Northern Cardinal

[Dennis Zaebst]

I was out on my back deck testing my new 1D Mark IV a few days ago, and took some photos of several birds landing in the woods before they flew into my backyard feeders. It was getting pretty dark so I cranked up the ISO to 6400 and fired away. Being a former 7D user, I was surprised how well they came out. The bird was darker in the viewfinder than you see here. I was pleased overall with how the camera handled the color and exposure under very low light conditions too. Now, my hope is that an Ivory-billed Woodpecker will fly in to check out my hot pepper suet feeders.

Canon 1D Mark IV, ISO 6400, 500 mm f/4L IS + 1.4x TC, f/5.6 at 1/250 sec; Gitzo 1320 tripod on a gimbal head. PP in LR 4.2 with substantial cropping to about 50% with more on the right than on the left; adjustment brush to soften and de-noise the BG; there is still noise in the bird and a little noise left in the BG. I also removed an errant twig or two from the background. C/C always encouraged and welcome.

Thanks & Best regards,

Dennis

[PhilCook]

Sweet little bird, but it does seem to suffer from softeness a little ...ISO 6400 = wow !

[Miguel Palaviccini]

Dennis,

Great capture and nice composition on this one. Based on the noise levels, I never would have guessed it was shot at ISO 6400.

I would see if you can try to bring out a bit more detail in the Cardinal, especially around the head. You will probably introduce some noise, but it may well be worth it.

Miguel

[Randall Farhy]

Very nice Dennis, Cardinals are one of my favorite subjects though they prove to be very shy in my neighborhood. As other's have noted, would never have guessed that high of an ISO. I'm leery going over 800 with my 7D (for birds). Agree with Miguel, think the nr has sofftened details somewhat on the bird.

[Randy Stout]

Dennis:

It is always fun to stretch the boundaries, you never know what the limits are until you cross them. There was a WWII drama called "A bridge too Far" I think you may have reached that point with this image, as detail/IQ has been impacted by the noise and loss of dynamic range. The slow shutter speed may also have introduced a bit of motion effect in the bird as well.

With a little more light to work with, I expect to see some great shots out of your new toy!

Keep stretching those limits!

Cheers

Randy

[Peter Dexter]

Agree with the others. I would only add that the perch is so close to horizontal I would have tweaked it a bit in PP to make it level.

[Dennis Zaebst]

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments. I tried a bit more sharpening on the bird, but I don't think it improved all that much. This was just a test shot...so no real loss. I did want to see how the camera would perform under those conditions. It acquired focus easily and quickly, using only the center point. The aperture was wide open using the 1.4x TC, which I suspect impacted the detail to some extent. Also the original frame was cropped substantially as I could not get closer to the perch at the time. I have to agree I pushed things to the limit here, but that was the point.

Well, now I know what to expect. Normally I wouldn't try to stretch ISO much beyond 800 (very occasionally 1600). However, I usually prefer a sharp shot with some noise rather than a noiseless but blurry shot.

Thanks again!