On Tue, 17 Jun 2008 02:52:09 GMT, Archibald
wrote:

On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:57:31 -0400, Shawn Hirn
wrote:

In article ,
Archibald wrote:

I was shooting Cliff Swallows on the weekend, trying to get them in
the air. Shooting 1600 ISO, Tv at 1/2000, sunlight (aperture was
around f8-11), 300mm lens. Most of the time I was set at AI Servo AF
and automatic focus point selection, but foreground birds that I
managed to catch were usually out of focus. The 40D manual is not very
clear about how the focus settings work and what to use when. Any
suggestions?

Archibald

Set the focus to infinity and try to use the something along the lines
of f11 apeture at 1/125 second for shutter speed. Aim the camera's
center point at the middle of the flock. This should give you a
reasonable depth of field.

For swallows, I need 1/2000 sec minimum to stop the birds' motion.

I should add these birds were flying in and out of their clay nests,
and sometimes hovering briefly before entering. There was usually
background (nests, the wall that the nests were attached to) present
(not just sky) and the autofocus was going for the background.

Archibald

A couple of examples will clarify the issues...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/archibald_smith/

My question is, for this situation, what are the best settings for the
AUTOFOCUS MODE and the AF POINTS?

Archibald