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Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!
Hummingbird today.
- Thread starter Jaime Johnson
- Start date
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jaime Johnson: Humming Bird
Canon 1Dx / Canon 500mm f4 L
Jaime,
I adore these birds and this coloring is new to me. So, do you use some sort of trigger or just wait? Is this with flash and Better Beamer extension?
Asher
Beautiful Hummer, Jaime. I would also be interested in details on the shot.
I see that you're now shooting with a 1DX - I would be very interested in your experience so far with it, in terms of comparison with your prior Mark IV, working with the images in post-processing, etc.
One big disadvantage for me, and many bird shooters, is the loss of Autofocus capability when the maximum aperture is f/8. Is that still the case, or did they manage to work around that?
Also, there is an apparently effective loss of pixels because the sensor size increase is not matched by the pixel count increase, resulting in a lower pixel density (again, relative to the Mark IV). For people whose work is more at the long end, than the short end, this could potentially be a downside.
Your thoughts on these and other initial impressions would be welcome.
I see that you're now shooting with a 1DX - I would be very interested in your experience so far with it, in terms of comparison with your prior Mark IV, working with the images in post-processing, etc.
One big disadvantage for me, and many bird shooters, is the loss of Autofocus capability when the maximum aperture is f/8. Is that still the case, or did they manage to work around that?
Also, there is an apparently effective loss of pixels because the sensor size increase is not matched by the pixel count increase, resulting in a lower pixel density (again, relative to the Mark IV). For people whose work is more at the long end, than the short end, this could potentially be a downside.
Your thoughts on these and other initial impressions would be welcome.
Jaime Johnson
New member
Asher,
I sat with a tripod on my deck all afternoon yesterday. I use a Gitzo 3530LSV with a Wimberly head. I have three feeders in front of me and I spin to whatever one has the bird visiting. Each feeler has a Canon 580EXII Speedlight on a light satnd controled by a TT5 Pocket Wizard on each (and a TT1 on the camera). I shoot manual mode and dial in for the proper exposure by trial and error. It usually takes a dozen shots at the birds to get the exposure exactly where I want it. I am about 17 feet from the feeders. I did not use the better beamers.
I ended up with several shots I likes and posted a few on my site (under "last few months").
My site i located here: http://jaimejohnson.zenfolio.com/
Here is one more i liked:
J-
I sat with a tripod on my deck all afternoon yesterday. I use a Gitzo 3530LSV with a Wimberly head. I have three feeders in front of me and I spin to whatever one has the bird visiting. Each feeler has a Canon 580EXII Speedlight on a light satnd controled by a TT5 Pocket Wizard on each (and a TT1 on the camera). I shoot manual mode and dial in for the proper exposure by trial and error. It usually takes a dozen shots at the birds to get the exposure exactly where I want it. I am about 17 feet from the feeders. I did not use the better beamers.
I ended up with several shots I likes and posted a few on my site (under "last few months").
My site i located here: http://jaimejohnson.zenfolio.com/
Here is one more i liked:
J-
Last edited by a moderator:
Jaime Johnson
New member
Don,
The camera is so new, it is difficult to give you a full report. It is also so expensive that anyone buying one wants it to be good! ; ) That being said, I will pass on a few first impressions. The camera is laid out well - I really like the locations of controls and ease of use. This is a big plus from my MK IV.
But the one thing that is leaps above the MKIV (IMHO) is the focus. The Dx is unbelievablally fast and accurate. I remember back with the MK III always having to review my work and ask myself "is it sharp". Then the MKIV came along and was much better. The Dx seems much much faster to focus and very accurate. The focus points are great - a very large area is now available. I'd read some people didn't like the point selected not being illuminated red, I was worried about that because I am constantly using this feature. But, it is not even an issue for me - the point selected stays illuminated in black and is very easy to see.
The manual is about 500 pages and the camera is filled with new functionality - one thing that is really cool is the electronic camera level. Not sure if it is going to be used that much, but it is fun to mess with..
As far as autofocus over f8, I haven't even run into that yet. Being mostly involved with wildlife, I seem to hover around the f5.6 area. I rarely venture above f8 (with wildlife). If I was shooting panos or landscapes (using f22 or whatever), I usually manual focus anyway. I'll have a look to confirm your comments and report back.
I'm only a few hundred pictures in, but have not noticed any issues working with CS6. The RAW images from my MKIV are approx 20 megs per image, the Dx is approx 22.
J
Thanks for the info, Jaime. What I've read so far is that the Autofocus is spectacular. It apparently is also quite complex, with even more settings to customize than prior 1D cameras.
As for the f/8, shooting birds I find I'm very often using my 600/f4 with the 2x teleconverter, which obviously brings me to f/8. It's that specific combination of equipment that would be problematic for me with the 1DX.
I'll look forward to additional impressions as you gain more familiarity and experience with this camera.
As for the f/8, shooting birds I find I'm very often using my 600/f4 with the 2x teleconverter, which obviously brings me to f/8. It's that specific combination of equipment that would be problematic for me with the 1DX.
I'll look forward to additional impressions as you gain more familiarity and experience with this camera.
Maggie Terlecki
Moderator
Jaime, beautiful pictures. I also checked out your website's gallery and found some amazing animal photography. Just gorgeous!
Maggie
Maggie
Jaime Johnson
New member
Don,
I just went up and had a look at the autofocus capability of the 1Dx with my 500mm -
It worked fine at f8 all the way up to f22 - if there was an issue, it must be worked out.
It works great with everything I tried!
J
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Jaime,
While that's encouraging, it might be an incorrect setup to answer Don's question about the f8 limitation for the 1DX. As far as I understand the matter, the critical f stop is the optical one at the widest aperture. For your 500mm, it's f 4.0, I believe. Try that with a 2x teleconverter and that should answer the question.
Asher
Precisely. Autofocus always operates when the aperture is wide open, and only stops down when the image is taken. The 1 Series cameras have historically been the only Canon camera bodies that maintained Autofocus when the maximum aperture was only f/8. All the others required f/5.6.
So putting Canon's 2x teleconverter on any f/4 lens will test this out - it is my understanding that the 1DX is the first 1 series body that will not Autofocus with this setup.
Ironically, I believe if you use a non-Canon teleconverter, Autofocus might still operate with a maximum aperture of f/8, as apparently these converters don't correctly report the aperture status to the camera, so the camera doesn't "know" it's now at f/8.
Maggie Terlecki
Moderator
Oh, so wonderfully captured. Hummingbirds are so amazing to me, being so tiny and fast and although so beautiful yet astonishing how territorial they are. Gorgeous images that led me to your website where I found astounding imagery. Thank you.
Maggie
Maggie
Jaime Johnson
New member
Sorry, been traveling to a shoot for a few days -
I tried the 1.4x and all f stops work / but, when I tried the 2x it did not auto focus. Not a problem for me (never use it), but if someone is counting on it working with the 1Dx - they will be disappointed!
Thanks for the verification, Jaime. Disappointing, but not surprising.
As you indicate, for many people it's a non-issue, but for bird photographers it's actually a pretty big one. I'm astonished that Canon made this move. The least they could have done is to let the photographer enable it as an option, as they do for the "expanded" ISO settings.
We all understand that AutoFocus will not work as effectively with a maximum aperture of f/8, but we've been dealing with that all along, and still getting a fair number of keepers.
Oh well, at least it saved me several thousand dollars!!
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Don and Jaime,
Switch to live view. You will get autofocus by contrast detection. It should be as good as manual focus. You would need to take twice the number of shots to account for the wider error in that mode. So if you normally made 5 shots and got one perfect picture, you might need about 7-10.
Asher
Switch to live view. You will get autofocus by contrast detection. It should be as good as manual focus. You would need to take twice the number of shots to account for the wider error in that mode. So if you normally made 5 shots and got one perfect picture, you might need about 7-10.
Asher
I appreciate the suggestion, Asher, and this might be workable in some circumstances, but in general, it's not practical (at least for me).
Often, the ambient light is too much to make effective use of the LCD to begin with. And secondly, I'm often shooting birds in flight, and continuous AutoFocus is mandatory. If the subject is relatively stationary, this might be workable, but even there it's not really practical for moving wildlife.
But I do appreciate the thought!
Bart_van_der_Wolf
pro member
Hi Don,
From what I've read, that is technically not possible, because of the design choices made to improve the AF accuracy.
Apparently Canon has tried to move the left and right, and top and bottom, AF sensors further apart. That increases the measuring base for the phase detection, but unfortunately it also cuts the light for the sensors off at narrower apertures sooner (below f/8.0). They could perhaps have added more AF sensors closer together, but that gets complicated very quickly because there is also a kind of facet lens involved.
Unless one uses an extender without proper signal transfer, it looks like an effective widest aperture of f/8.0 will continue to disable AF in the 1Dx. Maybe Canon will decide to add a 1.6x extender to their program, which would possibly work with f/4.0 lenses.
Cheers,
Bart
I guess that makes sense, Bart - thanks for the information.
I'll just stick with my Mark IV, probably for a number of years, and see how things unfold.
Jaime Johnson
New member
Thanks Jaime. This confirms what I suspected (see Post # 10 above). Non Canon teleconverters don't appear to report the actual aperture correctly, so the Camera is 'fooled' into Autofocusing.
Artie Morris doesn't comment on the non-Canon 2X Teleconverters, but I'll bet they'll also work.
And interestingly, even though my Canon 1D Mark IV will Autofocus at f/8, and not beyond, if I stack both the 1.4x and 2x Canon TC's on my 600/f4, it will still Autofocus, even though it is now technically at f/11. Somehow, the reporting to the camera is inaccurate, and the Camera still tries to Autofocus, despite that it is now at f/11.
I think this is the same thing that is going on with the 1DX, and is good news. I don't know if it will happen, but I still think Canon should enable f/8 AF on the 1DX, as it is now clearly demonstrated that it is possible.
Best regards,