D500 "Birds in Flight" settings

Does anyone out there have Nikon AF settings (for birds in flight) that they would like to share?  I will be setting up a D500 for shooting BIF on Friday.

Why I am questioning this now:

Situation #1:  The first D7200 I had was wonderful on BIF.  I set it up quickly with what I believed where the most commonly used AF settings (please see below) and just headed out to shoot.  But those passing waterfowl were photographed in a wide open area; i.e. no distracting background.  Also, I could see the waterfowl approaching me as they moved from a feeding to roosting area, and so I had plenty of time to anticipate their approach.  This was over a suburban estuary and so they knew they were safe to fly right over me.  I have also repeatedly shot this first D7200 at another estuary where there also were pigeons (at a fishermen's co-op) and it really did well on these quick birds.  So there was really no problem with this first D7200.

Situation #2 (with a different D7200):  The AF on this second D7200 that I have (a refurbished D7200) is far from exciting.  IMO, it is as slow on AF as my D610.  But to be fair, I have been shooting it on inland waters where the habitat is less "open"; i.e. there is background fairly close to the waterfowl I am inadvertently jumping (in my watercraft excursions).  I just do not know what factor is causing the poor AF performance of this second D7200.  It could be that this refurbished  D7200 has had an AF problem from "day one" and was not actually refurbished by Nikon.  I am beginning to think it is the D7200 itself; i.e. not the situation/surroundings.  Reason:  This second D7200's AF searches even when I am shooting perched passerine birds outside my window.  I really am now believing that this is the reason the first person sent it back.  

So you see, I have lost my confidence on these AF settings.  I am not saying that I was authoritative on it in the first place.   Just was hoping to get some quick input.   

As I recall, in a nutshel, this is how I set up a Nikon for BIF:

>  For AF function, I dedicate that button under the right thumb.  Same thing for the batter grip; i.e. the button under the right thumb is dedicated to AF.   There is no autofocus function given to the shutter button.  I like this button function assignment and am unlikely to change it.

>  I choose AFC, with 9 autofocus points (as I recall).  And I thought this might be the problem with those ducks I was jumping in wooded setting; i.e. if 51 AF points were chosen, once the action started, the camera might be switching to the wooded background because I had the AF points spread so widely across the FOV..

>  Formerly I had it set on "Release" rather than "Focus"; to release anyway, even if AF was not 100% certain.  Just lately I have tried setting it on "Focus".  I really do not know what this setting should be for BIF.

>  And one thing I never have known.....what time limit does one assign before the camera is allowed to move from one element to another in a fast situation?

Thanks ahead

Robert  



 

Blck-shouldered Kite wrote:As I recall, in a nutshel, this is how I set up a Nikon for BIF:

>  For AF function, I dedicate that button under the right thumb.  Same thing for the batter grip; i.e. the button under the right thumb is dedicated to AF.   There is no autofocus function given to the shutter button.  I like this button function assignment and am unlikely to change it.

>  I choose AFC, with 9 autofocus points (as I recall).  And I thought this might be the problem with those ducks I was jumping in wooded setting; i.e. if 51 AF points were chosen, once the action started, the camera might be switching to the wooded background because I had the AF points spread so widely across the FOV..

>  Formerly I had it set on "Release" rather than "Focus"; to release anyway, even if AF was not 100% certain.  Just lately I have tried setting it on "Focus".  I really do not know what this setting should be for BIF.

>  And one thing I never have known.....what time limit does one assign before the camera is allowed to move from one element to another in a fast situation?

For your first one, I see no reason to change that. I am also using the AF-ON button to focus. That generally means I'm in AF-C mode since I can stop the focusing by releasing the button. AF-C mode defaults to Release rather than to Focus priority so I would be using Release Priority for BIF. Shooting in Focus priority will cause the camera to fire irregularly at high frame rates since it won't fire unless it "thinks" something is in focus. I tried this once on other models and I decided I'd rather get a regular rate since it didn't seem to help my true keeper rate at all. 

The timing for movement and which mode to use are all new on this camera. I still need to experiment a lot more to decide which to use. On the D810, I like group mode for some BIF situations and since the group mode is not on the D7200, you might consider that. When in doubt, I'm usually in single point or D9 on the D810 so single point or D25 would be the equivalent on the D500. With the wide range across the frame I've been told by someone I trust to consider 3D mode for BIF. After some discussion with him, I think my original plan should be considered. That is to experiment with it and see what you're getting before you pick one as a goto for this camera.

Thank you for your comment.

Picked up the D500 at UPS earlier today, and have been sifting through this AF challenge since then.

Yes, this is going to take experimenting.

Robert

IMO

So far for me......this Autofocus section in the D500 User Manual is the pits.....very difficult to understand. It jumps around and is choppy. I do not think they do an acceptable job at explaining the different options. Terrible!

I will keep at it and eventually understand it.

But Nikon.......you can make this Autofocus stuff much much easier to understand.

Spent much of today (Friday) on BIF in excellent light, trying to procure and hold flying subjects.  So far, I'm disappointed; i.e. I'd say this D500 is not as good at procuring as the first D7200 I had.  But tomorrow I hope to work on more settings and technique.  Ok, so maybe my expectations were too high, but its for sure my first D7200 procured better than this....so far.

Robert, I would start with something like this and then experiment to see what works best for you.   

I used my D 500 Thursday at Smith Oaks Rookery near Houston for birds in flight. Most birds were great egrets and the lighting was strong sun, front lighting, against a blue sky. Lenses used were a 500mm f4 E VR and a 300mm f2.8 VR. 

AF is very fast and responsive which is really good, better than my D 800 and D 810. 
 
I set Custom Setting a8 to AF On Only so the only way to focus is to use the AF ON button on the back of the camera. This is the way I shoot.

I set both a1 and a2 to Release because I want the shutter to be activated when I depress the shutter button. 

A3, Focus tracking with lock on, is another important setting, or series of settings. It is different than other Nikon bodies I own, D800 and D810.  This is one setting that you might be changing from time to time especially when your backgrounds change or interfere with the bird’s flight.  On the D 800 and D810, I usually chose Long or Off. For a3 on a D500, there are two settings, and both appear as scales. The top one is called “Blocked shot with AF Response” and its scale is Quick to Delayed. The bottom one is called Subject Motion” and it scale is Erratic to Steady. The D500 manual, p 292, provides little useful information  on how to set these. However, Nikon does provide good info on D500 action settings. 

Go here for this info: http://nps.nikonimaging.com/technical_s ... 0_tips/af/

Based on my test shots, I set the second slider to Erratic.  I experimented with the first slider and used Quick most of the time. These settings can result in loss of focus, but the AF is so quick it is easy to reacquire it by lifting your thumb off of the AFON button.  To reacquire focus, I let go of the AF ON button and reacquired focus. This happens very fast with a D500.

You must set AF-C. And then you need to choose either S or one of the Dynamic Area AF settings. I used AF-C with d25 almost exclusively. I did not try the Group or 3D settings, but I plan to do this sometime in the future.   

Set your ISO high enough to get shutter speeds of 1/1000 or higher. 

I am still going through my images, but the keeper rate is very high as most pictures are very sharp. The biggest problem is getting the bird placed correctly in the frame and avoiding clipped wings. 

Joe