1st Mark IV Image: Long-Tailed Duck

[Doug Brown]

I've been away for several weeks, so I haven't been on the forum very much. I got my Mark IV the day before I left for Israel. I met up with BPN member Haim Ziv while there; he took me out one morning to photograph and we had a good time getting to know one another. I took a few frames, but that was all I managed for the entire trip to Israel. The Mark IV was burning a hole in my suitcase! I stopped in NY on the way home and decided to pay a visit to Barnegat Lighthouse. I met up with Denise Ippolito and Michael Zajac, who introduced me to Barnegat. Denise was kind enough to loan me her 500mm and Michael let me borrow a battery (I forgot to charge mine). We had a great day! Here's my first Mark IV image.

http://birdwhisperer.smugmug.com/Animals/Birds/BPN/20100121-V5C0571-Long-Tailed/770649695_S9hph-O.jpg

Canon 1D Mark IV, 500mm + 1.4x, f/5.6, 1/6400, ISO 800, -2/3 EC, hand held

[Grace Scalzo]

Congrats on the new camera, Doug, and on this image. Beautiful!

[Doug Brown]

I should also add that Haim took me and my daughter out for a fabulous meal one night, and he even got me a field guide to the birds of Israel. Thanks Haim!

[Haim Ziv]

Hi Doug,
Hope you had great time in Israel.
It was great honor for me to meet you. Sorry not to have much more time to go out for Birds Pictures.

This one is a beautiful pose in flight. I love it.

[gary rouleau]

Glad to see you are back Doug. Its not the markIV that impresses me, its no matter what camera is in your hand you take incredible photos and here's another example.

Cheers
gary

[denise ippolito]

Doug, Beautiful details and wing position. Sharp and well exposed. It was a pleasure to meet you and we had a nice day on the Jetty. Thanks for dinner:)

[Declan Troy]

#1 shot eh. Guess you should retire that camera while it has such a superb track record.

[Leander Khil]

Wow, great shot!
Nothing to criticize, just to ask: Is that dotted structure in the primaries high ISO noise or the feathers structure?

[Doug Brown]

Couldn't tell you, but maybe someone else can. It was basically my first day with the Mark IV and my first encounter with this species. If I were a betting man, I'd guess noise.

[Michael Zajac]

Nice meeting you.Good head angle.Excellent sharpness and exposure.Well done

[Bill Dix]

Gorgeous flight image of a long-tail. Perfect wing position, nice color and detail. In a perfect world I might have wished the dark wavelet below the beak weren't there, but not much you could do about that. A fine shot. Congrats on the new equipment.

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Stunning work Doug. Glad to hear you are back and had a good time in Israel. Exposure looks great. Noise is almost invisible.

[Declan Troy]

Perhaps I'm looking at the wrong thing but the only dotted structure I can see looks like compression artifacts. In any event I have a long-tailed duck specimen and looked through several images and none has any dots or pattern on the primaries. The bird in the image has lighter shafts than I'm used to.

[Roman Kurywczak]

Hey Doug,
Sorry I missed you....that darn work thing got in the way! Glad to see you had a great time with Denise and Michael and glad to see you nailed the longtail!
Welcome back!

[James Salywoda]

Awesome Shot ! Great wing position and HA well done Doug.

[Stu Bowie]

Doud, congrats on your new toy, and already put to good use. I like the slight banking angle, with a good wing position. Overall, well exposed too.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Congratulations Doug! Nice capture. Is this full frame or crop? I guess you got the Af settings right to complement your technique. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Doug Brown]

Is this full frame or crop? I guess you got the Af settings right to complement your technique.

It's actually more of a crop than I would have liked, but the 16 megapixels helped. I would say that after 1 or 2 days in the field, the AF settings are still a work in progress.

[Ákos Lumnitzer]

Congrats on your first image with it finally. Well done; I say it's dang sharp and well lit and posed. You can fix that little bit of noise for sure. :)