Setting up your camera for "Birding" which can also be used for many other situations:

Dear Forever,

 

 "If you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail"! And the same with cameras and settings. There is no "one" setting that will work 100% of the time.

 

With that said, you will have to know/understand a few basics and I bet you already do and being the shy person you are,won't admit it! But for the "others" out there, here goes. Your camera has a fantastic zoom, equal to a 1200 mm lens! So the zoom, is taken care of, but everything else needs a tweak or two.

 

By the way, are you always,sometimes,never on flat ground,when you go birding? Can a tripod help? A monopod? Even in the water, a monopod would help.

 

Let's see if I can come up with a recipe or two.

 

 1.Bright sunlight: ISO at 200 or even better, 400. Shutter speed, 1/250 or 1/500 and f11, at the very least. F16 or F22 would be great for the feather detail. So in this case, to me, to stop the "fuzzies", I would set the camera @ISO 400(you may have to bump it down to 200,if really bright) and then set the camera at "Shutter"priority and 1/500. This will stop any blurriness from occurring, unless the boat be rocking!

 

2. Same as above, but the sun is shining right into the camera. You will need to set the camera to "spot" and not matrix and center on the bird itself. This will take into account, the exposure of the bird and not be affected(too much) by the light streaming past the bird.

 

3. Early morning or late afternoon/sunset light(my favorite). And here's where you're gonna get involved, because I can't do this test. Tonight,assuming that you have the time, take your camera out, anywhere, the back yard,front yard,whatever and shoot,whatever, something alive and moving would be good, a dog,neighbor walking a dog,etc. and take a few shots, in late afternoon or early evening light, @ ISO, 400,800 and 1600 and then see on the computer, if you can use 1600 or even 800. If after this test, you can, then you're golden! Just do the same as #1, but set the camera's ISO on either 800 or 1600 and shoot away!

 

I know, I know, this means getting the manual out, but, while you're doing that tonight, I'll have a glass of Malbac, in your honor!!!

 

Good luck and let me know if this helped,

 

Rich