c-setup

I've tried different lens depending on the distance to subject. These birds are woodpeckers and jays and about 100-200 feet away flying from feeder to their favorite tree (across infront of me). I use a 300/f2.8 IS both with and w/o a 1.4x TC. I've also tried using a 500/f4 IS but the image starts to fill the frame too quickly and harder to follow in flight.

BTW, the birds are flying with trees in the background .... not sky.

i find that i get better results with IS turned off. maybe its just me but here's why.. i often follow the bird through the lens and pan with it for the duration of the flight while al servo keeps it in focus. I i keep my other eye open to make sure i dont lose the bird. Although i could set IS to the mode for horizontal panning, the birds dont always fligh straight from left to right. I find that ultimately, the IS tries to resist my panning which just seems to frustrate me. Although if you are composing the shot first and waiting for the bird, it would make no difference other than giving you a nice stable view through the view finder..

sagebrush wrote in post #11318589
BTW, the birds are flying with trees in the background .... not sky.

single point and slow tracking for this conbined with whats called pumping the shutter button .ie you have to be ready to half press the shutter to regain focus should you lose AI servo focus to the background.
Rob.

Great question.... I have a 7d and wildlife is what I mostly shoot. Lately Eagles in MD.
I have experimented with all sorts of settings and have used many lenses and here is what I have found to work for me after 10k clicks.. I am still trying to figure out the best but my success rate has gone way up.

- As for CF settings... Nothing major
- ai servo for BIF, I have my tracking in the middle. I seem to have less lens search there.
- Full auto focus and at times center spot -- full auto, lock in half shutter and track and shoot but never let your finger off half. Aim for the eye. Center spot same deal but harder too track and hold on subject.
- IS on if you have it..
- Manual exposure -- 1250 shutter speed, f-6.3, auto iso.. I also use AE mode.. all depends on the sky.

There is no trick.. its practice and understanding what the camera is capable of doing. The 7d is pretty smart..

Good luck and practice and look at others images and learn.

Kurt

I'm still learning my 7D and mostly on large birds, but I really like the expanded point focus. Very nice write up Doug Brown

sagebrush wrote in post #11317243
Those are some interesting suggestions. I had the Tracking speed on Fast so I'll try the slow setting.

This made the biggest difference in the number of keepers for me. I'm still not very good at tracking BiFs, so having the camera not switch to the background as soon as I lose the bird is a real boon.