Just spent a week photographing hummingbirds in Madera Canyon in Arizona. I’ve been birding and photographing in this canyon for 40 years, the first place that really got me interested in birds…hard to believe it has been that long. We had a great group, and lots of hummingbirds. We spent almost 8 hours a day photographing hummingbirds in both available light and using flash setups. This was a great time to experiment with all the Nikon autofocus modes to see which one worked the best. And the winner is…
3D autofocus with animal eye detect was the best choice. This mode tracked the bird’s eye the best. If you could lock onto the bird on the feeder, then 3D did a great job tracking the bird as it hovered nearby. Wide area large worked okay, but seemed better suited for perching birds further away at distant feeders. Auto area worked pretty well too, especially on a white background. But 3D worked the best.
It is worth pointing out our participants were shooting Sony A1s, Canon R5s, Z8/9s…they all performed about the same. Some participants just prefocused on the perch and didn’t even use autofocus, which works pretty well since we were shooting at F16 most of the time. What I’ve learned is there are lots of good choices for autofocus modes, it depends on the subject, how close you are to it, and the background. Auto area works amazingly well with birds in flight in the sky. Wide large picks up flying birds with busy backgrounds. And 3D works great when you can focus on a perched bird, or hovering bird…it doesn’t let go.