Wildlife Photography across the Water: News - 1Dmk111 recall

Saturday, 21 March 2009

News - 1Dmk111 recall - Final Part.......probably

Right then - I am now happy. I finally believe this is the camera I hoped that I was buying back in August 2007. Yes it has been a long time, yes it has been frustrating and to be fair has been pretty good since the firmware update in April 2008.

But this has taken the performance to where I think Canon users have been demanding.

When I did my original moving subject testing, I went to the footbridge in Stratford upon Avon to capture images of the numerous black headed gulls who respond will to bread being thrown high into the air.

So off I went with my pet tosser, of the bread, today in very bright light. Alas there were no gulls - obviously gone off to their breeding grounds now, or maybe they just don't like tourists.

Fortunately, there are also a lot of pigeons which are at least as difficult to capture.

I tried a number of different options of AF point, from full 'ring of fire', single centre point only, and also off centre points as well, with or without assist points activated. I used my 70-200f2.8L lens, set at f2.8.
At that aperture, i was not always getting my subject fully in focus across the width of the subject, but for test purposes that was fine as it helped to better define the actual focus point and plane.

So - the verdict.

As long as I got the AF point in the right place - everything was sharp. All were keepers in that respect. This is not something that I had experienced to date.

One particular area that was always trouble was when the subject was in a low contrast situation, such as a mid tone bird flying through a similar background. Well these are now very good too.

I will post up a couple of images tomorrow to back up this post.

I guess the one area that I haven't tested that I need to just be certain of is flat light low contrast subjects. So maybe I need to just hold a little in reserve until we have crossed that hurdle.

But based on use since it has come back I am very happy with it ............so far

Update: - Will post images tomorrow including screen grabs from Breezebrowser showing the AF point highlighted

Martin

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Bio's

David Courtenay, a self taught wildlife and nature photographer, has been capturing images for over 30 years. He has had a passion for wildlife since early childhood and remembers being glued to the television whenever Survival, Wildlife on One and other natural history documentaries were shown. In the 2006 he swapped his established career for the life of a wildlife photographer, such a move demands a measure of uncompromising passion and commitment.

David has travelled extensively throughout Europe as well as spending more than 7 months in India working with local guides and trackers in search of Bengal Tiger, Asian One horned Rhino and Asian Elephant. He has also photographed Wildlife in Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, Sumatra, Africa, Canada and America. Working closely with Conservation companies he tries to raise funds to help Wildlife that has been put on the endangered list by poaching and habitation loss

Martin Dyer has had a passion for avian wildlife since childhood, particularly raptors. Photography was also another keen interest and it was with the specific availability and control of the whole process that digital offers that Martin was then able to combine the two in 2003. Based in the UK, Martin is a regular visitor to Scotland, specifically the Isle of Mull to watch the Eagles resident there. Other trips to Europe and around the UK are usually part of Martin’s agenda in a typical year.

However, as a firm believer on making the most of the local patch, Martin has spent a lot of time and hard work creating a wildlife garden which is reaping the rewards with many new species and varieties of wildlife. A keen member of a number of wildlife photographic groups, Martin is keen to expand his portfolio into other areas of wildlife, and has already established a wide portfolio of images of fungi.