Bird Watching: Best setting for birds, 1 by threegardeners

threegardeners wrote:
I had to look up Intelligent ISO when I saw the setting on the camera too. I liked that it auto adjusted the light. I also liked that it would/should sense if the subject is moving and adjust for that. The camera has image stability for shaky hands and I figured the two combined would be perfect. Maybe it isn't as intelligent as it thinks it is...

That Robin was maybe 25 feet away, full 12X zoom, that pic. is not cropped (no point, too blurry). No tripod, I leaned against a tree, I don't own a tripod.

I'm finding birds frustrating. The camera, as a rule, takes beautiful, crisp photos. Flowers are perfect, I can stop a drip of water mid drip, action shots of cats and dogs is awesome. But those things don't take off into the next county after the first click.

I'd love to be able to get good, crisp shots of birds too.

This Sparrow I took yesterday as well (lots of birds in my yard at any given time to practice on). He was only maybe 10 feet away, full 12X zoom. Still lacking something. At 10 feet, with the zoom, he should be clearer, no?