Birds in Flight

I am still trying to figure out how to get better focus on birds in flight. Just getting them into the viewfinder with a longer lens is a challenge for me. My question is weather you generally use single-point or multi-point focus.

When I use single-point I seam to be able to get good focus if I can get the point on the bird's head, but that is difficult. When I use multi-point the camera can catch the bird easier, but it does not always select the head as the focus point.

I use single point, generally the center autofocus point and I find that to be far superior with all the Canon and Nikon lenses and bodies that I've used when compared to letting the camera pick the autofocus point. I've gone back and forth between using the center af point or the center af point with surrounding assist points activated and I've decided for me just using the center af point is the best choice. If I have a particular shot in mind sometimes I will try to use 1 other af point rather than the center point but I don't do that very often.

If you are having trouble getting good focus if you miss the head you could stop down 1 stop and see if that helps when you end up focusing on the wing instead of the head. I'm not sure if you mean you are missing focus or the head is not in focus but the wings are. When I'm shooting fast birds like kingfishers I'm happy just to acquire focus anywhere on the bird, so I routinely stop down about 1 stop to make sure both the wings and head will be sharp. With bigger birds if there is plenty of light I will often stop down more, up to 2 stops. Make sure to keep your shutter speed up by increasing your iso if you need to.

I too use the center point. Acquiring focus on the bird while it is still relatively far away or before it takes off is a better way to ensure focus than trying to acquire it when the bird is flying fast and fills the frame.

point..shoot..pray.
Repeat.
Repeat.
Repeat.



Sandy r

Oh, my favorite subject! I like Sandy's answer too (as well as the rest, helpful). I've got a related question but don't want to hijack the thread, I'll start it separately regarding "release lock" when you are trying to acquire focus on an incoming bird.

I really appreciate this thread. I went out yesterday morning and tried using the single center point. I was very insecure with my panning skills but when I reviewed the results, I noted a great improvement in the results. Thanks to all of you

Can anybody tell me how the Canon 7D holds AF with birds coming at you? Thanks MM

I went out yesterday to try out center single point focusing with my 7D. One of the photographers present told me to tap my AF button as the skimmer approaches. I got the sharpest approach shot so far.

Hi Walt

I tend to use the following method, do know I have an old camera (by digital standards) a 30D. My choice is always the Center AF Point. I tend to prefocus on the area I anticipate the bird to fly in (that is, if I know where they use a particular bit of space for flying from one area to another) then as the bird approaches, the AF is usually pretty good at locking on and careful panning tends to get some decent results. It's always easier with larger, slow flying, birds so they could be an excellent place to start. Then slowly work your way over to finches.

I also find that having good light helps.

Now, in another scenario, if I am in the need of quickly responding to an opportunity that may present itself, I generally bump focus by hand and try to lock AF in. Bump focus (I think that's the correct term) is when you try to aid the AF system by hand focusing, thus avoiding the potential for the lens to hunt back and forth, which also often happens. Though I reckon the newer cameras that have better AF systems than my prehistoric 30D would be better at AF.

Wish you well.

Hi Harry, Looks nice. Do you have an enlargement you can post on just the head and beak to see how well sharpness one the eyes holds up? If the catch light is sharp, I;m sold. Thanks MM

Hello Mark and Walt, I am new to the site, however, I purchased a 7D about a month and a half ago. Bird Photography is one of my favorite subjects, and I think I can answer your questions, as I understand them. Mark, the 7D actually has more advanced auto focusing systems than any of the other current models (including the 5D Mark II) that Canon is selling. However, for photographing birds in flight coming directly at the camera, most of the innovations are more useful when subjects are at a slight angle to the camera. Setting the camera to AI Servo causes the camera to continually focus on the subject, so having this setting at an incoming subject is very useful, but nothing new. Canon claims that the 7D has better logarithms in the 7D than other models that allow it to pick out a moving subject rather than a still background when photographing action using this setting. In order to take advantage of this new technology you must set a custom function (III-6), where you turn on AF Point Expansion, as well as select one auto focus point (the square without the dot in the middle), and set the camera to AI Servo. With these settings the focus point selected is used to focus the moving subject first and then the adjacent points (the 7D has 19 AF points) are used to assist focusing when tracking a moving subject. This is more useful when photographing a subject that is moving at a slight angle to the camera, rather than towards the camera. However, if using these settings, it will not hurt anything when achieving focus on a bird moving towards the camera, and has that added benefit of keeping sharp focus if the bird turns away from the camera at some angle. I have a Canon A2E, 1Ds, the original digital Rebel as well as the original Rebel. The 7D is far superior to all of the above mentioned cameras in the area of focusing. It is also more user friendly than the above mentioned cameras concerning autofocus. I was able to take a few shots of an Osprey hunting the day before yesterday and I came back with more sharp shots than ever (although few of them were taken with the Osprey coming directly at me). I hope this answers your questions! Off the subject a little bit is a third setting for Canon users with the 7D, called AI Focus AF. This setting uses One Shot AF when shooting a still subject, but converts to AI Servo AF when your subject starts to move. This is also useful for bird photography.
Walt, my two cents are to use single point AF selection (or if you have the 7D you can take advantage of the new technology it offers), with your lens stopped down at least 1 stop from maximum aperture. It is actually easier to achieve focus on a birds head when they are coming at you, because the spatial relationship changes little, and when it does change, the head gets larger. However, more important than using single or multi-point focus, is the AF drive mode, which should always be set to AI Servo for Canon users, and I believe Predictive AF with Nikon (although I don't know for sure as I have never used Nikon). Hope this helps!

Thanks Keith. Sounds ideal. Maybe with the 60D coming out, there may be some better deals ahead for acquiring a 7D. I guess I should mention my best luck even with the older Canon bodies like the 20D, (actually flawless shots with approaching birds in flight) , came from the f2.8 lenses, the 300 and the 70-200mm, and seldom anything sharp with the 500mm f4 for an approaching bird. (user error?) . So, maybe the more advanced 7D or upcoming 60D can be also as effective with the big f4 lenses, I can hope. MM

Thank you all for your thoughtful replies. I am now busy working on these things to try to improve my technique.