Canon AF Focus...how do you set up your AF for birds in Flight.

[Fred Woodman]

Just wondering how people are setting up their Canons for BIF. Focus points.?, which Case and how you tune ?
Please share...

[Michael Eckstein]

http://www.meckstein.com/post/skim3.jpg

I purchased a 7D MKII a few weeks ago and I am going through a trial and error period to determine the right answer for me. I have tired cases 1,2 3,4 and 5 and still have no clear answer. I do find many of my keepers are using case 3, I also find that using all 65 AF points has by far achieved the best results for me. I am old (78) and slow so you can take that into consideration. My most consistent results come from using hand held 400L ƒ5.6 with the 7D MKII. Many of my shots are taken with clear sky/sea background. The image shown was taken in case 3 and 15 AF boxes. As I mentioned previously in burst shots I get many more keepers when I use all 65 AF points.

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Michael,

One thing I've learned about AF is that while settings do matter quite a bit, it's important to have proper technique.

One thing that I have done that has caused my keeper rate to increase substantially is to make sure that the focus point is always on the bird. Seems intuitive, but when I looked at 10 shots in a row of a BIF, I noticed that I used to have only 4-5 of those where the focus point was right on the bird. I would usually stray away from the bird, which isn;t good if it happens for more than a couple of frames!

For settings, I'm a fan of mode 2 for birds that are in general parallel to the sensor, and mode 4 for birds that are flying to or away from me. I also like a single point AF, and I try to keep it on the subject as best as possible.

Hope that helps some!