7D ISO 6400 Sandhill Crane

[Doug Brown]

Earlier today I posted a 7D ISO 1600 Sandhill Crane image on the Avian forum. That image had artistic merit. Here's an ISO 6400 Crane image that, while lacking in artistic merit, showcases what the 7D can do at ISO 6400. You've got to get the image substantially right in the camera to get good results from post-processing at such a high ISO. This photo is uncropped and has gone through my normal workflow; RAW conversion was performed using Lightroom 3.0 beta. Suitable for web presentation IMO. And better than not getting the frame at all!

Canon 7D, 500mm + 1.4x, f/5.6, 1/800, ISO 6400, hand held

[Jay Gould]

At 6400 it is a wonderful image; can you imagine what your are going to do with the 1D4?

[arash_hazeghi]

Actually I don't think it lacks artistic merit wing position is still good so is HA and eye. But the noise is definitely there and visible, I have also found that you can get small 1024 web keepers out of 7D and high ISO *IF* the bird fills the entire frame like your example, if it is smaller than 80% of the frame or if there is shadow forget about it. Still a big improvement over the 50D :) Overall IMO 7D can shoot at 400 with confidence, 800 with care and above 800 with extreme care and in extreme situations, with 50D anything above 400 was noise.

BTW, for high ISO DPP does a much cleaner job than LR IMO. I set chroma NR to 15 and then use neat image.

[Colin Knight]

I'm very impressed Doug. Did you add some blur to the background? It looks like some rough areas around the bird's left wing tips.

Colin

[Doug Brown]

No blurring to the BG Colin, only NR. I posted this and photographed it at ISO 6400 just to see what I could get; I'm pretty pleased. Blurring the BG would have made the noise even less noticeable. Having the bird occupy a smaller portion of the frame would also have minimized the visual impact of the noise.

[philperry]

Looks great to me Doug, especially with that great background. I have not yet had a chance to get out and about much with my 7D so am looking forward to a few days in the field at the end of the month. This shot reminds me that I must test the camera at high ISOs. So far I have taken a couple of shots at ISO 1250 that I was very happy with. The noise was certainly visible - but with some subjects it is quite atmospheric when the weather is evidently very dull and dark.

[Doug Brown]

can you imagine what your are going to do with the 1D4?

Yes I can! I have high hopes for the Mark IV.

[Bonnie Block]

Looks good, Doug. I am loving the camera.
I do agree with Arash that DDP at this time for me gives better results than LR.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Jay snatched my words. :-)

I have high expectations from the camera. I hope ISO 3200 gives great results without resorting to Neat Image or other such noise reduction softwares. Lets see when it becomes available.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[David Stephens]

This is a very attractive image, but I concur that one key is that it's uncropped. For most of my cropped BIF I'm finding a pretty hard cutoff at around ISO 1600 with my 7D. My 5D2 is actually superior at 3200, even with the additional cropping required for FF.

Still, this is useful information for those of use attending early morning bird blast offs with lots of birds at close range. I'll try this high ISO at my next dawn visit to my favorite pond.

Dave

[Colin Knight]

And you're still finding that the 7D AF works well?

Colin

[David Stephens]

And you're still finding that the 7D AF works well?

Colin

You may be asking the OP, but my experience is that it requires a lot of precision. I prefocus at my approximate expected distance and then use the single-point, spot focus point. When I tried the expanded spot it still latched onto the wrong things in either the foreground or background. The single-spot, of course, MUST hit the target. If you get either the sky or the BG you risk OOF blur and a lost AF.

When locked on and tracking, my exposure bursts have the same focus.

I have not done any formal tests to confirm what I'm seeing in the field.

This is in line with what I expect from AF of BIF. I used the single point with the 5D2, so I don't really find an improvement going to the 7D, other than the larger image in the viewfinder makes it easier to place the spot on a moving bird.

Here's an example:


Dave

[Doug Brown]

So far so good. I'll be leading a workshop at the Bosque starting this weekend and should get plenty of BIF opportunities. I'll keep you all posted on my impressions.

[Keith Bauer]

Well, I guess I'll be leading one there as well since we're both working together on this effort with 3 or 4 others :-)

[Doug Brown]

Should have said co-leading. Sorry Keith! Actually, Keith and I will be doing a lecture together on Lightroom and Photoshop at the workshop.

[Susan Griffith]

If you don't mind me asking, how much noise reduction did you do with your images and the high iso?

-Susan

[Ed Cordes]

Doug, I am impressed with this image. I have not yet had a chance to really "use" our 7D but have also not been disappointed with what we have been able to do. Maybe I am wrong, but I think any camera set at ISO above 1000 will have to have well executed files in camera to be successful.