I believe Camera settings should be kept simple - Camera Lens have sweet spots, ie., Apertures at which the Lens is at it's sharpest (highest resolution) this is usually a few stops down from wide open. 2nd - Most Cameras will not handle Auto Focussing at Apertures smaller than f8. 3rd - If you wish to focus on a birds eye, then it is necessary to use "Spot" or small area focussing. 4th. Difficult backgrounds, such as back lighting from a strong light source such as an early morning or late afternoon sun, require that you expose for the subject - not the background. This means adjusting your Camera's Exposure settings for "Spot" or small area "Exposure", which will satisfactorily expose the subject, but not the background, this also helps eliminate some of the distractions and scatter which surrounds every Bush bird. I also set ISO to the highest the Camera will handle without getting too much "Noise", if the Camera has an "Auto ISO" feature, then this should be used. Another feature which is very helpful is the "3 D focussing feature" which makes it possible to capture moving subjects very effectively.
With this in mind - my Camera is set up - Spot Focussing - Spot Exposure - 3 D feature - Auto ISO feature - the Lens is set at f7.1 (so there is never a problem with auto focus) and 1/3rd stop under exposure - as over exposure can never be recovered, while under exposure can be recovered in editing.
Hope this helps,
Kevin Bowring (photographer for nearly 70 years.)

A quick point on aperture to use. It's true that it's common for many camera autofocus systems to not work well or at all at apertures smaller than f/8 (ie f/11 and above). However, that refers purely to the maximum aperture of the lens, not the aperture when the photo is taken as the camera closes down the aperture on the lens only in the fraction of a second when the image is recorded. Metering and focus is all done at the lens maximum aperture so it's perfectly fine to use apertures of f/11 and beyond if the circumstances suit. The camera will still lock focus with the lens wide open. As to whether or not to use auto ISO, it's certainly worth trying but as an earlier respondent notes, every person is different and the approach that works best may differ between people. For example, in most situations, I always manually set ISO, aperture and shutter speed. It's only in situations where the light is changing rapidly (or the bird is moving rapidly through different light levels) that I'd consider switching to an auto exposure option, typically aperature priority. But I'm sure that won't work for everyone.

Hello Andrew,
I agree with what Glenn has written. I have successfully used manual setting of aperture, exposure time and ISO for many years; It was the only way I could consistently get reasonable exposures. Some photographers recommend manual with auto-ISO in combination with exposure compensation. Using this technique you will be continually adjusting exposure compensation in situations like you describe. You might as well achieve the same result by manually adjusting ISO directly and forget about changing the exposure compensation. In my work I assign ISO adjustment to the back thumb-wheel on my cameras so that I can change ISO quickly while watching the exposure meter in the viewfinder at the same time as I compose the shot. This has become somewhat better with the R5 as I have it set to show exposure simulation in the electronic viewfinder so that what you see in the viewfinder is like the exposure recorded. I am finding I have become less-reliant on using the exposure meter in the viewfinder and often just use the appearance of the image in the EVF to fine tune the exposure by adjusting the ISO.
Cheers, Ian

Hello folks,

Thank you all for answering my camera setting question.

I"ve come to the conclusion that auto ISO with manual TV and AV works best for my capture style.
Im quite often shooting in dark forest areas where the light can very between 2 to 3 stops in a few minutes
of shooting. I alway use centre weight metering with say plus half a stop of compensation.
I rarely clip the highlights and if I do its mainly in the back ground area and recoverable.
I shoot with a Canon 5dm4, I find its noise capabilities at high ISO fantastic, coupled with Topaz denoise
software it cleans things up very well.

Even in dark forest areas looking for a bit of good light is the go, yes a would love a Canon R5 coupled with a 500f4
but even then you still need good light. I"m not a fan of flashers either.

All the best and happy birding

Andrew