SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Thank You, Sir.
Yep, it's a lot of fun for me.
I love this digital age. I can shoot as much as I want, then delete, delete, delete, anything remotely embarrassing before anybody else see's it. :lol:

Of course, I can't hold a candle to the stuff the IRS can hide. :shock: :hunf:

watchcow Loc: Moore, Oklahoma

The quiet shutter setting has not been very useful to me. instead of one click now you make two clicks and i can barely tell the difference in the noise level and it slows you down for a follow up shot. hummingbirds are fast, and it might seem counter intuitive, but consider a tripod or monopod to support the camera. without it you are fighting the camera, holding it up and getting fatigued trying to keep it at the ready forever while you stand at the other end of the porch with your tele lens zoomed all the way out and trying to stay steady. The tripod will hold the camera for you and give you some freedom to shift a bit and keep your joints flexed a little so you don't seize up when you really need to take a shot or move to follow the birds.

practice squeezing the shutter button much like shooting a gun. take a breath, let it halfway out, then gently press. jabbing the shutter when you get excited is a common issue shooting wildlife especially if it is with a new toy. this will induce a shake that the VR system is not ready or able to correct for. since the shutter button has a couple of stages, it will take practice. i tend to not press straight down on the button but draw my finger sideways across it pressing down progressively harder. this cyclical motion at least for me lets me have a predictable shutter release point and it induces little shake.

try to avoid features that introduce lag to the moment of exposure. for fast moving things like birds and bugs, it is often worth turning off some of the camera automation. The autoexposure system is very fast and that lag is relatively unimportant. using the on camera flash or a hotshoe flash with the iTTL system will fire a pre-flash, that adds a lag time, but relatively small. The bigger concern about using flash around animals is it will scare them away. the VR system in the lens builds in a little lag and if you already have the camera on a support, it is not needed as much. autofocus can be a big source of lag if you don't have a good point to focus on. I would probably turn off the autofocus and focus a point near the feeder where you have some other immediate reference. When a bird flies near your mark, you can take the picture and not worry about autofocus at all. to make that work, you put the camera on Aperture Preferred mode, use an iso around 400 to 800 and set the aperture to f11. the small aperture gives you more depth of field. so the birds can fly around in a region you have pre-determined and be adequately sharp. this eliminates autofocus lag. intentionally selecting a high ISO in daylight allows you to use this small aperture and still keep a fast shutter speed to capture the motion of the birds and mask camera shake. if you do have the camera on a tripod or monopod, experiment with VR, it may help or may not, i have found most of the time it does not help much once i support the camera well. you have probably already noticed that "live view" adds a huge lag to shutter release, so it is best to just use the eyepiece.

Hopefully some of these tips will be of benefit to you.
Happy hunting.

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Thank You, Watchcow.
Yes, I agree about the quite shutter setting. It was a toss up, but sometimes they seemed to not bolt.
I will usually use my mono-pod, then sit and wait at the ready. I let's me watch through the view finder and pick my shots without the fatigue of holding the rig up at the ready.
Darned if they won't fly up behind me half the time just to buzz me. :-o :shock: I think they do it just to see me jump.
As a shooter and hunter, I do try and practice squeeze. I'll see if I can develop your technique though.
Sometimes the continuous release can give me a series that will usually have one or more decent pictures in it. But mostly I shoot onesies on the birds. I have used the continuous when I have a little distance and a flighty bird darting in, backing away 6-12", and repeating. Some of the "tweaners" are as interesting as either end. Tail flares and such.
Right now I'm admittedly not sharp enough with Aperture, and ISO to be confident shooting my own experiments. I often wind up more deletions than keepers.
I don't like "Live Mode" much at all. So I barely ever use it.
I'm just beginning to try the Aperture, Shutter, and P modes.
But I like using the manual focus and getting set so a quick fine tune puts me on the bird.
I will try working with your suggestions though.
One place I could see a lacking right off was that even though my "kit" came with a nice Nikon 55-200 mm zoom telephoto, but it seems to be limited for my hopes. I usually have it zoomed in at 200 mm but don't have the framed filled like I wish it would be even at that.
So I find myself longing for a "big boy" lens already.
Something I could sit back further but bring my subjects into the viewfinder with. My desires are with a Tamron 150-600mm.
Then I could easily set up my tripod and be back away to pick individual shots.
But, I am having a ball and have already taken an estimated 1000 or more keep-able pictures.
Thanks! :D Beautiful Picture!

SonnyE Loc: Communist California, USA

Just to update a bit...
We were at our local Costco yesterday and I stopped and found the same Boxed Value as was at Sam's Club.
Exactly the same, exactly the same price. ($749.95)
The only difference to me was I have a Sam's Club card, the wife holds the Costco card. :wink:
(She and the daughter share the cards, the 2% back pays for the membership annually.)

OK, I've got a hunney do list this morning. :(