Camera Settings for Photographing Birds in Flight + Canon 5D Mark IV and Sigma 150-600mm Tips

A guide to the camera settings you need for photographing birds in flight. I also cover some more specific settings on my Canon 5D Mark IV and Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary lens. I cover shutter speed, aperture, ISO, metering, focus points, focus mode and much more.
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[@rogersulenski5646]

Great video, this is the first (and only) video that has explained the setting on the 5DM4 in such detail. I am looking forward to my nest trip in the field!

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Roger Sulenski Thanks very much and I hope you get some great images 😊

[@mermaidone1]

Many thanks for your brilliant tutorial - I've been struggling to get the best from my long lens for years and this really helped. Thank you for your time and generosity in sharing your experience.

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thank you Sue, that's a really nice comment - much appreciated.

[@dalehayes7148]

Thank you.... I have the Sigma 150-600 lens and it is my go to lens for all wild life shots.

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

You are welcome! It is a very good lens for the money.

[@oppopooop3058]

Thank you very much. Your advice and help is very good.

[@oliveringram3056]

Brilliant, thank you for a very informative video. The one setting i need to master now is Location, yours looked to be perfect.

[@yologath3357]

Hi Wayne, thanks for the informative video and wonderful photos. Lots of beautiful birds in my area to practise with the your suggested settings. Cheers

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Yolo Cath Thanks Cath I’m glad you enjoyed it and I hope the information helps you capture some nice photographs.

[@MHTutorials3D]

Great video, thanks

[@Stakeouttoo]

just got the Sigma 150-600 C lens the other day.. using it on both my 6DMkII and backup 80d .. thanx for all the info and settings.. great video

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thanks - enjoy your new lens 👍🏻

[@santhoshkuna7202]

using manual mode such a good photos . in manual mode , I am able to control exposure triangle but others are difficult. will try with your tips

[@shellyhighsmith6293]

Thank you so much for such great information!!

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Glad it helped you, thanks!

[@wolv57]

Great video. I wish it'd touched more on the cases to use. It looks like case 3 was used in this video.

[@papje]

Thx for the tips I'll give them a try 👍

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Good luck!

[@JohnDrummondPhoto]

I've learned a few things today. It didn't occur to me to turn off VC on my Tamron lens. Also I usually use whole-grid focusing for BIF but today I'll try the 5-point grid instead and see if it helps. Thanks!

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Good luck, I hope some of the information helps you. Using all the focus points can work but I personally get better results using much less focus points.

[@DanielRodriguez-fg5ll]

Nice video. I wonder if one does auto iso and f at 6.3 the widest at 600mm for this lens, you might as well do shutter priority and let the camera picks the other two. The camera will almost always pick the widest possible f stop (6.3 at 600) and do auto ISO. No?

[@ggwildlife]

excellent tips thank you *subbed*

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thanks very much.

[@orgue3461]

Thanks - very good

[@jpdodel]

Great video, perfect for my upcoming trip to shoot owls! Thank you!

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Good luck on your trip :)

[@saipraneethm5525]

Really useful

[@gregscott2330]

Wayne, just found your channel. Great images and information.

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thanks very much Greg! I hope you enjoy more of my videos.

[@gerrykottek7393]

Great video, esp as it is a very similar set upto what I have. I was just wondering if there is any benefit from using the custom setting on the Sigma 150-600 Sport lens? Shall be trying these settings when I go to Spirits of the Sky this week.

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thanks very much. I'm afraid I haven't used the Sport version of the lens.

[@martingibbons8021]

Very good

[@williammurray6921]

When do you use exposure compensation?

[@kevywilliams3304]

I use iso auto. I set it to 1/1200 of a second . And the Manual mode won’t let me lower the apature it’s forcing it to stay at 5.6 or 6.5 I can’t get to 7 or 9

[@Kiwicruiser355]

In AF-Continuous, do you set your focus priority to release or focus? Thank you.

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

I use Release priority for birds in flight.

[@petepreston1103]

Really liked this you tube video..complete novice here...and on a budget..! I am looking at getting a used canon body...plus a birding lens...I like this one in the video but it might be out of my reach, is the Sigma 120-400mm f4.5-5.6 DG OS HSM lens a good second bet please? Ta. Pete

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thanks for your comment. I have no experience with that specific lens but from what I have heard, and if you are just starting wildlife photography, it should be fine. It's probably wise to buy within a sensible budget initially and you can always upgrade later if you feel the need. For birds you will most likely find you are using the lens at 400mm a lot of the time, and would like to be able to zoom in even more! However with skill and experience you can still get great shots, I had a 400mm prime lens and got many shots I really liked with it. It should be a good lens to begin with but I'd advise checking out a few reviews if you can too.

[@weedavo04]

in this video the images are great, just wondering do you use any softwear to enchance them such as lightroom or topaz labs

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thanks very much. My images only had some quick and simple Lightroom edits, I didn’t do anything other than that.

[@williammurray6921]

These settings are very useful , but how far away are these birds and also no mention is ever made on where the zoom is set to .ie 300 400? Could you explain a bit about that.

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Most of the time when photographing birds the focal length I’m using is between 400-600mm. It depends on a number of factors though - how far away the bird is, its size, how large you want it in the frame, your cameras sensor type etc. However you will find it very simple to know the right zoom level as you look through your cameras viewfinder. Most people find they are shooting at or close to their lens maximum focal length e.g. 400mm or 600mm and often wish they could zoom in more. However if a large swan flew past quite close you could be at under 400mm. I hope that helps.

[@deletedaccount7675]

May i ask how well the sigma 150-600mm contemporary works with the Canon 5d mark iv. I have had the sigma lens for a while and i am thinking of buying the canon 5d mark iv, however I've seen some people talk about the lens not being compatible and therefore having issues?

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

I used that lens and camera together for a long time and for me I didn’t have any issues.

[@marcsilver913]

Thanks for this excellent video. Wayne, do you think the 5D Mark IV is still a great camera for shooting wildlife? I'm considering my options and have this high on my list, though I'm wondering if it makes sense to wait for a suitable Canon mirrorless camera to be released. I don't think the EOS R is quite there yet.

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Marc Silver Hi Marc, thanks for your nice comment. I think the 5D Mark IV is excellent for still wildlife photography and good for action wildlife photography. There are cameras from Canon which are better for the action shots where more fps helps. I’m still very happy with mine it is a great all round camera. I do think the next Canon pro mirrorless model will be an improvement whenever that comes. Hope that helps.

[@marcsilver913]

Wayne Robertson Photography Thanks very much for your quick reply. I’ll probably wait to hear when the pro mirrorless will be available, then decide.

[@nickeh320]

is the sport version worth it over the c versoin

[@anthonyhershko]

Do you have a video about how to calibrate the Sigma 150-600? We both share the same camera and same lens, (I got the contemporary). and I'm not getting this breathtaking sharping pictures, editor sometimes complain that it's out of focus and I wonder why? I tried to do your recommendations but it's not working, I don't know why, perhaps it's because I did a firmware update? Thanks!

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thanks for watching. I don’t have a video on calibration, it’s not something I had to do as my lens worked as I’d want out of the box. You could do some testing to confirm it needs calibration before doing that, if it does there should be some guides online. I think it’s fairly straightforward.

[@anthonyhershko]

@@WayneRobertsonPhotography Thanks!

[@BigRich110]

Just come across this video and it has opened my eyes i have 5dmk3 and the sigma sport and have had the lens since pre-order and at first i loved it but just recently i find myself questioning if something isnt quite right. Most of my photography is airshow photography and i would like to think the settings would cross over. Have you had to calibrate the lens at all as for some reason i cant get anywhere near as sharp an image as yours. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

I never had to calibrate the lens but it is worth checking out for your own lens if you suspect it isn't working as it should. If you have OIS on you could try turning that off when shooting with fast enough shutter speeds.

[@BigRich110]

@@WayneRobertsonPhotography will have to try that wen i get it out again shortly have to say your images are stunning

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thank you very much, and good luck!

[@kayelle2693]

Hi, What is the na me of the bird at 0:30 pls ?

[@thomasbown8442]

This lens is a pretty reasonable second hand purchase and looks like you're getting good results on the 5Div. Would you have any other recommendations? I'd like to get out to 600mm but don't want to spend too much. I have a x1.4 extender but only a 70-200f4 which isn't really long enough for BIF.

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

Thanks for watching. I only like to recommend items I’ve actually used and I’m afraid other lenses for the Canon system that I’ve used, for wildlife, are more expensive. At this focal range I found the Sigma to be the best option. While I do sometimes use a teleconverter my own experience suggests you’d get best results using a lens such as this rather than a shorter focal length with a teleconverter.

[@thomasbown8442]

@@WayneRobertsonPhotography thank you Wayne. I think I'll go for this lens. Best wishes.

[@Mcphotographyofficial]

How do u compare between tamron and sigma 150.600mm contemporary.. What's ur opinion

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

I’ve not used the Tamron so unfortunately I can’t compare them.

[@gpfeiffer1]

I have noticed that many wildlife photographers use the 5 focus point pattern. Is there a reason to choose that rather than the 9 point pattern?

[@WayneRobertsonPhotography]

For me it's because 5 is typically plenty and produces good results, I don't find 9 are necessary and it increases the chances the camera will focus on something you don't want it to.

[@colintraveller]

You're using a 3 grand camera with a lense that cost 849 , I have a Canon850d . And i have the same lense and i've noticed that it doesn't react fast enough to the movement of the bird .. in turn i end up ditching pics because the quality is crap ... even capturing some boats .. i've had to ditch pics ... like this afternoon

[@vladimirivanov6353]

Shutter speed 1000 is too high...320 and 500 may be enough....for situation...the REASON lo ISO...thanks for tips!

[@Abdulaziz_azh]

5D iv Without a raw movie without a 10-bit HDMI signal, this camera is nothing