If you're taking pictures of birds in flight (taking off, flying, landing), set your autofocus to Continuous. In bird photography, knowing how to prepare your camera for bird photography is super important. However, on the D7500, you can achieve beautiful photos of wild birds if you configure the optimal settings for the subject. In that regard, the D7500 responds to such demands. It has a number of buttons and numerous menu options that can be confusing for those who are not familiar with them. This setting will allow you to choose whether or not your camera will switch to focus on the head or stay with the bird. (Photo and report by Koji Ueda). And as bird photographers, we are mainly interested in the telephoto end than the wide end of the zoom lens. Here are more details on all the birds in flight camera settings listed above including why I chose what I did. Because I had stored focus points in advance, I was able to quickly take the shot before the wild bird had a chance to take off. THIS SITE IS OPERATED BY NIKON SINGAPORE PTE LTD, Capturing the Energy and Excitement of Basketball, Capturing the Magic of Batik Through the Lens, A Motorcycle Adventure Across North America, Remarkable Features of the D7500 at a Glance, The Depictive and Capturing Capabilities of the High-performance D7500, Children: Capture Those Natural Smiles with AF-C and Fast Continuous Shooting, Birds: Camera Functions that Give You the Best Chance of Capturing the Moment, Nightscapes: How to Effectively Suppress Vibrations and Depict Your Images Sharply, Ultra-Wide-Angle Zoom: AF-S DX NIKKOR 10-24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED, Macro Prime: AF-S Micro NIKKOR 60mm f/2.8G ED, Telephoto Zoom: AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR. Since I always use back button focusing, with focus assigned to … photo by Zeroneg1. I always shoot in RAW for more freedom in post processing. Here are three features you can use for photographing wild birds. Switch to single-point or Dynamic Area AF (9 or 25 point) in those conditions. You have two options. As a guideline, I recommend setting the autofocus (AF) mode to "AF-C", the AF-area mode to "Dynamic-area AF", and the release mode to "CH". The D7500 is equipped with a quiet shutter-release mode, which I would encourage you to use as much as possible. You can confirm this on the shooting display in the viewfinder. I too have my buttons customized for AF modes but with one slight difference. Here are my basic camera settings when photographing birds. However, I would say that the D7500 is aimed at intermediate amateurs looking to shoot with gear that has a bit more photographic p… For example, your panning with a bird and a fellow photographer’s head gets in the way. The following Nikon DSLRs offer the new Group Area AF mode: Nikon D4s; Nikon D810; Nikon D750; Nikon D850; Nikon D500; Nikon D7500 Guest post: birds of prey in a studio environment with the Nikon D800 ; Birds in flight with the Nikon D800 ; The price of refurbished Nikon D600, D800 and D800E cameras went down another $100 ; Photographing birds in flight at 60 frames-per-second ; Birding with the Nikon Z6 and the Nikkor 500 f/4 (fast birds in flight with AF tracking) Just got my d500 and want to use (and understand) all that this amazing camera has to offer (coming off using a d7200). With the additional use of the 1.3x crop, you can obtain an even stronger telephoto effect. D7500/ AF-P NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6E ED VR/ FL: 300mm (equivalent to 450mm in FX/35mm format)/ Shutter-priority Auto (f/6.3, 1/1000sec)/ ISO 1600/ WB: Direct Sunlight. I like to set my camera to Auto-ISO. Nikon D850, Tamron 150-600 G2 lens, Tamron 1.4x Teleconverter, @ 550 mm, 1/2500 sec, f/8.5, ISO 640. Though I would prefer 1/2000 or faster. I seemed to have really good luck using 9-point dynamic-area AF (d9). This will use the selected focus point and all the points immediately around it. For birds, I would suggest using 12-bit RAW and turning on compression (lossless compression if possible). So all these settings that I have laid out here will be applicable to you no matter what you shoot with. Nikon P900 - best settings for bird photography Apologies if this has already been covered elsewhere. Advanced cameras offer more settings and easy to access controls, but you can get started with any camera. My Bird In Flight Settings For The D850 Nikon Approved Lenses ISO Comparisons My Buffer Findings My Settings For Focus Shift Shooting (Focus Stacking) Some Sample Photos. This will let me crop in more if I need to later. Shooting with 1.3x crop is invaluable for scenes where you want to capture slightly larger shots of wild birds. Interested in seeing exactly how I set up my Nikon D500 Autofocus system for Birds in Flight? My Wildlife Bird in Flight experience with the Nikon Z6 mounted on a Nikkor 400mm ED FL f/2.8 with and without a 1.4 TC. These settings will greatly improve your chances of acquiring focus on the bird. Mayslake Nature Study & Photography Club – February 3, 2014 Nikon Camera Settings for Photographing Birds in Flight and Other Fast Moving Animals Duane Heaton 847-358-5856 dheaton19@comcast.net Page 2 of 5 In the AF-C mode, the default option is “Release-priority”, in which the shutter will release even You want to be on continuous autofocus mode (AF-C). I found it extremely difficult to find information all layed out in front of me that would help me with my birds in flight camera settings. If you set up your camera properly, you can then take more time to focus on (no pun intended ) what really makes a great bird photos. When shooting any moving objects, especially birds in flight, you will want the autofocus to be continually working for you. I took that info and made a reference that I used. A shot taken in the vertical position to incorporate elements surrounding the subject. The autofocus on Nikon DSLRs has been getting better with each iteration and has got to the point that at times it is spookily good for birds in flight. My Nikon cameras have a mode dial on top of the camera with CL and CH options. Because the chance to shoot will be gone in the blink of an eye, you don't have time to waste on switching the position of the focus point when changing from the horizontal position to the vertical position. You will want to set your camera to Dynamic Area AF (at least that’s what Nikon calls it). With the consumer focused superzoom lenses such as the popular 150-600 lenses from Tamron and Sigma, you can probably just set your aperture to the widest point (f/6.3) and forget about it. If you look around the internet you’ll find far more talented photographers with most likely far better advice. With that said, let's take a look at wild bird shooting techniques unique to the D7500. Having auto-ISO enabled means I will get good exposure for every shot. I recommend shooting movies of scenes such as a bird playing near its nest or eating food. One challenge that you will probably come across as you prepare to shoot is that just when you think a wild bird has landed on a branch, it takes off the very next moment. A feature that comes in handy for such a situation is "Store points by orientation". When using center weighted or spot metering, the instant your subject leaved the center or focus point, your metering will go wild and you’ll get either overexposed or underexposed images. However all of these settings are universal no matter what camera you have. This means that you can press the shutter button but your camera will not begin the exposure until focus is locked. Photo: Great White Pelican getting ready to land in Bharatpur Bird Sanctuary, officially known as Keoladeo Ghana National Park. Any other favoured settings? When photographing wild birds, you need to be careful of the shutter noise and electronic beeps that sound when the camera is focusing. One thing that is necessary is the relatively modest investment on … As a guideline, I often aim to set to around 1/2000 sec and f/5.6, and then vary my ISO in order to gain the right exposure. I set my camera on matrix metering mode. You camera is most likely defaulted to the Release option so you might not have to worry about this. Settings for birds in flight… Group-area AF activates five focus points to track subjects, thereby speeding up initial focus acquisition and tracking of subjects. The good news is that I was able to gather all the necessary basic information in bits and pieces. Check out this link for more info on how this setting works: http://darrellyoung.blogspot.com/2011/09/using-focus-tracking-with-lock-on.html. Birds in Flight. You’ll want this as high as your camera will go. Ever since seeing the amazing performance of Group-Area autofocus on a Chilkat eagle trip, this pattern has been my default choice for birds in flight. RAW Bit Depth and Compression. You’ll want to set your priority to the second option, Release,  which is to take a photo whenever the shutter is pressed. Autofocus settings for birds in flight with Nikon Z cameras Brown pelican in flight, captured with a Nikon Z6 mirrorless camera and 200-500mm f/5.6E VR zoom Nikkor lens. Your camera will then change to focus on the photographer and you’ll have to regain focus on the bird. For birds in flight. Settings: Nikon D750, Nikon 600mm f/4 Prime Lens @ f/5.6, 1/1600, ISO 160, -0.3 EV, Aperture Priority, Matrix Metering. 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