Green Heron

[Fabs Forns]

Taken this morning and Anhinga Trail trying out the 50D. Outfocus seems pretty good, but ISO leaves a lot to be desired IMO. Will see on further testing.

Date: 3/8/09
Time: 8:57:56 PM
Model: Canon EOS 50D
Firmware:
Frame #: 6095
Lens (mm): 500
ISO: 320
Aperture: 5.6
Shutter: 1/2000
Exp. Comp.: 0.0
Flash Comp.:
Program: Manual
Focus Mode:
White Bal.:
ICC Profile: sRGB Profile

[Keith Carver]

Excellent flight capture, Fabs. The focus seems to be on near wing (on my monitor), head seems a little softer, and BKG noise is noticeable. I'm seeing the same BKG noise at ISO400 on my newly acquired 50D, have wondered if I need to shoot at ISO200 to tame the noise. But the 50D flight focus acquisition is very fast, seems faster than my 1DM3. Great image!

[Philip Pietri]

I really like the flight pose and the background is quite pleasing. It does seem a little soft on the focus [edit: with the exception of the foreground wing]. The resulting sharpening and highlighting gives it a bit of a noisy look. The eye is over-sharpened as well.

[Dan Walker]

Great wing position and BG, but I do agree with Philip as it appears a little soft.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Cool pose, light and BG. Have you tried if the 'real' ISOs such as 400 is less noisy than 320?

[Fabs Forns]

Cool pose, light and BG. Have you tried if the 'real' ISOs such as 400 is less noisy than 320?

Axel, I used 400 primarily and found it to be decent. Just wanted to try 320. 500 is very noisy in my book and there's no room for error. 1/3 stop under and noise creeps in even before you try to open it up. My only other option is 1d3, and look what they came up with this wee, after 2 years, that is what was wrong with the camera from day one.
So spending 4k knowing it needs to be serviced is hard for me to swallow. Any advice?

Thanks for you comments everyone. I know it isn't a model for sharpness, but I like the BG :D

[Grace Scalzo]

Fabs, I've gotten in the habit of exposing to the right with the 50D. That's the only way I could find to deal with the noise. I also have trouble with my colors with that camera, everything has a magenta cast which frustrates me to no end. The bg here is beautiful.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Axel, I used 400 primarily and found it to be decent. Just wanted to try 320. 500 is very noisy in my book and there's no room for error. 1/3 stop under and noise creeps in even before you try to open it up. My only other option is 1d3, and look what they came up with this wee, after 2 years, that is what was wrong with the camera from day one.
So spending 4k knowing it needs to be serviced is hard for me to swallow. Any advice?

Thanks for you comments everyone. I know it isn't a model for sharpness, but I like the BG :D

That is a tough one. I guess the 50D is great in good light. In low light the 1D3 is of course much better but I understand your hesitation, especially since the next version might be around the corner. The new AF fix supposedly only applies to the outer AF points if selected manually. The newest firmware 1.2.5 works well so far and the tracking is much better than after the original release of the camera. New bodies would hopefully already have the fix applied.

[Fabs Forns]

Thanks, Axel, I will try one on Wednesday night.
Do you mean the ring of fire selected as a group would be OK?

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Thanks, Axel, I will try one on Wednesday night.
Do you mean the ring of fire selected as a group would be OK?

For BIF with busy BGs, I use central point only. The fix does not apply to one of the 'ring of fire' points, only the outer ones, which I hardly ever select anyways. I have it on 'moderately slow' which seems to work best in most situations. Make sure to check if the latest firmware is applied. Canon just released it a few days ago.

[Fabs Forns]

Thanks again, Axel

[denise ippolito]

Fabs, Nice BG and wing position-love the open mouth!