January Wildlife

The ground has been bare more often than not this winter and snowfalls to date have been light, although as I write this it is snowing and more snow is forecast over the next several days. The lack of snow has not helped winter photography as the countryside is drab looking without it. I see wildlife each day, but it is difficult to capture it in exceptional poses or doing something extraordinary.  It seems most of the local turkeys have congregated in a large flock some distance from where I ordinarily set up to photograph. I saw a large flock in a distant food plot on both January 19th and 20th on a farm which I drive past each day.  This field is one of the first spots that the early morning sun hits and on both mornings they were taking advantage of the relative warmth of this area. Both of the photos below were taken from about 250 yards away.
 

Distant Flock: Panasonic GH 2-Lumix 14-140mm@48mm-ISO 200-1/200 sec. f 11.0

I continually write about how far away something is and I think this comes from my  first futile attempts to photograph wildlife back in the mid to late 1960s, with an old fashioned 120 roll film box camera and a small 127 roll film point and shoot.  Both of these cameras had wide-angle lenses.  Deer were scarce back then and bolted at the sight of a human so it was hard to get within 30-50 yards of one. When I finally got some photos at ranges like this, I was discouraged to find that the deer were only small blobs in the picture. Consequently, I am most appreciative of how far we can reach with the equipment that is easily available today. I used the Panasonic GH2 for the wide shot as I had it on the front seat of the Bronco with a 14-140mm zoom lens fitted to it, which was perfect for an "environmental" type shot. The camera/lens combination of choice for the long shot was the Canon 7D and the 600mm f 4.0.

There were several mature gobblers with the flock. They were feeling the first stirrings of the fast approaching mating season for turkeys and were strutting and gobbling. 

Strutting and Gobbling: Canon 7D-Canon 600mm f4.0 IS- ISO 400-1/160 sec. f  4.5

The local whitetail herd is dealing with the winter quite well and I see them every day, but I seldom see them doing anything that is especially noteworthy or photogenic. I have only seen one rack buck since season, but two spikes were frequently seen. One of these shed his antlers in late December as was reported in the December 24th post, "Whitetail Buck Sheds Antlers".  The other buck carried his spikes through most of January and I photographed him on several occassions.

Yearling Spike Buck: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 600mm f4.0 IS- ISO 400-1/250 sec. f  8.0

Spike 2 Days Before Shedding: Panasonic GH 2-Lumix 14-140mm@140mm-ISO 200-1/200 sec. f 11.0

 He still had both spikes when he came into the meadow last Monday morning, but in a few minutes I noticed that one was gone.

 Spike After Shedding: Canon 5D MK III-Canon24-105mm f4.0L@105mm  IS- ISO 400-1/800 sec. f  4.5

Bleeding Pedicle: Canon 5D MK III-Canon24-105mm f4.0L@55mm  IS- ISO 400-1/160 sec. f  4.5

The other spike was gone on the following morning. This buck has good potential for another year.  If he is lucky he will grow a 12+" rack of eight or more points in his second year with antlers.  Deer may grow larger at a younger age in other parts of the state, but this is normal for this area.  As for those who think we need less deer to have larger bucks-that may be true to a CERTAIN extent, but herd reduction programs all too often result in deer being extremely difficult or next to impossible to see.  This is a never ending discussion and it is beyond the scope of today's post to discuss this in detail, but deer that live in a mixture of woodlands and mountain meadows are not as likely to grow large racks as those that feed regularly in grain fields.

We had only a modest deer herd in this area back the late 50s and one into the early 80s.  Most of the bucks killed were spikes, and small four and six-points with the occasional eight-point.  Sometimes a truly large buck was taken, but it was rare.  The point I am making is that back then the herd was not large enough to severely impact the habitat and most yearlings were still spikes or small rack bucks.  Based on what I know now, I suspect that many of the bucks of four or more points were not yearlings but were  two years or more old.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

The Canon 70D-First Impressions

Canon 70D with 300mm f2.8 IS

I purchased my first DSLR back in 2003,when most were still shooting film and digital photography was just beginning its' rapid rise to the forefront.  That camera was a Canon 10D,  a 6.3 megapixel camera, which if I recall correctly had an ISO range of 100-1600.  I stuck with this range of camera for several years, but I didn't buy each model that came out.  I passed on the 20D and 50D, but used both the 30D and 40D extensively.  Canon changed things with the introduction of the 7D in 2009.  This camera had a more professional feel and features than the 50D. With the advent of the 60D it became clear that Canon had in effect replaced the 10D-50D type camera with two different types--a higher end one (the 7D) and one that didn't have as many features or quite the professional feel, but was a distinct notch above the Rebel line in this aspect.  With that being said, the 60D was and is a great APS-C sensor camera.  Perhaps the greatest loss was micro-adjustment which was introduced in the 50D, included in the 7D, but not in the 60D.

In 2011 my main camera was the 7D, which was usually mounted on one of the big telephotos with the 40D being used with the 70-200mm, etc. so that one could cover a variety of situations without changing lenses. Since I am primarily a video shooter, in the spring I decided to replace the 40D  with another Canon that shot video.  A flip-out LCD is a decided plus for video so I was going to get a 60D, but then I found that the recently introduced T3i (600D) had a 3x crop mode that made extreme long range wildlife video recording possible. Since Canon had discontinued the XL-H1 type of camcorder that excelled at this, I was on the lookout for a technology that would give me the long range ability so there was no difficulty in selecting the T3i over the 60D.  The 60D is a more solid feeling camera and I prefer it for still photography, but since video was to be my primary use, there was no regrets.

I thought that Canon would improve on the 3xcrop or 3x-10x digital zoom principle and incorporate it in most if not all future models, but I was disappointed to find it was not in the 5D MK III or either of the two Rebel models that followed, the T4i and the T5i. Although they did introduce auto focus in the T4i this was not of interest to me without the 3X crop mode.

I got the 5D MK III in May of 2012 with its' primaryuse to be as a still camera. I found it had the best video quality of any of the Canon DSLRs I had tried so far, but it was sadly lacking in reach for long range work on whitetail deer, birds, etc.  In the meantime I had read many positive reviews of the Panasonic GH2, which was reported to have better video quality than the 7D, 60D, and the Canon Rebels.  I found this to be the case and used a GH2 for  long range video work from July 2012 until late  January of 2013 when I got the Panasonic GH3.  This camera  had even better quality than the GH2.  Another plus for the Panasonics is that they have decent autofocus in video mode when lenses such as the 14-140mm Lumix or 100-300mm Lumix are used. With that being said, I am not sure they have better video quality than the 5D MK III. They are a definite cut above the other Canon models we have mentioned in this respect; however.   but in my opinion the Canons win hands down as  better choices for still photography..

Canon 70D Equipped For Video With Canon70-200mm IS II L and Rode VideoMic Pro

 It was certain that I would try a 70D at some point when it was announced that it had "advanced movie digital zoom". This turned out to be a 3X-10X digital zoom like that on the T3i, although with the T3i they played up the term, "3X crop mode"instead.  Digital zoom has always left a bad taste in my mouth in traditional camcorders, etc., but this is somewhat different as at least on the T3i at 3x it is supposedly reading the central portion of the sensor to record a full HD 1920X1080  video file.  I am told that in actuality it is not quite full HD and is upscaled a bit, but it is still close enough that it does give very  acceptable video.  Based on limited experience comparing the two cameras so far it seems that the 70D digital zoom is the same as that in the T3i and is very usuable at 3X so it is likely actually the 3X crop at that point. On both cameras once you go past 3X you are into the same negative that has always existed with true digital zoom in that you are enlarging pixels and the image rapidly downgrades as the power is increased so I do not think it is usable for serious work past 3X. I do think the 70D  video quality is a bit better than that of the T3i, but there is not a tremendous difference at the lower ISOs. It seems like it gives significantly better performance at the higher ISO settings, but I am not certain of this yet. I will post no video clips today, but hope to do so after I do more testing.

70D Back View-Note 3.0"vari-angle LCD, video mode selector around record button

Perhaps the biggest news about the camera is the use of a  "revolutionary autofocus technology that unlocks the potential of Live View: Dual Pixel CMOS AF. This game-changing technology allows the EOS 70D to capture video in Live View with smooth and precise autofocus similar to that of a camcorder, complete with the superb image quality that is a hallmark of EOS cameras. Additionally, Dual Pixel CMOS AF provides fast and accurate autofocus during Live View still image capture, enabling you to fully benefit from the freedom of angle allowed by the Vari-angle Touch Screen 3.0-inch Clear View LCD monitor II. Compositional options are now nearly limitless with the two real-world choices of Live View and viewfinder shooting" as Canon describes it on the Canon USA Website. 

Whitetail Doe: Autofocus In Live View- Canon 70-200mm f2.8 @200mm-ISO 100-1/320sec. f 5.0

In my limited experience it does seem that they have taken the use of live view for still photography to a new level.  Gone are the days of lengthy hunting for focus in live view mode.  I like to shoot video with the camera on a tripod and about waist level or slightly above with the LCD tilted for easy viewing in that position.  Now taking stills is as simple as switching from video mode to your favorite still mode and pressing the release button.  Focus is rapid and accurate.  You could actually remain in video mode and capture the still for even less hassle, but I use different the Standard picture profile for stills and Neutral profile for video so I do like to change the mode button if possible.  In addition the camera focuses very well in video mode and compares favorably to the Panasonic cameras.  It will take more use to develop a final opinion.  One minus is that the Canon cannot use the new autofocus technology in the digital zoom mode but reverts to the old method, which will not track motion. Regardless of this, it still seems to focus reasonably well and will remain on the subject without hunting about until one presses the shutter release to refocus it. Once  focus is set you can press the movie button (it will not cause the camera to refocus ) and you can film in good focus until the subject moves and then you can either stop the camera and press the shutter button to auto focus or you can try to adjust focus manually while the camera is running, which seems to work reasonably  well.

While autofocus in video mode brings a significant gain in ease of use it does create problems with getting good sound.  Only Canon STM lenses are silent focusing.  At this point only a few are made and none are large telephotos or L lenses, so the vast majority of Canon lenses make a noise while focusing that is easily picked up by the internal mike or shotgun mikes mounted in the accessory shoe.  To date I have tried the camera with the 70-200mm f2.8 II L, 24-105mmf4L, and the 500mmf4 IS L. The 70-200mm is the quietest with the 24-105mm running a close second.  The 500mm f4 is very noisy, but still focuses quite well.  The bottom line is one needs to get the mike off of the camera for best results in situations where audio quality is critical. 

Most readers are likely more interested in how it performs as a still camera so I am posting a few stills.  I realize that perhaps I should post comparison shots between different camera models, etc., but at present time constraints prevent me from going into it this deeply and it can be hard to judge quality differences in internet photos and video anyway so here are some photos to give you a general idea of what to expect with this camera.

Mature Gobbler Late Evening: Canon 300mm f2.8-ISO 400-1/200sec. f2.8

Wild Turkey Hen in Morning Sunlight: Canon 300mm f2.8-ISO 400-1/640 sec. f4.0

All in all the 70D seems to perform quite well in good light.  The 5D MK III seems to get a higher percentage of photographs in perfect focus, but the 70D does quite well.  I think that those that are used to the 7D and the 60D will find the camera very acceptable, but I doubt they will notice a terrific improvement in still image quality, although the inclusion of micro-adjustment should give it a sharpness advantage over the 60D in some instances.  Of course there should be some gain in quality because of the 20.2 effective megapixel sensor vs the 18 effective megapixels of the 60D and 7D.  In addition there may be some gain in quality due to the DIGIC 5 processor of the 70D v.s. the DIGIC 4 of the 60D, but that is beyond the scope of this article.

The shot below was taken early in the morning and although I could have gotten away with using a lower ISO by going to a lower shutter speed, I wanted to get a general idea of how the camera performed at ISO 1600.  The image is also cropped a significant amount. Noise is noticeable on a large monitor.

Fawns Grooming Before Sunrise: Canon 300mm f2.8-ISO1600-1/500 sec. f2.8

When using the noise reduction tools in Photoshop, one must choose to have the image as sharp as possible, reduce the noise as much as possible, or find an acceptable compromise between noise and sharpness. The image above was the best I could do with noise reduced somewhat and the image being somewhat soft in the fine details. Whether right or wrong, I turn all in-camera noise reduction off and rely on Photoshop for noise reduction processing.

The bottom line is that based on my limited experience with the 70D I think it is better at handling high ISO settings than the 7D or the T3i, but I never used the 60D so have no opinion on that.  It does not do as well as the 5D MK III at high ISOs, but that is to be expected.  Over a period of time a much clearer opinion of its' capabilities will emerge, but for now it does seem like a good camera for the price range. It will be interesting to experiment and compare it against the other cameras that I use.  At present my favorite still camera is the 5D MK III and the video favorite is the GH3.  It will be interesting to see if that is still so a month from now.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Elk Calves'-The Spots Fade- Using the 5D MK III & GH2 in Elk Country

Spots Fade on Calf Elk: Panasonic GH2-Canon 500mm F4

 During August, most visitors to elk country may be focused on the bulls and the shedding of the velvet and the first stirrings of the pre-rut, but other important changes are occurring in the herd as well.  Like whitetail fawns, the calves are spotted at birth, which creates a camouflage pattern that helps them escape predators, but the spots start to fade in late July and this process continues until the coat is a solid color. The process begins at the top of the back and gradually works down.  By mid-August most of the calves are only partially changed such as the one in the photo above, but a small number have only a few spots still faintly visible. By the time the rut peaks in mid to late September most of the calves will have completely lost the spots or will have only a few faint ones.

Cow and Two Calves at Gilbert Viewing Area- one with spots almost gone: Still capture from video Panasonic GH2-Canon 500mm F4

 Two Calves at Gilbert Viewing Area- one with spots almost gone: Still capture from video -Panasonic GH2-Canon 500mm F4 -extended telephoto mode -35mm equivalent focal length approximately 2,000mm

This is the second trip to elk country that I have used the Panasonic GH2 as my primary video camera.  I was very unhappy when Canon did not include  the 3x crop mode in the 5D MK II or the new Rebel T4i.  I have no personal experience with The T4i, but I am told that the it does not have a better picture quality than the T3i.  I do have a fair amount of experience with the MK III in video mode and it is significantly better than the T3i in either still or video mode.  I am very happy with it when one can get close enough to the subject, but I missed the reach of the old Canon XL-H1 and the big L lenses, so after extensive research, I decided to try the Panasonic GH2 hybrid camera.

The GH2  uses a micro-4/3 lens mount and the sensor has a 2x crop factor.  The camera also has an extended telephoto mode, which takes the 2mp of resolution required for video from a small central portion of the sensor. This is how one can "really reach out and touch them" in video mode.  A decided down factor to this equation is that to use the Canon mount glass, one must use an adapter, and one that will electronically control the aperture costs almost as much, or more than the camera body--depending on which particular adapter one buys.  The bottom line; however,  is that the 500mm F4 , which is just that on a MK III becomes a 1,000mm F4 equivalent focal length on the GH2.  This is true in either still or video mode.  It becomes a 2,000mm focal length equivalent  in video mode when the extended telephoto mode is engaged.  The image is degraded somewhat , but it is still very usable.  I understand that unlike the T3i, one can also use this mode while shooting stills, but it will no longer utilize the full resolution of the sensor and as this is primarily a video camera in my case, I have not tried this yet.

Although one may not be able to tell from images posted on the internet, the bottom line is the GH2 cannot compete with any of the later Canon DSLRs as a still camera, but it is very usable and when one is concentrating on video it is an acceptable option to switch to still mode and take photographs.  Stills captured from video after the fact will be only 2MP resolution and will not be nearly as good as stills actually shot in still mode.

Calf Near Winslow Hill Road: Canon 5D MK III: Canon 500mm F4-ISO 400 1/640 sec. F4

A decided plus for the GH2 is that this is the first DSLR with which I have been able to follow-focus on moving animals or birds, in video mode, with any degree of success .So far manual focus  must be used in filming with a DSLR to have any hope of success and the LCDs are simply too low in resolution to reliably maintain sharp focus on moving subjects, even with the Zacuto Finder attached(the Rebel T3i did work better in this aspect than anything I had used previously).   The GH2 works better, because it has a blistering sharp electronic view finder in addition to a decent LCD.  I prefer to shoot video with the camera slightly above waist level and the LCD swiveled out and at a 45 degree angle, so I am standing above the camera, looking, down, and bent slightly forward.  This often gives a better perspective on the subject than standing erect, and using the eye-level finer, and it  is a good position to follow action from as one's head is not bumping the camera to disturb smooth camera motion, but the downside is of course the focus thing.  I find I am using the eye-level finder on this camera more and more, simply because I no longer have so much problem focusing.  

The bottom line is that one needs to keep an open mind about some of the options out there with the new high end Canon video cameras costing $16,000.00 without lens. 

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Pennsylvania Elk Country: Bachelor Groups of Summer

Fulton County Bachelor Group 2012: Panasonic GH2-Canon 500mm F4

 In my early years of deer watching and hunting I was not aware that mature bucks spent most of the year except the rut in bachelor groups. This was long before antler restrictions,  nearly all of the land in our area was open to public hunting, and there was little respect for the game law. One did not see many bachelor groups for the simple reason that few bucks survived to the age where they formed bachelor groups.  It also seemed that in that period, the outdoor newspapers and magazines did not deal as much with wildlife biology, but mostly with hunting stories and  firearms articles so there was not the awareness of  this concept that there is today and if one did see several bucks together they were likely to assume it was just a happenstance occurrence and not in fact normal behavior.

In time there was a lot more posted ground in my area and larger bucks were seen, but bachelor groups of large bucks did not become commonly seen in my area until antler restrictions were implemented in 2002.  I still don't think they are seen that often by the casual observer, because these animals are more shy than the yearlings and are usually seen in remote, quiet areas and are usually seen extremely early in the morning and very late in the evening.

The point of this ramble about bachelor groups  is that Wednesday morning, July 11th was an exceptional morning for seeing bachelor groups of both bull elk and whitetail bucks.  I traveled some distance from Winslow Hill to check out an agricultural area at dawn.  Shortly after dawn, I saw two outstanding whitetail bucks, but had no opportunity to photograph them.  Moving on, I came to a pull-off overlook a large reclaimed area.  There I saw three bucks.  One was small, but the other two were very nice indeed.  It was too far for good still photography so I took only video, using the Canon 500mm F4 with the Panasonic GH2 hybrid camera.  This camera has a micro-4/3 sensor, which has a 2x crop factor.  It also has an extended telephoto mode when shooting video, which is also about 2x, so in effect this gives the 500mm on this camera the effective focal length of a 2,000mm lens.  It can do this in video mode without enlarging pixels (digital zoom) because HD video is only 2 MP resolution, so it reads its information from only a certain part of the central portion of the sensor.  One can capture a still from the video in either the camera or in an editing program, but the resulting picture is only 2 MP.

Elk County Bachelor Group: Panasonic GH2 Canon 500mm F4- still from video

To this point I had not yet seen one elk, but after filming the bucks I drove on a short distance and came to a field beside the road and it seemed to be filled with bulls.  Parking in a safe place, I  got out and mounted the Canon 5D with 24-105mm lens on the video tripod and took some stills and video of the entire bachelor group.

Bachelor Group of Young Bulls: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 24-105mm F4 L ISO 400 1/60 sec. f8

One's first reaction on seeing this was that the field was full of large bulls, but closer inspection revealed there was not one truly impressive mature bull.  These were all either raghorns or young bulls that still need to live a few years before they can grow impressive racks.

Young 5x5 Has Potential: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm F4 L ISO 400 1/320 sec. f4.5

Even though the bulls were not as large as hoped, it was still an impressive sight and a morning to remember. To emphasize how important being out early is--the elk left the field shortly after 7:00 a.m. and I saw no more elk or deer until that evening.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.