markwilliam1

Hey All, I just received my M4. I’m overwhelmed with the various focus settings especially related to BIF! Could some of y’all share your favorite settings to achieve such Awesome BIF pictures Please? And any techniques you use to Shoot BIF? Thanks so Much!

LA Loc: Little Rock, AR

This is always a contentious question.
First, I heartily recommend Gary Friedman's book: http://www.friedmanarchives.com/sony-rx-10-iv/. I got the ebook but it is available in realbook.

His recommendation for BIF is a good starting point, which he gives as an illustration of how to set up "Recall Custom Hold":

Here you have the 10 variables you can set (the first 5 appear on the screen; you have to scroll down to see the last 5).
So the settings I would choose for birds in flight would be:
Shoot Mode: Shutter Priority
Shutter Speed: 1/2000th
Drive Mode: Cont. Shooting: Mid
Exposure Comp: (unchecked)
Metering mode: Multi
Focus Mode: Continuous AF
Focus Area: Lock-On AF Wide
AF On: (unchecked)
Then hit “Register” and the camera stores these settings into Recall Custom hold 1.

markwilliam1

Hey LA thanks so much just ordered the book!

markwilliam1

LA have you personally used these settings and do you have a M4?

LA Loc: Little Rock, AR

Yes and Yes.

I fiddled around with some of the settings, e.g., the shutter setting and the focus area, but I started out with those given by Friedman.

markwilliam1

Perfect Thanks so Much!

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

The settings given in the first reply are OK but for BIF's I use the highest speed frame rate. It will help to tell the camera to restrict its search for good focus to 3 meters to infinity. The control for that is on the left side of the lens barrel.

Also, I discovered there is a trick with that camera that allows you to instantly switch to a predetermined group of settings but it's not a toggle. Rather, it's a while-holding. So I set it for the center of the wheel on the back of the camera. Why? because for birds that are not flying by, a slower frame rate is usually better and the spot focus is best in most cases. Then, when you see a potential BIF shot you simply hold the button in while tracking and shooting. This is NOT the same as the two memory settings. They are good and don't take long, but this method, additional to them, is INSTANT. For me, the center button is best in this case but it can be set for some other button as well.

This is a bit tricky to find and get right in the menus but well worth it.

While I'm at it, I suggest you try movies, too. You can leave all the settings for stills and then push the red button for almost instant movies. Each frame of the 4K video can easily be saved as a PNG and edited, later. You get about an 8KB file. The advantage here is that while it's best to shoot raw when you can, raw disallows Sony's proprietary Clear Image Zoom (CIZ). But CIZ is allowed if you set it that way for JPG and movies. You get the best of both. Of course, raw+JPG disallows CIZ.

LA Loc: Little Rock, AR

This is where reasonable people can disagree. Friedman and I believe that 24 fps is overkill for most BIF.


Agreed, this is wonderfully helpful. FWIW, Friedman covers this in Section 5.14.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

"Friedman and I believe that 24 fps is overkill for most BIF."

Yes, reasonable people can disagree on that and yes, the highest frame rate really eats up storage in a hurry. I find, for myself, that it gives me the most choices for which frame is best since birds flap rapidly and the smaller ones, of course, flap even more rapidly. I would only suggest that each snapper try it both ways and make a personal choice.

Sometimes the whole series is a waste and the camera conveniently allows deleting the entire sequence as one. Handy, that.

For less rapid anticipated movement it is more than needed. But, another area where it is good is when you expect a water bird to lunge for his prey. They move amazingly quickly. My reflexes are not what they used to be and I really like that the camera is faster than I am. Even when I was a teenager my reflexes were only about a tenth of a second (measured). That was, literally a lifetime ago and I'm a lot slower now.

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LA Loc: Little Rock, AR

@a6k: Yes, that makes perfect sense. With BIF each situation has to be assessed on its own. In my experience 24 fps is justified now and then, but not often enough for that to be my default setting. For medium or larger birds I have found it easy to get good wing positions with much slower speeds, but maybe I'm not fussy enough. The fishing bird is a wonderful shot and a high fps would certainly be justified. I agree with all of that. The "most" in "most BIF" was intended to make this distinction.

markwilliam1

So a good start for BIF settings: Dial set to C, shutter 1/2000, focus area wide, THEN WHAT. Flexible spot? What lock on is best? I’m confused! Thanks

LA Loc: Little Rock, AR

Friedman recommends FOCUS AREA = WIDE, then plain LOCK-ON AF. He argues this is better than CENTER LOCK-ON AF because the latter requires that the object be in the center. You might find you like knowing where the focus area is. But he further argues that plain LOCK-ON AF is quicker and easier to apply because it doesn't require any action on your part once set up: CENTER L-O AF requires that you press the center button of the control wheel when the object is centered. The other L-O AF figures out what to focus on by itself, and the camera is amazingly good at that. Again, you might prefer more control.

CENTER LOCK-ON AF has to be OFF when you choose plain L-O AF.

You might prefer flexible spot but Friedman suggests WIDE. You can use any of the AREA choices with L-O AF. In addition, CENTER has its own LOCK-ON as mentioned above. In truth some of these choices will depend on one's personal style.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

Wide. No question. Let the camera find the bird.

markwilliam1

Sweet Thanks!