Is F8 the best for Bird Photography

[RHerr]

I apologise if this has been discussed before.

I'm using A7IV with 200-600mm lens for bird photography and i want to know if F8 is the best setting for bird photography and if the lens is the sharpest at 600mm at F8?

 

[MathuStans]

I apologise if this has been discussed before.

I'm using A7IV with 200-600mm lens for bird photography and i want to know if F8 is the best setting for bird photography and if the lens is the sharpest at 600mm at F8?

i watched a christopher Frost review on that lens and in his tests it seemed to perform best at F8. may be you should consider it if it isn't too dark of an aperture, and bring the results here for creative criticism.

something else to consider is the focal plane at F8, whether its adequate enough for the size of the birds being photographed, whether you will have the entire subject sharp in focus

 

[Slug]

I'm not sure what the experts use but I treat shutter speed as more important than F stop. A long lens and fast moving birds generally require something in excess of 1/800 to get sharpness regardless of the F stop.

 

[Unframed Dave]

Mine practically lives on 6,3. I'd like to have it at higher, but living in one of the sunniest parts of Britain, there is too little light most of the time.

Bear in mind I don't use sharpening software.

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

That lens as are any reasonably high quality lenses made these days are sharp enough to make this concern redundant. Personally I default to f7.1 with the 200-600mm on wildlife but only because I'm trying for a bit more depth of field, ultimate sharpness is never a consideration when I'm selecting aperture for the shot. Unless you are going to shoot a bird at f11+ (which I can't remember ever seeing) I wouldn't be concerned.

I agree with the comment of shutter speed being of much higher importance.

 

[Brownie]

Charts from a review, I think Optical Limits.

200mm. @ 5.6, center sharpness is better than 8, with near center sharpness a bit less, but negligible. In fact 5.6 and 8 are virtually the same. Only slight degradation at 11.

400mm. Things have evened out some, but 6.3 has a slight advantage. 11 hasn't changed much either.

600mm. Again, the difference between 6.3 and 8 are almost nil. 11 has degraded a bit more, with the center and near center still very good. But, the border and extreme dropping off to the lower end of the 'Good' range at all settings.

So, the short answer to your question, @RHerr, is not enough to make much difference. From stop to stop and even focal length to focal length this lens will provide good sharp images. It even goes to 11...

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Hi RHerr,
From the above charts you can summarise that at 200 or 600mm the lens is softer
at the edges to around the same degree as the aperture varies. The degree of edge sharpness
is better at 200 than 600 as you would expect but in the range of 20% for both significant.

For center and near center....the variations which suggest again better at 200 than 600 but in both
cases whilst at F5.6 and 8 there is not so much difference but an approx 15% fall off F11.

As pointed out by others, practically speaking the lens overall gives good performance but is very
sensitive to the level of ambient light and highlights to shadows mix of the shooting background.

For strong sunlight conditions as in equatorial regions(read south africa as your home location), and/or
good diffuse light under cloud cover you should not expect to have much trouble at f8 and still be able
to maintain a high shutter speed........in such conditions the issue is often about how much to raise
the shutter speed to avoid highlights blowout, even at f8. In the UK it is often the issue how low
can you drop the shutter speed to avoid blowing the shadows out etc.

For birds in flight i would suggest a shutter speed of 1/1000 minimum for the bigger/slower birds,
whilst for faster birds with good light 1/2000-1/2500 and obviously for smaller much faster birds
such as swifts, swallows and humming birds 1/3000

 

[Gaz]

Is it a big bird?

 

[iamdlewis]

Is it a big bird?

Do you mean big like:

or

• ILCE-1
• Sony FE 200–600mm F5.6–6.3 G OSS (SEL200600G)
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/6.3
• 1/800 sec
• ISO 8000

 

[Roland]

I leave mine on 5.6/6.3 on mine 200/600 zoom. If you take picture only in bright sunlight, you might spot the difference but with birds there is to much to worry about other things than switch back to 6.3 for a shade picture.

 

[RHerr]

many thanks for all your comments, much appreciated. In th below image, i had no light to work with.

• ILCE-7M4
• FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G OSS
• 600.0 mm
• ƒ/8
• 1/1000 sec
• ISO 12800

 

[Uncle Kevriano]

I used to shoot f8 all of the time, but since the firmware update on the 200 600 I have found that 7.1 is the absolute sweet spot (shooting on the A7RiV). I very rarely use 6.3, in fact never unless I am really struggling for light and the ISO is a bit too high.

 

[Loren]

I apologise if this has been discussed before.

I'm using A7IV with 200-600mm lens for bird photography and i want to know if F8 is the best setting for bird photography and if the lens is the sharpest at 600mm at F8?

Depends on how deep you want the focus, but speed is very important for birds so use as low an F# as possible. Also if you don't already know there is a setting that I swear by for any animal shots. It's ISO A SS. This is auto ISO in Aperature priority. What this does is automatically change the ISO when in Aperature priority and you set the minimum speed you want. This way the Aperature stays fixed and the minimum speed is what you set (I usually set 1/2000 for animals or humans that might move and for hummingbirds maybe 1/4000 or the max you have). The camera changes the ISO to what's necessary for a sharp picture. You can add the ISO A SS icon to your Fn menu. Just be sure you set ISO to auto.

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

For slower moving animals this may be fine but for BIF and fastvaction , if camera settings and local ambient , conditions dictate , and your set iso range cannot be met, shutter speed will be lowered and potentially blur image .......

 

[Deleted Member 5045]

Depends on how deep you want the focus, but speed is very important for birds so use as low an F# as possible. Also if you don't already know there is a setting that I swear by for any animal shots. It's ISO A SS. This is auto ISO in Aperature priority. What this does is automatically change the ISO when in Aperature priority and you set the minimum speed you want. This way the Aperature stays fixed and the minimum speed is what you set (I usually set 1/2000 for animals or humans that might move and for hummingbirds maybe 1/4000 or the max you have). The camera changes the ISO to what's necessary for a sharp picture. You can add the ISO A SS icon to your Fn menu. Just be sure you set ISO to auto.

Yeah I don't think it necessarily changes to give you a sharp picture. I'd say it changes to achieve the priorities you desire at that point in time. If the best it can give you at say ISO8000 (which is my limit) is 1/60 s/s, then I certainly hope to god that the little wren I'm shooting through the low light shrubbery doesn't move on me, otherwise it won't be sharp.

 

[Brownie]

Depends on how deep you want the focus, but speed is very important for birds so use as low an F# as possible. Also if you don't already know there is a setting that I swear by for any animal shots. It's ISO A SS. This is auto ISO in Aperature priority. What this does is automatically change the ISO when in Aperature priority and you set the minimum speed you want. This way the Aperature stays fixed and the minimum speed is what you set (I usually set 1/2000 for animals or humans that might move and for hummingbirds maybe 1/4000 or the max you have). The camera changes the ISO to what's necessary for a sharp picture. You can add the ISO A SS icon to your Fn menu. Just be sure you set ISO to auto.

This is only safe f you set a minimum shutter speed that A-ISO must live within. Otherwise you risk motion blur as others have suggested.

 

[Loren]

Yeah I don't think it necessarily changes to give you a sharp picture. I'd say it changes to achieve the priorities you desire at that point in time. If the best it can give you at say ISO8000 (which is my limit) is 1/60 s/s, then I certainly hope to god that the little wren I'm shooting through the low light shrubbery doesn't move on me, otherwise it won't be sharp.

No, that setting Auto ISO min shutter speed is available to exactly get a sharp picture first and the price is an ISO that might not be optimum. In Alpha cameras you can go to a pretty high ISO and still look great and it only goes as high as necessary. Watch this video from Mark Galer, this is one of his favorite settings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqqmqKFzHRg&t=8s

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

Mark Galer is informative but not infallible. On this matter as regards shutter speed sacrificed if camera other settings and ambient light
changes are not adequate to meet your ISO limits , your image quality will suffer as above......I believe this is explained in Galer's other videos
and that is the way the Sony Auto ISO min SS algorithm works.....

 

[Loren]

OK too many experts on this thread, so I'll just say I have used the setting for years and get great pictures with it almost 100% of the time. If you don't like it don't use it

 

[Deleted Member 5003]

OK too many experts on this thread, so I'll just say I have used the setting for years and get great pictures with it almost 100% of the time. If you don't like it don't use it

Yes, "almost" all of the time........Its not what others like, it is you who raised this ....