My first attempt at birding with a wireless setup

[manindra_m]

Had got a Sony A6400 and 200-600 lens last week. Being a Nikon user for a decade , had some initial hiccup. Guess I still have a fair bit to learn before I get a hang of this system. Got a very few keepers . Need to understand a bit more on the focus areas . A question to all Sony users who are into wildlife , BIF

1. Which focus area gives maximum keepers specially for BIF
2. For stationary / preched bird , do you use AF-S or AF-C. What is the focus area in this case. I used center and realized that I have missed the focus completely in some cases
3. How's the ISO performance of Sony 6000 series as compared to Nikon or Canon counterpart. I had fair amount of grain at ISO 1000 which am not sure is normal or not. Had to do a bit of noise reduction in PP

Thanks for viewing


DSC03811-DeNoiseAI-denoise by manindra mukherjee, on Flickr


DSC03802-DeNoiseAI-denoise by manindra mukherjee, on Flickr


DSC03767-DeNoiseAI-denoise by manindra mukherjee, on Flickr


DSC03591-DeNoiseAI-denoise by manindra mukherjee, on Flickr


DSC03473-DeNoiseAI-denoise by manindra mukherjee, on Flickr

[Roy]

Very nice set of images. Colour and exposure looks spot on!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Lovely pics!

I suggest that you start with videos by Mark Galer, on youtube.

If you prefer to read, I like David Busch's books. I expect there is one for this camera. He manage to combine the principles of reference manual, explaining what everything does, with lots of advice on why, and how to use it.

[Nishit Dave]

Use Flexible Spot medium or large, AF-C in all cases because you don't know when a slight breeze will throw even stationary birds out of focus.

Although the a6400 does not have a joystick, you can use the rear LCD screen as a touch pad to move the focus point. I have set the camera to activate the right half of the LCD as touch pad when the EVF is in use.

Edit:

I usually use the small flexible focus point for perched birds, but sometimes the camera can fail to find the target and focus on the background quite annoyingly, if the contrast in the scene is bad. In such cases, switch to the medium or large (esp. when M doesn't work) focus points.

Practice the ergonomics of the camera - rear dial to move the focus point in different directions, Delete button to return it to the centre, and OK button to confirm its position. There is a lot of customisability in Sony cameras, so you can configure the buttons that work the best for you, even with the tiny body. The function button on the 200-600mm lens can also be useful if you can find/reach it easily.

The noise on the images usually cleans up quite well till 1600 ISO. I usually use Capture One (free Express edition for Sony) for editing. The OEM image editor also does a good job with de-noising, but it has limited functionality.

[manindra_m]

Thanks Roy and Thad.

Nishit : Thanks for the finer details. Let me deep dive and share my experience . I plan to revisit this weekend and see things hold up.