800/1.4X/5D Mark III

[Arthur Morris]

Wood Stork chick begging. Canon 800mm f/5.6L IS lens with the 1.4X III TC and the EOS-5D Mark III. ISO 800. Evaluative metering at zero to prevent burning the backlit leaves too badly: 1/250 sec. at f/6.3 in Manual mode.

Central sensor AI Servo Rear Focus AF and re-compose.

Don't be shy; all honest comments welcome.

Any questions? :S3:

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Nice comp and undisturbed look at the nest. Great HA's too. How can you be at f6.3 with an 800mm/f5.6 and TC 1.4x III? Should be f8, right??
The bkgd looks pretty grainy as presented.

[dankearl]

Excellent image, it needs noise reduction on the BG, easy fix. I am surprised at the noise unless it was a big crop.

[Doug Brown]

AF at f/8 with a reporting TC??? And it doesn't sound like you were using Live View.

[arash_hazeghi]

excellent interaction and great job working with that much magnification. I like how the chick is grabbing mom's beak. great work. I see noise in the BG.

[Arthur Morris]

Nice comp and undisturbed look at the nest. Great HA's too. How can you be at f6.3 with an 800mm/f5.6 and TC 1.4x III? Should be f8, right??
The bkgd looks pretty grainy as presented.

Should be but is not. Can you figure it out? f/6.3 is correct :S3:.

I had a choice of bringing up the BKGR noise via 10% Detail Extractor for a better overall look and went with it. I could try another version with some NR or re-convert with NR. Furthermore, it was necessary to underexpose the shaded foliage in order to keep from burning the brighter back-let stuff. Lastly, the noise here does not bother me at all :S3:.

[Arthur Morris]

Excellent image, it needs noise reduction on the BG, easy fix. I am surprised at the noise unless it was a big crop.

Thanks. See Pane #6 for noise comments :S3:.

[Arthur Morris]

AF at f/8 with a reporting TC??? And it doesn't sound like you were using Live View.

No Live View. Who said anything about reporting? One of you should be able to figure it out... ??? indeed :S3:.

After all, aren't you guys the phart smotographers ???

[Arthur Morris]

excellent interaction and great job working with that much magnification. I like how the chick is grabbing mom's beak. great work. I see noise in the BG.

Thanks Arash. See Pane #6 my noise comments :S3:.

Maybe you can figure out the f/6.3 mystery.

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

You must have tricked the system by either adding an extention tube in between or blocking some pins.

Even with using Live View you would still get f8 instead of f6.3.

Curious for sure!

[Arthur Morris]

You must have tricked the system by either adding an extention tube in between or blocking some pins. Even with using Live View you would still get f8 instead of f6.3. Curious for sure!

No extension tubes. That leaves "B" as the correct answer. AF hunts and chatters for a few seconds but is quite accurate. Manually pre-focusing is a big help of course. Though I need to continue to experiment it would appear that this is a viable solution only for static subjects. See you on the Hooptie this weekend. Are you coming for both days?

[Clemens Vanderwerf]

Interesting! I will be there for both days. We better ask James to stirr up the pot, as whenever we are together on the Hooptie Deux there is hardly any activity :S3:

[Arthur Morris]

Yes. I am due for some good luck there....

[Matthew Binns]

"There are more questions than answers"

So was the shot actually taken at f6.3 or was that just what the camera was fooled to think and reported?

Does this mean that the 5DIII would autofocus at f6.3 if there was a suitable f6.3 lens?

Thanks for the exploration - the lack of f8 autofocus on both the 5DIII and 1DX sucks.

[Arthur Morris]

Hi Matthew,

re:

So was the shot actually taken at f6.3 or was that just what the camera was fooled to think and reported?

I am not too good at this technical stuff but I will try.... The camera showed f/6.3 because it was fooled into thinking that there was no TC in place. But the through the lens metering was not fooled. It knew that one stop of light was being lost to the TC.... I am not sure if the image was actually made at f/8 or at f/9....

Does this mean that the 5DIII would autofocus at f6.3 if there was a suitable f6.3 lens?

No, not at all.

Thanks for the exploration - the lack of f8 autofocus on both the 5DIII and 1DX sucks.

YAW. I hope that this is the worst thing that ever happens in your life.

[Robert Holguin]

Wonderful image. I really love the interaction between both birds, great head angles, and very well composed.
Well done.

[Karl Egressy]

Great interaction image. The background is a little noisy to my taste.

[Arthur Morris]

Great interaction image. The background is a little noisy to my taste.

Thanks Karl, See Pane 6 for my comments on the noise.