Chasing Hippoz | Vito L Tanzi

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My Bird Photography Settings

Vito L Tanzi

Taking photos of birds that are 3 inches tall and moving erratically at high speed is definitely not easy. But it’s a fantastic challenge that will help you in other types of photography such as Sports. The problem is that our cameras are not optimally set up by default to take photos of birds. You need to make some adjustments.

The 2 photographers that provide a ton of great tips are Stefano Ianiro Wildlife and Whistling Wings Photography. I have provided the links to their YouTube Channels in the link above.

Here are my settings for Bird Photography on my Canon EOS R5 Camera. Most of these settings are explained by Whistling Wings Photography so I would watch the following Video. I have saved the Bird Setting to the C1 Menu on my camera so that with 1 switch of a button all my settings are dialed in.

Menu 1

  • 1-1 Switch to cRAW which will reduce the image from 45MB to 27 MB. There is less chance or maxing out the buffer and it will not impact resolution.  

  • 1-2 No Changes

  • 1-3  White Balance K6100

Color Space Adobe RGB

Picture Style (Standard or Neutral)

Clarity at ZERO

  • 1-4 No Changes

  • 1-5 No Changes

  • 1-6 Shutter Mode Electronic 20 FPS

    Release Shutter without Card OFF

  • 1-7 TOUCH SHUTTER DISABLE

IMAGE REVIEW 8 SECONDS

VIEW FINDER REVIEW DISABLE

METERING TIMER 10 MIN

EXPO SIM ENABLE

SHOOTING INFO DISPLAY

CHECKED 1-5 ONLY 6 IS UNCHECKED

VF VERTICAL DISLPLAY ON

GRID OFF

HISTOGRAM BRIGHTNESS SIZE SMALL

FOCUS DISTANCE IN MF MODE

DISPLAY PERFORMANCE SMOOTH

  • 1-8 No Changes

Menu 2 AF

  • 2-1 SERVO AF

EYE DETECTION (USE CONTROL RING TO CHANGE AF METHOD)

SUBJECT TO DETECT ANIMAL

EYE DETECTION ENABLE

CONTINOUS AF DISABLE

  • 2-2 MF PEAKING SETTING

FOCUS GUIDE ON

AF ASSIST BEAM OFF

  • 2-3 CASE 2—Tracking Sensitivity ALL the way Negative, Accel/Decel—ALL THE WAY POSITIVE

  • 2-4 Lens Electronic OFF

One Shot Off

Switching PRIORITY—set to INITIAL PRIORITY 0

Lens Drive when AF possible ON

Limit AF methods * (USES CONTROL RING TO CHANGE AF)

AF Methods M-Fn

Orientation linked Separate AF Points; PT ONLY

  • 2-5- Initial Servo Option 2—AF Pt SET for 

Electronic Full Time OFF

Menu 3

  • 3-1 No changes

Highlight Alert ENABLE

AF Point DISABLE

Playback GRID OFF


Menu 4 No Changes

Menu 5

  • 5-1 AUTO SWITCH CARDS—Record/play 1Movies 2

    BEEP Disable

Power Saving Display Off 5 min

ECO MODE OFF

  • 5-3 Screen View finder AUTO 2

Brightness 6

Viewfinder Brightness AUTO

Screen/Viewfinder Color Tone 2

UI Mag Disable

  • 5-4 Touch control Standard

  • 5-5 Save Load Cam Settings on Card

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