Pre-setup

          Before actual photography should take place, watch a few videos to setup your autofocus system for wildlife. There are all sorts of trade-offs. Setting this up usually involves menu-systems which you do not want to be reading as the Lion focused on its prey. Have your camera setup, before the shoot. Set your focus tracking, its stickiness, and so forth.

Camera

          I just leave the camera's settings on the lens' largest aperture and a fixed shutter speed of around 1,600th of a second. I set my ISO on auto. This way, I am guaranteed to use the largest aperture AND fast shutter speed. I want to freeze the action in front of the camera, and I also want to minimize the effects of camera shake. Choose a frame rate as high as possible. Use a silent shutter so as not to scare off the animals. Set the autofocus to "tracking."

Lens

          Make sure the stabilization system is on and set to panning horizontally. This setting will allow you to pan with the animals as they move. I set the longest lens' focus limiter to 3m and beyond. This makes autofocus faster as the lens does not have to search the entire focus range but only from 3m out. My second rig's focus limiter is set to focus a near as possible. Remember from last week, I use one camera and lens for reach and another for closer animals. The autofocus is turned on.