what settings for bird spotting

I

iron maiden

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iron
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of to a nature reserve and want to know what are good settings for bird spotting
like shutter speed
do i use spot metering

any help and i will be very gratful


iron
 
Where do I begin :thinking: Keep your shutter equal to or above the focal length you are using at the time, ie if using 200mm then a shutter of 1/200 or more, faster the better for you. If you are really zoomed in on your subject then use spot metering, failing that evalutive should give you decent results. Shoot in Raw if possible, if light permits then use a safe aperture of around F5.6 - F6.3. use a decent ISO in this overcast weather, 400-800 should be a starting point I reckons. Have fun (y)
 
well maybe get a 1.4 or 2x tc and use that, keep the shutter speed as high as possible, and my self i use matrix mettering 99% of the time abd spot in tricky lighting, as i can go badly wrong.
i use manual with auto iso set from 200-1600 and set the shutter speed and apature and let the camera worry about the iso.
 
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I know Micloi ran a series of tests and I was quite impressed with the results.
 
120-300 focusses fine with the 1.4, never tried it with a 2x and it was the older version of the lens, but AF speed was very good.
 
i try to shoot at f8
auto iso up to 3200
jpeg fine
aperature priority [and use exposure compensation if needed]
in flight at least 1250 a secound shutter speed
spot all the time
focus c
9 points

and enjoy it
 
straycat said:
i try to shoot at f8
auto iso up to 3200
jpeg fine
aperature priority [and use exposure compensation if needed]
in flight at least 1250 a secound shutter speed
spot all the time
focus c
9 points

and enjoy it
Click to expand...
whay apature priority, why not manual with auto iso, that way you get to chose the apature and shutter speed and the camera the iso.
 
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Must admit that I use aperture priority most of the time Scott, set the aperture and the max ISO and min shutter in the menu and forget about it.

I need that when doing field sports due to the differing conditions and the speed required. I simply don`t have time to mess about with settings even if only for two seconds or so,spin the aperture wheel and that is it. The pic of the dog sailing into the river would be lost whilst I was changing things.

Or am I missing something?
 
fracster said:
Must admit that I use aperture priority most of the time Scott, set the aperture and the max ISO and min shutter in the menu and forget about it.

I need that when doing field sports due to the differing conditions and the speed required. I simply don`t have time to mess about with settings even if only for two seconds or so,spin the aperture wheel and that is it. The pic of the dog sailing into the river would be lost whilst I was changing things.

Or am I missing something?
Click to expand...
No thats makes sense i suppose, i just tend to use m with auto iso for birding and set the apature and shutter speed which is normally around the 500th sec mark.
which i would of thought would be better for sport but i suppose if you set the minimum shutter speed it wont go lower than you want so that could be handy. thanks(y)


just had a tinker on both 300 and 700, on the 700 i set to min shutter speed of 100th sec, got 28-70mm on and it just stayed at 100thsec no matter what i did and trys to keep the iso as low as possible instead of uping the iso which i have a max of 12800(is that right)
on the d300 set min shutter speed to 400th sec, Have 50-500mm os on and max iso 1600, but it will go lower than the min shutter speed set(is that right) sorry just never used a mode:help:
 
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scottthehat said:
No thats makes sense i suppose, i just tend to use m with auto iso for birding and set the apature and shutter speed which is normally around the 500th sec mark.
which i would of thought would be better for sport but i suppose if you set the minimum shutter speed it wont go lower than you want so that could be handy. thanks(y)


just had a tinker on both 300 and 700, on the 700 i set to min shutter speed of 100th sec, got 28-70mm on and it just stayed at 100thsec no matter what i did and trys to keep the iso as low as possible instead of uping the iso which i have a max of 12800(is that right)
on the d300 set min shutter speed to 400th sec, Have 50-500mm os on and max iso 1600, but it will go lower than the min shutter speed set(is that right) sorry just never used a mode:help:
Click to expand...

been following this thread with interest and reading the above i to have found on my d300 that the shutter speed will go lower than the minimum i have set can this be put right so the camera only goes as low as the minimum set or should you just switch to manual mode.
 
clive said:
been following this thread with interest and reading the above i to have found on my d300 that the shutter speed will go lower than the minimum i have set can this be put right so the camera only goes as low as the minimum set or should you just switch to manual mode.
Click to expand...

is that in shutter priority? I can only see that happening if you have the on board flash up :thinking:
 
this was in apperture priority on board flash was down going out today to try again both in manual and apperture mode.
 
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