Birds photography, RAW or JEPG format

Gishy

Senior Member
Hi to all,I have some questions about the D-500 camera and 200-500 lens:
* For birds photography, Which pictures format is more fit: RAW or JEPG? Can i set the XQD card for raw format and the SD card for JPEG format? * Is it right that i should not take photos when the Aperture in the lens is full open (5.6 in the case of 200-500 lens) and should open it 2 steps above (7.1 value), or its a myth?
Thanks in advance
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
RAW is always better than JPEG, it will give you sharper more detail pictures. I don't have the 200-500 lens, but almost all lenses are sharper of stopped down from wide open. How much for ultimate clarity depends on the lens. Most lens are sharpest around F8 to F11.
 

mikew_RIP

Senior Member
No problem shooting raw and jpeg like that, i would suggest though you go into the in-camera jpeg settings and make a few adjustments like upping the sharpness settings
 

hark

Administrator
Staff member
Super Mod
Contributor
Shooting RAW allows more latitude when post processing. For example, if you take a photo and the sky is really bright, if you haven't compensated for that brightness in your camera body, the image overall might be underexposed. RAW allows you to recover more detail as well as preserve detail when raising or lowering the exposure/shadows during post processing. Whether your SD card is set to RAW or jpeg is a personal choice. Granted the SD card won't hold as many photos, but if you set it to RAW, it will become a backup if the XQD card fails.

I don't have that body but set my cards for RAW+jpeg Fine simply because my computer takes longer to load RAW images for viewing. :rolleyes: If I had more RAM, then I'd be shooting RAW in both slots.

As for not shooting wide open, what Brent said generally is true. Make sure to use the AF fine tune feature to get the sharpest images possible when shooting wide open. There may come times when you'll need the extra light that shooting wide open offers. In general, birds are better shot at f/6.3 or f/7.1 to allow greater DoF. When you are shooting at such long focal lengths like 500mm, your DoF is greatly reduced vs. shooting at 100mm. You'd run the risk of not getting all of the bird in focus at f/5.6 at 500mm.

These are just my own personal preferences. Good luck and have fun! ;)
 

Daniel Aegerter

Senior Member
For me: RAW to XQD, jpeg to SD.
Although I never use the jpeg, but it’s nice to know they are there.
I shoot RAW all the time. Doesn’t matter if it’s animals, landscape or portraits. The quality and possibilities one has with RAW is just outstanding.
I do not have that lens, but for each lens there’s a sweet spot in aperture. Google might help.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

Danno

Senior Member
I do not have a 500 but on my 7200 I always shoot Raw on the primary card and RAW + Jpeg on the secondary card. I never use the Jpeg shots unless I am doing something for Church and they want them right away.

On the 500 I always set mine up manual with a shutter speed of 1200 and an f/7.1 with auto ISO. It has been about a year since I shot the big lens, but that seemed to work pretty well. I picked it up from another here on the forum.
 

canuck257

Senior Member
D500 + 200-500 shot in RAW. Check the exif for aperture data. I shoot almost exclusivly wide open as this lens is very sharp at f5.6.

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BackdoorArts

Senior Member
Off the top, I shoot RAW and only RAW with the D500. IMO unless there's an immediate need to share something SOOC using wifi to your phone or tablet then shooting both is just a waste of processing power. You're better off with a fast SD card and use it to mirror the XQD in case of failure. I've never processed a JPEG when I've had a RAW file available, and for birds which are often found in extreme lighting conditions having the light information available in a RAW file is critical to producing a good final product.

Moving on, shooting birds is far different from shooting birds in flight. For stationary birds you can probably get away with wide open, though there isn't a lens on the planet that you can shoot handheld that won't improve stopped down a step or two. For birds in flight the focus system on the D500 is amazing, but it will give you small variances and the more open the aperture the more you'll be tossing images. I don't shoot with a zoom but I generally keep the 300mm F4 PF on my D500, usually with a 1.4x TCii. I don't overthink things but keep it in Manual mode with Auto ISO (maxed at 6400), a shutter speed of 1/1250 or 1/1600, and an aperture of f8. From there all I have to do is make sure I keep the bird in the frame. I'm told I do alright like that.
 

Gishy

Senior Member
Thank you all.
What is the best for birds photography in NEF Compression: Lossless Compressed, Compressed or Uncompressed?
Also what NEF Bit Depth to choose? 12 bit or 14 bit?
 
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STM

Senior Member
Honestly, I would stick with RAW. But be advised, that the SD card is a good bit slower than the XDQ card and will slow the camera down fairly quickly. If I need to shoot a lot of frames in sequence, I take out the SD card and just use the XQD.
 
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