Foto at top: Holland cloudy Grey Heron (Blauwe Reiger) size 95cm catching crawfish, distance 60m Z7 II Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR equivalent 1050 mm 1/1000 sec f/8 ISO 400 -1.0EV substantial camouflage.
To prepare Nikon Z7 II for bird photography in our APERTURE Mode Birds use following settings:
| ITEM | SETTING | EXPLANATION/COMMENT |
|---|---|---|
| =========== GENERAL =========== | ||
| Language: | English | matching camera buttons, shortcuts Lightroom, online info |
| Camera PASM switch | A | APERTURE mode |
| Picture Quality | RAW 14 bits lossless | Maximum detail. |
| Color Space | Adobe | compatible with Lightroom, ViewNX, Faststone Editor, etc. |
| Camera speed (Pictures/second): | Continuous High | Be prepared for fast bird action. |
| Beep Pitch | low (strong if windy) | In-focus-beep AF Pinpoint mode (very useful if bird behind branches!). |
| Fn2 | My Menu | Assign Fn2 key to My Menu and … |
| First item My Menu | Size Image area | … enable fast access to two often used menu items: a. Fn2 actual Size image area FX (full frame) or DX (crop). b. By pressing Fn2 you can also easily acces menu item ISO Sensitivity Control Automatic. (try it to see how this works). |
| ============ LIGHT ============ | ||
| No stopping down lenses | Irrelevant when using modern telelenses. 100% light for AF, contrast detail. | |
| Actual photography using … | stay under f/8 APERTURE value | More reliable and faster AF. |
| Centre weighted sensor area automatic light measurement: | 8 mm | Significant part bird image |
| (we) mostly position bird in centre viewfinder | centreweighted light measurement | We mostly position bird in centre viewfinder, then focus and then possibly recompose … |
| Apply systematic underexposing | -0.5 – -2.0 EV | Protect detail highlights picture. |
| Increments | 0.5 EV | Quick and easy changes EXPOSURE during photography. |
| b4: EASY EXPOSURE | ON | You set under/over EXPOSURE via subdial camera, not via rather small +/- button. |
| ISO Sensitivity Control Auto: | ON | Camera calculates actual EXPOSURE TIME picture. You define parameters used (see below). |
| Whitebalance | Automatic, AUTO2 (occasionally imperfect white) | WB perfectly correctable in post production e.g. Lightroom. |
| ========= AUTOFOCUS ========= | ||
| AF mode default: | AF-C GROUP mode | |
| AF parameter a1 | focus | Priority focus: only in-focus pictures written to card. |
| AF parameter a3=1 | focus | Hold current AF value until bird reappears in picture when bird is temporarily blocked by anything passing by in front of it. Also “applied” when bird suddenly starts flight, dive, etcetera. |
| a8 | AF-ON Only | AF via AF-ON button (and make picture via Release button): “Back button autofocus” (separates autofocus from shutter release-function!) |
| a9 | Only Single point mode and GROUP mode are enabled. | |
| PHOTO SHOOTING MENU | Item: Choose Image Area | DX mode: our default setting in actual photography: it works like a “soft 1.4 converter“. Switching Z7 back into FX mode “dismounts the converter”. |
| CAMERA HANDLING ***) | ||
| Front dial camera not used | APERTURE value remainss constant! | |
| Thumb at AF-ON button: enabling autofocus camera | Forefinger at Release: shoot picture(s) at the right moment(s) | When required use focus and recompose (often repeatedly). |
| Thumb at back dial camera for EXPOSURE Conpensation | Thumb controls “Easy EXPOSURE Compensation“ | Far more easy and reliable than using too small +/- button camera. |
When you apply these settings, your Nikon Z7 II camera will set ISO and EXPOSURE TIME values automatically within your personal limits bird photography. You can set those two limit values, Minimum ISO and Maximum Shutterspeed via Z7 II menu item ISO Sensivity Control Auto. @dik check
During actual photography you can adjust EXPOSURE TIME anytime when required with thumb at subdial (via “EASY EXPOSURE TIME control“) so you always will always keep your second hand free for redirecting camera, support telelens, touch manual focus ring, etcetera.
About autofocus parameter a1
Autofocus parameter a1 = focus (priority Focus, not Release): we want no blurred pictures, camera may need more time checking this, so sustained burst rate may drop from 11 fps to 8 fps or the like.
About APERTURE values
We mostly successfully use values up to f/11 at Nikkor 300mm PF VR or 500mm PF VR lenses and even value f/13 at Sigma Sport or Tamron G2 150-600mm lenses, with quite acceptable detail and in-focus pictures. And yes, the autofocus is definitily slower, sometimes even difficult, but in the end all this works fine.
About Raw workflow and Quality
Set Quality to: RAW 14 bits lossless compressed: compress without any loss of image quality and maximum detail and (colour) contrast.
In case of RAW workflow the RAW images will not be optimized by the camera. They should be cropped and edited in for example Lightroom into high quality pictures with minimal noise, good light, correct color contrast and rich detail. This implies larger files and more work but it results in far better pictures.
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