Reviews - 1
Visited Minsmere on 15th March to give the new camera body, Canon 1d MkIII, a proper trial but found that the place was under a thick blanket of fog which prevented a full test. Most of the birds that were visible to photograph were at the feeder by the visitor centre. This male Chaffinch was one of many here. With such dull conditions I never got below ISO200 with this bird at ISO400 at f7.1 resulting in 1/125th sec shutter speed. Most finches were bouncing all over the place resulting in nothing but blurred pics due to the slow shutter speed. However the odd bird would pause long enough to rattle off a few shots which turned out to be not to bad at all. This one has been cropped by about half the original image with some sharpening done.
This Magpie was taken using ISO1000 due to the very low light conditions at a fog bound Minsmere. The resulting shutter speed was only 1/160th sec at F7.1. the end image here has not been cropped by has had some post-resizing sharpening done. Although the low light meant high ISO and slow shutter speed the picture isn't to bad but I suspect I wouldn't get a decent print.
A couple of female Pheasants were at the back of the visitor centre at Minsmere (see above) and used as subjects to test low light and slow shutter speed on my new Canon 1D MkIII. This particular bird was photographed on ISO400 at F7.1 with -1/3 stop increment resulting in a shutter speed of only 1/160th sec. The image has been cropped slightly. As with the chaffinchs with slow shutter speeds movement caused blur but when birds were motionless good images were possible.
I also photographed Greylag Geese from the Island Mere hide but rolling fog prevented a decent test. From what I did get most images seemed to be pretty sharp at ISO400 with shutter speeds at around 1/250th - 1/500th sec depending on the distance of the birds. Most seemed pretty good though the more distant birds, when cropped, were not so good. This though is probably a combination of slow shutter speed and the fog. However an early trial at a nearby park, again in low light, showed more distant birds to be piss poor in terms of sharpness when enlarged. I would expect at ISO3200 to be noisy/grainy but to be completely blurred at shutter speeds at around 1/1600th sec to be worry some (hence trying to trail the camera today). I will try again in better conditions.
As I've been trying out the new Canon EOS 1D MkIII camera body I will post comments and images as a part review of it's performance here over the next few weeks.
Initially I found the auto focus stunning, locking on and capturing some excellent in flight images of Collared Doves in the garden (on the day the camera arrived) and a Little Egret in flight in Gunners Park. I subsequently found some problems when I tried again a week later on Southend Pier when photographing Med. Gulls. On screen the images appeared very blue though on the PC they were not as bad but it must be said that the sharpness was nowhere as good as those above. On the flip side a cropped and enlarged image of distant Black-throated Diver from the pier, see above, showed a damn fine performance (I am unable to show comparisons as my mastercopies have vanished from my hard drive)
In Gunners Park a week later and again in low light conditions I found more problems though in much lower light than when on the Pier. I had several subjects that the camera just had difficulty coping with.
The first was a male Stonechat. The camera just wanted to focus on the background despite having the bird bang to rights in the middle of the frame and more than once I had to revert to 'manual' focusing. Even when the auto focus did lock onto the bird not a single image came out sharp or usable, even when the ISO was wrenched right up to 1600 to get a shutter speed of around 250th of sec.
The second subject was a distant Grey Heron. Again the auto focus wanted to focus on other things and when I eventually managed to get the heron it was blurred on high crop. It seemed fine as an unaltered r mage but close scrutiny proved otherwise. I then took a series of images of static objects in the park such as posts and a digger and most seem reasonable but these were closer objects.
Because of these failures I revisited the menu's and made some adjustments with the intention of giving the camera a proper trial at Minsmere but that itself turned out to be disastrous, see below.
I then subsequently gave the camera trial in the garden on static subjects, bird table; shed; distant building, in direct comparison with my old 20D which I felt I had better success with. The results, again in low light as it has been that way all week, were in favour of the 1D in terms of better colour reproduction: I set the colour K5500 whilst the 20D was on auto; and overall sharpness, especially on the more distant subject. The windows at ISO1600 at a shutter speed of 1/160th sec were far sharper and better defined that the 20D so it 'could' be that in fiddling with the settings I 'may' have solved the problem I experienced in Gunners Park. I will have to try again in better light conditions.
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This Collared Dove flying over my garden was amongst the first images I took with the 1D MkIII. It was hand held with the Canon 500 F4 monster lens attached and the result is stunning. It was more or less an instant result which has not yet been repeated to the same high quality. It must be said though that it was a stunningly bright day which allowed a fast shutter speed, around 1/2000th sec on ISO200 at F4.
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Another hand held job using the 1D MkIII and the Canon 500mm. As can be seen when the conditions are perfect some fantastic shots are possible with the new and improved auto focus.
18th March 2008 I took some hand held images again in the garden as there was a little more light than recent attempts but still a lot lower than I would have liked. The results ranged fro okay to pretty damn good. There were several subjects, name a Wood Pigeon, several planes and a building. The first Wood Pigeon shots were taken at ISO400 which resulted in shutter speeds of only 1/60th sec at F7.1. As all of these shots were hand held with the 500mm it was not surprising then that most were rubbish but some seem to be okay when cropped anrd enlarged. Most of the rest of the Pigeon shots were at ISO500 which at F5.0 resulted in shutter speeds of 1/500th sec. The bird was only about 4-5metres away. Again most were blurred (hand held) but some were bang on though a little grainy when cropped in a little due to the ISO level.
The building was about 150-200metres away and several shots were taken across ISO320 using different stop values. Both the F4.5 and F7.1 gave excellent results with shutter speeds of 1/640 and 1/200th sec respectively. Images of the original and cropped versions are below.
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Original image above and crop below - no sharpening done
Canon EOS 1D MKIII Camera Trial
29th June 2008 From continuing use of the 1D MKIII I have noticed that depth of field is significantly lacking on closer objects. Compared with the 20D the 1D MKIII is no where as good, the 20D has better depth of field. In Texas and recent butterfly photo's I have constantly had difficulty in getting the whole subject in focus. If the head is sharp or in focus the tail is not, if one wing of a butterfly is in focus the other is not and so on. Even where the F Stop has been pushed beyond F12 to gain greater depth of field, sacrificing shutter speed in the process in low light conditions, I do not seem to be able to get good images across the board. This is primarily on subjects that are very close, though it does not seem to be as bad on birds/subjects that are further away. The 20D seems to be far better in depth perception than the 1D MKIII. The poor showing in this instance has been very frustrating, more than two thirds of shots taken of Heath Fritillaries and many of the tanagers and warblers from the Boy Scout Woods (Texas) photo blind were duds. Not Good.