Focus options on 7D

A couple of months ago I purchased a Canon 7D for bird and wildlife photography. In trying to use it for BIF, I'm having trouble with the focus. I'm reading about the focus options, but I'm wondering if any of you who use a 7D for BIF could tell me how you have your focus option settings set. Thank you!

We use center point only for busy BG and rarely use center point with surround assist points for smooth BG like sky. We have the AF Tracking Sensitivity set to "slow". We also use back button AF so the AF is disconnected from the metering. Holding this button down allows servo AF. This button can be repeatedly pressed to reset the AF during tracking.

Hope this helps.

I do what Ed does with my 7D for all the settings he mentions.

I don't have a lot of opportunities for BIF though, so I'm mostly doing what I've seen recommended by others.

Let me know if there are other settings you're wondering about--there are quite a few other options in those menus.

What specifically are you having issues with when it comes to focus? i.e., gaining initial focus, tracking, etc

Here you go, Barbara: http://www.deepgreenphotography.com/2009/12/setting-up-your-new-canon-7d/

Thanks very much for that information, Ed, and thanks, Lance, for the link. That's very helpful.

Brian, the problem I'm having is where exactly initial focus will be so that then it's right for tracking. I'm going to make all the settings changes recommended by all of the above and then I'll see what happens maybe this weekend if I have a chance to go out.

Barbara, that's something I have issues with too. one thing I've had recommended is to focus on something stationary at roughly the same distance as the subject, then switch over to the bird. this sounds good in theory, but with a fast-moving subject, doesn't always work quick enough for me. but like I say, my experience with flight shots is limited.

Okay, these are the things that I've changed so far, and results today were definitely better. ***Most of this was copied from an email and from the link that Lance posted.

On the fourth red menu, set Silent shooting to Disable (per the link posted by Lance above the default ‘Mode 1′ position decreases your maximum frame rate to 7 fps).

On the second blue menu, set Highlight alert to Enable (to get the blinking highlight alerts).
On that same menu, set AF point disp to Enable to see where the focus point was during image review.

Custom Function Menu:
C.fn iii-1: Al Servo Tracking - moved the slider all the way to Slow
C.fn iii-2: Left at 0 (Tracking priority)
C.fn iii-3: Selected 1 (Continuous AF priority)
C.fn iii-4: Selected 1 (Focus Search Off)
C.fn iii-6: Selected and registered AF point Expansion, Spot and Single Point

‘C.Fn IV: Operation/Others:
‘C.Fn IV 1: Changed the first button (‘Shutter butt. half-press’) to Metering start.
Changed the third button (* AE Lock button) to Metering and AF start.
This combination of changes turns the asterisk button on the back of the camera into the AF start button. The shutter button no longer initiates AF; it only takes the picture.

Set the Metering Mode to Partial Metering.

I had already set AF Mode to Al Servo and Drive Mode to High Speed Continuous Shooting.

I made a few other changes, too, but those are the most pertinent ones for my question here. I did get technically much better results today after those changes. Whew! ;)

Glad it's working for you.

Thanks, Ed!

I have mine exactly like in the link,and if I get the focus point on the bird, it will be tack sharp.