Foto at top: Holland sun Kingfisher (IJsvogel) female, 30 meter, Z7 II DX mode Nikkor 500mm f/5.6E PF VR, equivalent 1500 mm, substantial camouflage. Maximal Reach was required in case of this relatively small bird at 35 meter: DX mode Z7 II was camera used.

“Special APERTURE Modes”

In certain situations or if you more or less know what type of birds and or action or distances you may expect in certain situations and you want your camera to be optimally prepared for this situation or this species, some special area like beach, in boat at sea, in stormy wheather or whatsoever, you can quite easily create your own temporary APERTURE Mode Birds “far away” or APERTURE Mode Birds “fast action” or whatever you like, just by using “standard” APERTURE Mode Birds and adapting some camera settings and or possibly using/changing a converter.

In those cases for example the built-in “soft converter” of a full frame camera, like Z7 II, comes in handy: changing camera setting FX mode in DX mode has exactly the same effect as mounting a “hard” 1.4 converter and vice versa. By the way train yourself to always do this FX/DX or vice versa quickly. And for example always leave the Z7 menu positioned at item ISO Sensitivity Auto and count the steps backwards to menu item Size Image Area: 4 steps.

At the border of a large lake you may need maximal reach and even using tripod to direct lens without vibrations at birds at distances over 50 meter and or using a converter. In that case we set our Z7 II for example as follows:

• “Standard” APERTURE Mode Birds
• Image area DX mode
• parameter ISO Sensitivity automatic Minimum shutterspeed: 1/250 sec
• parameter ISO Sensitivity automatic Maximum ISO: ISO 500 (if sunlight else ISO 1000)

To give it a name we call this mode in mind :”APERTURE Mode Birds Reach“.

If we are observing or expecting larger birds more or less close by we will occasionally need a wide image area and in case of bird action we also need minimal EXPOSURE TIME. In that case we set our Z7 II for example as follows:

• “Standard” APERTURE Mode Birds
• Image area FX mode
• parameter ISO Sensitivity automatic Minimum shutterspeed 1/1000 sec (depending on type bird & type action).
• parameter ISO Sensitivity automatic Maximum ISO: ISO 6400 (depending on type of bird & type action).

To give it a name we call this mode (in mind): “APERTURE Mode Birds Action“.

Generally spoken in any special situation or certain birding area you can optimize your settings and as log as you wnt use both, the comfort of our “universal” APERTURE mode Birds, and the effect of your own settings in this situation, area or bird species.

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