Snow Geese in flight, Canon7D, high iso, overcast day

First of all, I apologize for not commenting much this week. Past few days have been field days. I still haven't formulated many opinions on my 7D and have just been going by the recommended BIF settings from the manual. I know this is a lackluster photo but thought others could get something out of it.

Uncropped image, NR in DPP, finalized in CS3

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2460/...79d528e1_o.jpg

Crop from unedited TIFF, no NR, Sharpening, or Levels adjusted:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2730/...552e0aec_o.jpg

500mm + 1.4tc handheld, AV mode, flash failed to fire, entire day was completely sunless

Camera: Canon EOS 7D
Exposure: 0.001 sec (1/1250)
Aperture: f/8.0
Focal Length: 700 mm
ISO Speed: 1250
Exposure Bias: +4/3 EV
Flash: No Flash


..

I like the wing posture of both birds in sync, Dave, but I am puzzled by the softness.
I would have thought that at your settings, presuming you had AF lock, that sharpness would not be an issue.
Being a Nikon person, I yield to those with 7D experience to perhaps assist you with menu settings.

To me it looks like the focus in on the wing of the first bird.

Guys - I'm on my laptop now, but can try to check the focus in DPP later on. I was using all AF points because groups of the geese were coming in fast and close. What I find most surprising is the abundance of luminance noise in the unprocessed image. Sure ISO 1250 and exposing to the right is going to induce some grain, but this was much more than I expected. In the end I stripped enough noise in DPP to make for a good enough web image, but I had to sacrifice plenty of details on their feathers.