topic Setting for 90D and 100-400mm II for birds in flight in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Setting for 90D and 100-400mm II for birds in flight

AdoNetok — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 14:00:32 GMT

I just learn to use Canon 90D and Canon 100-400mm II for birds in flight.
I set up C2 for this project.
I try to take photos for Forster's tern at the bay where most time is sunny.
Here is my setting.

Camera: AI Servo, ISO: Auto, Drive: Fast shooting, 1/2500, 7.1, 9 points focus,

Lens: FULL, AF, STABILIZER: ON, STABILIZER MODE: 1

C FN II AUTOFOCUS:
1. Tracking Sensitivity... -1
2. Acceleration/deceleration tracking... +1
3. AF Point Auto Switching... +2
4. AI Servo 1st image priority... +1 Focus
5. AI Servo 2nd image priority... 0

There are two things I want to improve:

1) For the first photo, it is hard to catch (focus) the flight bird,
2) Focus is still not perfect.

Please help me.

Re: Setting for Canon 90D and Canon 100-400mm II for birds in flight

Waddizzle — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 12:05:50 GMT

The first photo is probably hard to capture because of your Image Priority settings. With 1st Image Priority set to [Focus] the camera will not fire the shutter until it gets a focus lock. You want to get. The first shoot fired off as quickly as possible.

Try setting 2nd Image Priority to [Focus]. This may slow down your frame rate, but your images will always have a focus lock, hopefully on your desired subject. I do not see any point in firing off continuous shots and many of them are OOF.

Re: Setting for 90D and 100-400mm II for birds in flight

jrhoffman75 — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 18:10:03 GMT

Birds in flight is extremely difficult. Small target. Rapid moving subject.

If you don’t have subjects in the near range you could set your lens for the distance range rather than Full.
See page 563 in the manual to stop lens drive when AF not possible. Then you can manually try to get subject in focus range and then use AF.

Re: Setting for 90D and 100-400mm II for birds in flight

AdoNetok — Sat, 27 Jul 2024 19:56:57 GMT

Today for testing, I changed setting as below:

Camera: AI Servo, ISO: Auto, Drive: Fast shooting, 1/3200, 5.6, 9 points focus,

Lens: FULL, AF, STABILIZER: ON, STABILIZER MODE: 1

C FN II AUTOFOCUS:
1. Tracking Sensitivity... +1 (focus)
2. Acceleration/deceleration tracking... +1
3. AF Point Auto Switching... +1
4. AI Servo 1st image priority... +1 Focus
5. AI Servo 2nd image priority... +1 Focus

There are two things I want to improve:

For the first photo, it is still hard to catch (focus) the flight bird, I need to press back button for short time, can't focus right away
Attached two photos which I took today as setting above.