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Fowl Mouth
Just a guy with dogs
Hi txtsylor. That’s a great camera. I bought a rebel XT years ago, my first foray into DSLR. Settings discussions can go deep, fast. LOL. A simple starting point is this - birds move fast. Even when they are sitting still they can be jerky and twitchy. Using a mode that lets you control shutter speed is where I’d start, maybe Tv mode to keep things simple at first. Set your shutter to 1/1000 and experiment from there. That era of DSLR still produces a bit of noise at higher ISO settings, but I had plenty of good luck with the XT at 1600 ISO, which allowed me to keep my shutter speed up in lower light.
As for lenses, 300mm is a perfect starting point. Set up a feeder near the house, with some random dead branches from around the yard adjacent to the feeder, open your window, and you’ll get easy close shots. You will always feel like you want more focal length, but honestly a good number of shots in my gallery are at 300mm and frankly sometimes it’s the perfect focal length. Plus is forces you to work on your field skills. 400-600mm is certainly more ideal in most situations though. If you end up liking the performance of the camera ti capture the images you want, an easy recommendation for a lens upgrade is a used canon 400mm f5.6 L. Light weight, extremely sharp. For years it was the gold standard for birds in flight, and now can be found for a fraction of what it was new.
Just some ideas rolling off my head. Good luck and congrats on the gear. Birding can become addictive…fast.
As for lenses, 300mm is a perfect starting point. Set up a feeder near the house, with some random dead branches from around the yard adjacent to the feeder, open your window, and you’ll get easy close shots. You will always feel like you want more focal length, but honestly a good number of shots in my gallery are at 300mm and frankly sometimes it’s the perfect focal length. Plus is forces you to work on your field skills. 400-600mm is certainly more ideal in most situations though. If you end up liking the performance of the camera ti capture the images you want, an easy recommendation for a lens upgrade is a used canon 400mm f5.6 L. Light weight, extremely sharp. For years it was the gold standard for birds in flight, and now can be found for a fraction of what it was new.
Just some ideas rolling off my head. Good luck and congrats on the gear. Birding can become addictive…fast.
