Winslow Bulls And The 5D MK III

To be honest, Winslow Hill is not the best place to see mature bulls during the summer months--especially with the loss of three of the largest bulls that used this area as summer home range, in the past few years.  With that being said, I did encounter two rack bulls and two raghorns on the hill during last weeks trip.

The first that I successfully photographed was a  6x6 or 6x7 if one counts a small sticker point near the right ear. This was most likely a raghorn last year and is now in his first year as a rack bull.  While very nice indeed, this is still a small bull for Pennsylvania.    I encountered him in a meadow by the side of Winslow Hill Road on Thursday evening at 8:33 p.m. and stayed with him until nearly dark, taking a lot of still photos and video footage of him--all with the 5D MK III and 70-200mm f 2.8 IS L lens.

6x6 Winslow Hill: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 70-200mm f2.8 ISO 1250 1/200 sec. f4

I was back at the same area at the crack of dawn on Friday morning, and again I had the 70-200mm attached.  At first I saw two rag horns quite close to the road, but I never did get good stills of them because as I was trying to set up a good shot, I noticed a large 6x6 coming out of the tree line some distance away.  I took two frames of him, but it was obvious that I needed more power, so I quickly mounted the 500mm F4 and soon was in action with it.  This bull was a bit shy and stayed close the tree line for most of the encounter.  This was very early and the light was somewhat murky.  I used ISO 3200 so as to have a bit of a safety margin against motion blur.

Large 6x6 Winslow Hill: Canon 5D MK III-Canon 500mm F4-  ISO 3200 1/160ec. f4

Both of these encounters are prime examples of how improved noise handling at high ISO settings and larger aperture lenses are a great aid in wildlife photography.  Again I stress that the statements I make are based on limited experience with this camera and are not based on tightly controlled tests, but rather on impressions gained under actual shooting conditions in the field.  The first photo today was of course taken at ISO 1250 and the full resolution file on a desktop monitor seems as sharp and noise free as one taken at ISO 400 or less with the 7D.  It is acceptable for the most critical usage.

ISO 3200 on the other hand is starting to push the limit for something that you would want to enlarge to great sizes, enter in a photo contest, submit for publication etc.  Digital noise is visible, although I feel there is no more than is present in the 7D at ISO 800.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Mid-Summer In Elk Country

I was in Elk Country most of last week, photographing and filming the elk and working on "Pennsylvania Elk Country", the new film slated for release in late summer. An added bonus was getting to work more with the Canon 5D MK III on Pennsylvania's largest wild animal and getting my feet wet with the Panasonic DMC-GH2 EVIL (acronym for electronic viewfinder Interchangeable lens)camera, for long range video work. I concentrated on looking for calves and bulls in velvet, and did see quite a few.

Shy Cow: Canon 5D MK III-500mm F4 ISO 100 1/500 sec. f4.5

The cows and calves are still somewhat shy in most cases, and it was difficult to get close-up portraits of them-especially the calves. This is amazing because the same cows that flee now, will continue to graze peacefully when other herd members are shot close-by  in hunting season, or at least they did last autumn and I would expect no differently this year.

As one would expect, most wildlife activity was very early and very late.  If you miss being out there at the crack of dawn, you have missed the best part of the day.  The cow above was photographed at 7:41 a.m. and most of the elk had already gone into the woodlands.  They spend very little time in direct sunlight at this time of year.  If they have not already left before, they tend to leave a meadow soon after the first rays of sun touches it.  Fortunately, I did luck out to a certain extent concerning the weather on this trip, as I am told it was extremely hot in elk country the week before, and returned to sweltering temperatures by the weekend, but most of my trip was quite pleasant summer weather, which is to say hot, but not unbearably so.  In fact a light sweater felt good on most mornings.

Early in the trip I found that cows and calves were using a secluded meadow quite frequently, and I spent two evenings watching it. On Wednesday evening a group of cows and calves came into range, but some of the adult cows picked me out and barked at me   The calf in the photo below raised its' head from grazing and looked at the cow that had just barked.

Alert Calf In Late Evening: 5D MK III-500mm F4 ISO 400- 1/250 sec.,  F4.5

This encounter occurred at 7:54 p.m.  In time they worked into a strip of woods and began working toward Winslow Hill Road and soon you could hear the traffic on the road stopping as people paused to observe the herd.

On that note, I must mention that I saw very few other elk watchers or photographers in the mornings, but there was quite a bit of traffic in the evenings.  It seems that interest is higher this month than what it was in June.

Originally published at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Low Light Video Performance Canon 5D MK III vs T3i

Last summer I was filming elk in very late evening with the Canon T3i near the ponds along Dewey Road.  It was a pleasant evening with a full moon hanging in the sky and I lingered  after normal shooting light was passed.  I had not had the T3i long and was trying its' paces out so as to speak.  I was surprised to note that I was actually filming at 9:12 pm and it was not looking all that bad on the LCD.  At this point I was using ISO 6,400 with the 300mm f2.8 lens at 1/30 sec. It was no surprise to find that the video was very noisy when viewed on a large screen,HDTV.  This experience made me realize that the day was not too far off when one could take excellent video in unbelievably low light conditions.  In fact from what I have read, the 5D MK II camera would have handled low light noise much better than this, while the 7D that I also had along gives about the same noise handling performance as the T3i.

Fast-forward to this June and I was back on Winslow Hill with a new 5D MK III and a determination to do some extreme low light shooting if possible.  At 9:10 one evening, I found a bull in a meadow just off of Winslow Hill Road, which was featured in the still photographs in the previous post.  Along with taking the stills, I did a substantial amount of filming at high ISO settings.

The following is a short video of clips from the July 2011 incident with the T3i, with a clip from the rut thrown in at the beginning to show how ISO 800 performed on that camera.  The last two clips are from the 5D.



This is not a very scientific test as the ideal thing would be to compare the cameras under identical lighting conditions, and surroundings.  The cow and calf filmed in 2011 are not in as ideal surroundings as the bull in 2012, which may make the T3i look worse than it could have--I should have tried it too this past June.  I must also point out that the differences between the cameras are much more noticeable on a large HDTV than on internet video.

The bottom line is that when using the Canon Firmware on the T3i, I think ISO 800 is about tops for professional quality video and lower settings are better.  With the Magic Lantern Firmware Installed, 1,600 ISO seems about as good as 800 with the Canon Firmware, etc. (I hope to explore this in more depth and explain what Magic Lantern is, before long).  The ball game changes entirely with the 5D MK III and it is possible to get very decent video at ISO 3,200 and above (3,200 is a total waste on the T3i).  Even an astonishing setting of 12,800 appears to be as good or better than 1,600 on the T3i although some will complain that the picture is a bit mushy from noise reduction.

Originally Posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

Pennsylvania Bull Elk Are Good Test For 5D MKIII

The recent trip to Pennsylvania Elk Country was not only a chance to enjoy watching and photographing wildlife, it provided an excellent opportunity to test the performance of the Canon 5D MK III in the low light conditions that one often encounters while photographing and filming elk and whitetail deer.  Often large bulls or bucks are seen so late that in the recent past it was not possible to get an acceptable picture to simply use as a record of what one saw--let alone an image that could be classed as an artistic photograph.  This has changed dramatically with the advent of digital photography and the situation continues to improve fairly rapidly although not as quickly as some might hope.

The first photo was taken soon after daylight in a meadow along Winslow Hill Road.  This photo could have been taken with any of the DSLR cameras that I have used since 2003, although the Canon 10D would have shown a substantial amount of noise at ISO 640 under these lighting conditions.  Had I been using it, I would have used a lower ISO with a lower shutter speed in hopes of getting a better quality photograph, but it was possible have greater margin of safety against problems from motion-blur, with the MK III by using the higher ISO settings.

6x6 Bull at 6:08 a.m.:  Canon 5D MK III- 500mm F4.0 1/200 sec. F4 ISO 64

He paused before leaving the meadow twelve minutes later and I got the photo below.  The light had improved enough that I could increase the shutter speed to 1/500 sec., which further increased the safety margin against motion blur.

6x6 Bull at 6:20 a.m.:  Canon 5D MK III- 500mm F4.0 1/500 sec. F4 ISO 640

That evening I found a bull in a meadow across the road from where I saw the bull above was feeding in the morning.  I am not sure if it was the same bull or not, but this situation was a real challenge.  In this case I boosted the ISO setting to 12,800 and still had only 1/30 sec. shutter speed when using the 500mm F4.

6x6 Bull at 9:13 p.m. :  Canon 5D MK III- 500mm F4.0 1/30 sec. F4 ISO 12,800

There is nothing scientific about any of this and perhaps testing is not the right word. It is simply using the camera under the conditions which one ordinarily encounters wildlife.  I keep no detailed records except what is recorded in the meta-data of the file. This type of shooting does; however, give one a good ideaa of what to expect from the camera under a wide range of conditions.

 The last photograph does show quite a bit of digital noise and is not something that one would submit for publication or make a large print to hang on the wall from, unless it was of an exceptional animal.  It is a usable image and as such is a drastic improvement over any camera that I have used to date.  I do not claim to have a wide range of experience as financial considerations keep me from owning a wide variety of brands and I have not bought the top end Canon cameras either, but used the 10D, 30D, etc. class camera, until the 7D came along in 2009.  This is my first foray into using a full-frame sensor.  Everyone I have talked to that owns a full-frame camera has told me that they prefer them to the crop-sensors and my experience so far seems to bear this out.

I am less than thrilled with the full-frame for video under certain circumstances; however.  It is definitely better than the Rebel T3i or the 7D If one can get close enough, but that is a problem with wildlife in many cases.  Canon did not see fit to put a 3x Crop mode in the 5D MK III, as they did in the T3i, which really cripples it for long-range wildlife filming. 

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.