I have owned the D40 for a few months now and use it primarily with a Canon 300/2.8 and 1.4 or 2.0x extender.
My three camera user settings are set up for bird photography:
C1 (good light) ISO400, Tv 1/800th second, AI Servo, center-point focus, custom functions all zero.
C2 (lower, not terrible, light) ISO1250, Av wide open, AI servo, exposure +1/3rd, center-point focus, highlight tone priority, high ISO NR.
C3 (BIF against the sky) ISO 500, Tv 1/1250th second, exposure +2/3rd, AI servo, all-point focus, highlight tone priority, high speed continuous shooting.
All settings using large/fine (no raw). Enabling highlight tone priority is my recent (untested) change. My reason for using it with my "lower light" setting is "lower light" usually means "in the woods" with scattered dark and light areas. That's my untested theory anyway.
I'm a novice at photography, but I see no reason why I can't get good results with all the money I spent on equipment and all the time I spent collecting ticks and chiggers. I realize that this subject has been broached in this forum; my user settings are a result of reading through Canon forum threads. C1 Good light and C2 lower light settings cover most of my shooting. The BIF against the sky is C3 for quick response to the moving target, but I don't seem to use it much, and I haven't had great luck with it. Should I reserve the User Settings for other situations? Can I improve my user settings?
Thank you, Jim
Hi Jim
one thing that can be hanndy is to set c3 to a setting your likly to need wile on a diffrent setting as its the end of the dial so easy to turn too as the dial stops ? with the camera at your eye .
Rob.
I'm not a fan of the custom functions settings at least not used in this way. I have C3 set up for using external flash with flash extender in manual mode as I mostly find I use it at around 10m in heavy shade with the flash as the main source of illumination. For the rest though I rely on AV and adjust settings accordingly. It only takes a second or two and most can be adjusted with the camera held up to the eye using the viewfinder to view the changes.
In decent light I prefer to use ISO200 as standard. When it's dull or in woodland I use ISO400 and also for flight captures.
The C3 settings look to be way out for birds in flight. Even on an overcast day I usually get over 1/1250 shutter speed using ISO400 and the lens wide open on f5,6. Today was really grotty with blanket cloud and drizzly rain yet I was getting 1/4000 at ISO400 and EV +1.3. Also Using all points selected really slows down autofocus speed - much better to use just centre point. EV is usually +1.0 though it depends on how much reflected light from the ground and the colour of the bird against the sky - again a reason for just using AV mode.
Whilst ISO1000 and above are usable from here up over I find results are grainy and only use them in extreme circumstances.
C1 - I'd be inclined to use AV instead of TV as you can leave the lens wide open and get the best shutter speed possible which I find is preferable over depth of field as sharpness counts more. If it's bright you can always increase aperture - though again I can't see the benefit of using a custom function for these circumstances. Highlight alert and noise reduction I don't use.
I can see the benefit of using custom settings for BIF and for using external flash - but it makes more sense to me to use AV mode for most other bird photogrpahy and getting a feel for adjusting settings as conditions change.