BenJN

No VC on. Couldn't find any clear recommendations for what setting to use for BIF

Interesting point. I have jpeg to slot 2 so will do some experimenting. Thanks.

On your Active D lighting idea, my understanding is this affects the way JPEGs are rendered but I was shooting RAW.

Thanks for the edit. I'm sure it will look great when I look at it on something bigger than my phone!

Oh definitely! This holiday is one of the reasons I wanted to improve the sharpness of my images. Although so far definitely more static(ish) wildlife than birds in flight.

Thank you. That would be great. I am out of the country in beautiful Costa Rica right now but will send the original to you on my return.

Thanks. I will see how I get on after the adjustment I made via the camera. The differences weren't much different between the different focal lengths when I did the calibration. Also the majority ...

I have calibrated and tweaked with the camera manual adjustment.

Thanks but they aren't cropped.

Yes, but those options are also available with using the shutter button for focus. For example at the moment (before I experiment with Bill's suggestions): Shutter release invokes Group AF, if I ...

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks Bill.

I'm still confused about the use of BBF (in this case via the AF-ON) button. Why would I use that for BIF rather than shutter release button for focussing? With the shutter release half pressed, ...

Thank you, much food for thought (and action).

Thanks Alan. Some of very helpful ideas there. I have now done the calibration on the combination but haven't been able to try in the wild yet (the change was -4 so perhaps won't make much ...

Very interesting, thank you. I may take the plunge on one of the Sigmas at some point after trying to get the best from my current combo.

Thanks. Already doing that.

Bill, thank you so much for your welcome and thoughts. Really appreciate it. I don't have a huge amount of time (yet) to dedicate a lot of time to my photography, and appreciate this is a limiting ...

Yes, good shout

I realised that the VC mode I was using on my lens was probably not right. Had it on 1 (static) rather than 2 (panning). I'm struggling to think how to test settings and technique in subjects ...

Thanks. Yep completely get that. I use back button focus for other such use cases.