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50D Has Canon Got It Right (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter CANONROB
- Start date
Tim Taylor
work in progress
More nice pics Rob. I can't imagine I'd have done as well with my 30D.
Thanks Tim
I think I am expecting too much from the 50D in bad light, but upping the ISO would make the noise horrible.
Rob
GYRob
Well-known member
When you say higher iso's at what iso does this NR kick in ? can it not be turned off .
Rob.
Roy C
Occasional bird snapper
That's not that bad light Rob - the Curlew shot is 1/800 at ISO 400 and f7.1 - that's about has good as gets in my neck of the woods at this time of the year
The hawk shot is not that bad a light either at 1/400 ISO 400 and f7.1.I have been shooting 1/100 at ISO 800 and f5.6 the last couple of days -that's what I call bad light.
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That's not that bad light Rob - the Curlew shot is 1/800 at ISO 400 and f7.1 - that's about has good as gets in my neck of the woods at this time of the year
I have been shooting 1/100 at ISO 800 and f5.6 the last couple of days -that's what I call bad light.
I agree with you Roy for those three shots the light was a little better, but the lapwing photo was only 1/160 sec., I took around 50 shots and these where the only ones with the least noise, the ones that were better shutter speeds....Curlew and Hawk were both shot against the sky which does bump the speed up a bit, I did take some shots at ISO 800 but the ISO 400 shots were sort of keepers, the ISO 800 shots were to noisy for my liking. I call those three shots noisy, I don't like running wildlife shots through a noise reduction program because of to much loss of detail.
I can understand why people do shoot at high ISO for getting a shot that they would not be able to get normaly, I was so dissapointed with the stone chat pic. I took yesterday, just not enough detail for such a pretty bird, I will go and try to click him again.
tdodd
Just call me Tim
I took my 50D out to try my first proper attempt at birding with it, today. I was using my 100-400 with a Kenko 1.4X teleconverter. I have only recently discovered (aided by the resolution of the 50D, no doubt) just how soft my 100-400 is at 400mm when wide open. So I stopped down to f/8 (=f/11 with the extender) to try to gain some sharpness. Of course, this stretched things a bit on the ISO and shutter speed front, since the combination equates to 896mm on a full frame camera. I think that really I had my shutter speed a bit slow for ultimate sharpness, but the results are not too bad nonetheless.
Here are two examples from today's shooting. I'm afraid I can't ID the birds...
1. Shot raw and processed in DPP with no special editing. NR was off, picture style was standard and sharpening was set to 3. They are - full image resized, 50% crop, 100% crop.
2. Shot raw and processed in Lightroom and with a bit more creative tweaking, but nothing really fancy. They are the full image, resized, and a 100% crop.
I do think the IQ is let down by the glass and my fieldcraft far more than the camera. I think a nice 500/4 and the teleconverter and/or a hide may have worked quite well.
Here are two examples from today's shooting. I'm afraid I can't ID the birds...
1. Shot raw and processed in DPP with no special editing. NR was off, picture style was standard and sharpening was set to 3. They are - full image resized, 50% crop, 100% crop.
2. Shot raw and processed in Lightroom and with a bit more creative tweaking, but nothing really fancy. They are the full image, resized, and a 100% crop.
I do think the IQ is let down by the glass and my fieldcraft far more than the camera. I think a nice 500/4 and the teleconverter and/or a hide may have worked quite well.
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tdodd
Just call me Tim
Here's a third shot, quite pointless really, but I was just testing the limits of cropability for a small subject. This was shot raw and tweaked in Lightroom. As before, there is the full image, resized, and a 100% crop.
EDIT : and to answer the topic of the thread, the more I get to know the 50D the more convinced I am that Canon has got it right. If Adobe would do a better job with ACR then life would be even rosier, but it did take them quite a while to get things right for the 40D so we have to keep our fingers crossed that the improvements come soon for the 50D.
EDIT : and to answer the topic of the thread, the more I get to know the 50D the more convinced I am that Canon has got it right. If Adobe would do a better job with ACR then life would be even rosier, but it did take them quite a while to get things right for the 40D so we have to keep our fingers crossed that the improvements come soon for the 50D.
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Nice Pics. Tim, I think that for the time of year and with a 100 400 with a TC you have done very well, just wait until the good weather comes, I can see that there will be stunning images posted with the 50D, and like you say I would love to try a 500 f4 with the 50D.
I went out again today and the light was a little better, I got quite a few what (I) call good shots, but when I tried My 1.4 Kenko Pro TC with the 100 400 the other day in bad light ALL the pics. were rubbish, I can def. say that the 50D for birds in flight in A1 servo locks on really fast and spot on, my 40D was OK but this is quite a lot better, I still find DPP better than Lightroom and Photoshop CS3 for Raw conversion, one other thing, for Landscapes with my Tokina 12 24 and Portraits with Canon 24 105 L IS this camera is superb, I have also shot some candids with the 100 400 that blew me away.
Saphire
Christine
Iso 12800
Thought I would have a go at the high ISO 12800, taken with 400 f5.6 + 1.5 TC. No loss of detail and it was through a dbl glazed window but you do have to get the exposer spot on otherwise you introduce a lot more noise.
First photo no editing apart from resize
Second photo Define 2 color noise reduction only, no sharpening.
Thought I would have a go at the high ISO 12800, taken with 400 f5.6 + 1.5 TC. No loss of detail and it was through a dbl glazed window but you do have to get the exposer spot on otherwise you introduce a lot more noise.
First photo no editing apart from resize
Second photo Define 2 color noise reduction only, no sharpening.
Attachments
tdodd
Just call me Tim
Cheers
I'm also very impressed with the AF performance. Once again here is a ridiculous shot, but fired off as a quick test of AF speed and accuracy. This was shot with my 85/1.8, as I was trying for some ultra sharp shots of blue tits close up, but they never turned up while I was waiting. This little thing was whizzing across the sky and I didn't have long to get a bead on him. I was in AI Servo mode but I think that, having acquired focus quickly, I then released the AF-On button and tracked and fired without risking the AF slipping off the subject. It's a rubbish shot but I'm pleased with how quickly the camera locked focus.
Once again, this is the full image, resized, and a 100% crop. This was shot raw and has had no edits except "Output Sharpening for screen = low" on conversion to JPEG in Lightroom.
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tdodd
Just call me Tim
Arthur Morris speaks, briefly, about the 50D....
http://www.birdsasart.com/bn277.htm
More to come in December.
http://www.birdsasart.com/bn277.htm
More to come in December.
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ody
Well-known member
Since 1 week I shoot pics with Canon 50 D and my lens 100-400/f4,5-5,6.
I am not satisfied.
http://nagr.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-50d.html
http://nagr.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-50d.html
Last December I purchased a Canon 400 D and the lens 100-400/f4,5-5,6.
I must say the results were better.
http://nagr.blogspot.com/2008/11/summer-observations.html
Is it possible that I do anything wrong.
Is the combination (Camera and lens) proper?
I am not satisfied.
http://nagr.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-50d.html
http://nagr.blogspot.com/2008/11/more-50d.html
Last December I purchased a Canon 400 D and the lens 100-400/f4,5-5,6.
I must say the results were better.
http://nagr.blogspot.com/2008/11/summer-observations.html
Is it possible that I do anything wrong.
Is the combination (Camera and lens) proper?
Roy C
Occasional bird snapper
Some cracking shots there with the 50D I must say, very impressive, but then again he is using The birding lens
tdodd
Just call me Tim
I looked at the EXIF from one of your shots and saw....
400mm, 1/500, f/5.6, 400 ISO, Picasa3.
A couple of things spring to mind - the 100-400 has a reputation for softness when wide open at 400mm The high resolution of the 50D will surely highlight any softness when pixel peeping your images. However, reduced in size for web viewing I really doubt that you will have a problem with those settings at all, unless you are cropping really heavily.
I'm surprised to see Picasa3 recorded in the EXIF as the software used for editing/resizing or whatever you did with it. I use Picasa myself, but only to upload to Picasaweb. I do not use it for any editing. Personally I use DPP or Lightroom, mostly Lightroom. So the questions I have are....
Are you shooting raw or JPEG and which size/quality setting? Does Picasa apply sharpening after resizing for the web? Shots that I used to think were sharp, once, were made to look twice as good by carefully sharpening after resizing, in Photoshop. It's a real shame I hate Photoshop because it can obviously create some great photographs. In other words, I'm guessing your mistake may be i nusing Picasa for editing, if indeed you are.
There is a video on the Canon website which explains the need to sharpen all raw files and any files after they have been resized to smaller dimensions.
http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/controller?act=GetArticleAct&articleID=287&fromTips=1
Without seeing your original, untouched files, it is hard to give any specific advice.
ody
Well-known member
Hi, Tim!
Thank you very much for your time.
I shoot in L JPG and edit my pics with ACDS 8.0.It is very fast by editing.
Picasa is only the album in Blogspot.com.
I do sharpening after crop.
I didn't have these problems with the combination 400 D + 100-400.
Thank you very much for your time.
I shoot in L JPG and edit my pics with ACDS 8.0.It is very fast by editing.
Picasa is only the album in Blogspot.com.
I do sharpening after crop.
I didn't have these problems with the combination 400 D + 100-400.
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OBXGuide
Nature Photographer
Another review of the 50D is here ( http://photo.net/equipment/canon/50D/review/ ), this one from Photo.net. I must assume it's very recent since the email just came today with the newsletter featuring it - just one more opinion to add to the mix. BTW, my 50D and Canon 70-200mm F/4 IS came today too. You're looking at one happy camper.
Tectortony
Well-known member
Couldn't agree more Snowy Owl, the chance of changing from a 20D to a 50D get further away every day !!!
