Telephoto Settings for Wildlife

RayboyUSMC

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Although I have been using cameras for a long time, my first was a Brownie Hawkeye, I have rarely gone beyond the P or Auto functions. I am trying to improve my ability to capture some of the birds in my back yard that use my feeders and hopefully a hummingbird once in a while.

I am using an Olympus OM-D EMX-1 with a 100-400 IS lens soon to be delivered and a Nikon D780 with a Sigma 150-600 with a 2x extender. What is/are the best settings that I can program into my custom saved settings.

I was always using SAF but recently changed to CAF to get more shots of the same bird/s. I do most of my shots in the morning with the sun behind the birds. Are there some good settings with shutter speed, aperture, ISO etc. and if so what would the requirements be to use them?

Appreciate any help you can give
 

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The 1st is a bluejay & is #4 a cardinal? Whats 2 & 3?

Shooting birds in the morning, in the shade & infront of the sun is pain in the butt🤣.
 
If the bird is likely to move while shooting use a high shutter speed of around 1200th of a sec. As for focal length, this depends on your position or distance from the bird. I get most of my bird shots at 480mm. Good luck ...
 
I have the Sigma 150-600mm. For birding I usually have the speed between 1/1250 and 1/2000 and the aperture at f/6.5. I use manual setting almost always. Play around the manual mode and you'll soon get a feel for what you need.

This was taken on a nice, sunny day, so the aperture was f/14 and the speed was 1/1600 at 600mm.
may28202205 by Jeff Ashman, on Flickr

This one was at f/6.3 and 1/1600 at 600mm
apr07202201 by Jeff Ashman, on Flickr
 
The 1st is a bluejay & is #4 a cardinal? Whats 2 & 3?

Shooting birds in the morning, in the shade & infront of the sun is pain in the butt🤣.
The second is a Red Headed Woodpecker. Got lucky with his tongue out. The third is a male Painted Bunting. The females are several softer shades of green.
 

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Thanks for the input. I will give those settings a try. My goal is to be able to get a shot of a hummingbird as good as the one above. An interesting fact about these little birds. They can hover in all directions and perch on branch or other object, but they can't hop. As a former Helicopter Pilot in the Corps, these are my kind of birds when they can hover as well as they do.
 
Thanks for the input. I will give those settings a try. My goal is to be able to get a shot of a hummingbird as good as the one above. An interesting fact about these little birds. They can hover in all directions and perch on branch or other object, but they can't hop. As a former Helicopter Pilot in the Corps, these are my kind of birds when they can hover as well as they do.
Thank you for your service! I was in the "Country Club" of the services.
 
Here is one of my better shots. A Green Backed Heron which is common to most of Florida. I have only seen this bird twice in my back yard, They are normally found in the swampier areas of the state. He cooperated and just stood there for over 10 minutes. Suddenly flew to the other end of the pool and grabbed a bug he saw. This was with my Olympus MX-1
 

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Just my worthless .02, but I would dump the 2X extender. For backyard shots especially. Not sure why you would need that much reach in that situation, and it will negatively affect image quality and auto focus speeds.

The Olympus is MFT, right? If so the 400mm lens will equal 800mm in full frame terms. That should give you plenty of reach. I would personally prefer the Nikon (and Sigma at 600mm) for the full frame sensor and lower light abilities.
 
Just my worthless .02, but I would dump the 2X extender. For backyard shots especially. Not sure why you would need that much reach in that situation, and it will negatively affect image quality and auto focus speeds.

The Olympus is MFT, right? If so the 400mm lens will equal 800mm in full frame terms. That should give you plenty of reach. I would personally prefer the Nikon (and Sigma at 600mm) for the full frame sensor and lower light abilities.
I will give that a try. Thanks
 
I tried the 1250 and 6.5 and got better results. Thanks for the info.
 

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Slowly getting almost passable. I think this was his girlfriend showing up while his wife was on the other side.

Still not sure if I go with spot or center weighted for the CAF. Lucky we don't pay for film anymore LOL
 

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Bump up your shutter to 2500+ if your subject is moving & flapping about🤪, you have a lot of light to use in those last shots there so the ISO noise shouldn't be much to worry about.

Being at full zoom there will be motion blur to counteract too.
 

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