Today after work I played with the other extremes.. All photos were taken at 1/8000th of a second and F7.1. The main photo was taken at 8000 ISO and the ones in the extra varied from 4000 to 8000 ISO. Some lessons learned - At 12800 I could get a good shot of a flying bird but if I cropped the picture you can really tell the high ISO. Up to 6400 ISO I could heavily crop a photo and it would still turn out okay. Seems like the sweet spot is 1/1000th of a second shutter at 400 ISO - for the best all around in good light. As for the focusing system - really interesting on how the camera gets confused in complex situations - something that I think is common on many cameras. Single spot focus was best in a clear sky. Wide full tracking worked best in a mixed environment - but I have to remember to keep the shutter release button halfway down or it will have to lock on the bird again. I missed many shots because of that. And... Still it was a fun hour down at the lake..

Edit - Blip shutter speed data is wrong