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.

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.

A Tale of a Newborn Fawn and The Canon 5D MK III

This morning after the deer left the meadow, I decided to take a walk through the nearby woods.  The Canon T3i with 100-400mm lens was on the video tripod as it  is one of the most versatile lenses for this type of work. I had gone a short distance when I noticed a doe lying flat on the ground about 75 yards away.

This  happened much quicker than I can write it, but I put the tripod into shooting position while looking at the deer.  She was in a brushy area, which made it hard to be sure exactly what I was seeing, but she tried to get up at least twice before succeeding and I am almost certain that I saw a fawn fall out of her.  Whatever the case--once she left there was no doubt that I could see a  fawn still wet from the birthing fluids and it was so unsteady that it staggered about  as it tried to keep its' footing.  I took quite a bit of Video, utilizing the 3x crop factor ,which is available in video mode and then I slowly worked closer.    I found the fawn resting in the understory.  I did not approach it close enough to frighten it,  but I was close enough to use the 24-105 so I mounted it on the T3i. To my surprise, as I was doing this, the fawn  got up and walked to me with shaky steps. I was not able to get sharp still photos of this, as the shutter speed was too low to stop the motion, but I mostly took video and it turned out well. The fawn walked about mewing and at one point actually nuzzled my pants legs before it walked off a short distance and laid down again.

Newborn Fawn: Canon T3i--24-105mmLat 65mm ISO 320

After taking several stills and a lot of video, I left the T3i in position on the tripod and carefully retreated to the nearby meadow where my vehicle was parked and got my Canon 5D MKIII and 70-200mm F2.8 L lens with Gitzo tripod and Wimberley head, as an encounter like this is so rare that I wanted to try for the best quality possible and this camera is supposed to excel in less than ideal lighting conditions.  (I had originally not carried it as it seemed likely that any opportunity would be at long range and I wanted the added range of the 3x crop, which is available in the Rebel body--why didn't they put this feature in the 5D MKIII?--had they done so it definitely would be my favorite camera.)

At any rate, the fawn was still there, but not in quite the same position and I took a few shots before retreating.

Newborn Fawn: Canon 5DMKIII-Canon 70-20mm F2.8 at 73mm ISO 200

Newborn Fawn: Canon 5DMKIII-Canon 70-20mm F2.8 at 200mm ISO 200

 It is an exciting time as the young animals are born.  Soon it will be time to look for the bachelor groups of mature whitetail bucks as they roam the remote backcountry meadows in early morning and late evening, but for now the arrival of the young is the focus of attention.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill.

The Fawns Arrive

First Fawn of 2011-May 18th Canon 7D-500mm

 Last year I saw the first fawn of the season on May 18th, but I had not seen one this year as of Monday evening. Most of the does in the herd that I see almost daily give birth in early to mid-June with the majority being born within a few days of June 10th.  I noticed  sometime last week that one of the does that did have a distended abdomen, now had sunken flanks so I was expecting to see a fawn soon.  As it was growing late on Monday evening, I saw a tiny fawn walking with shaky steps from an area of tall grasses across a mowed area to the edge of the woods where it vanished.

In a few minutes a young doe approached and circled around looking at the edge of the woods with interest.  When she moved on, I cautiously approached with the T3i and video tripod.  There was the fawn--hidden in the weeds and grass at the edge of the woods.  After filming it, I took several still photos with that camera and the 100-400mm lens, before going back to my stand and getting the 7D and 500mm lens. 

First Fawn 2012: May 28th: Canon 7D 500mm

I saw a fawn in the meadow again last evening, but it was dark and spitting rain, so I only took video.  I will post a clip or so of this in the future as it was amazing to watch the interaction between the fawn and some of the yearling bucks.

This morning found me at the meadow again at dawn, I soon  saw a fawn nursing from a doe at the edge of the woods, but the grass was tall and I didn't get any photographs.  In about an hour I saw a fawn crossing the food plot, but it was too far for good photographs.

At 8:00 I saw a fawn emerge from the tall grass in another sector of the meadow.  This was close enough for good video and I filmed it for awhile and then began to work a bit closer with the 500mm and the 7D.  Just as I got to an acceptable range, the fawn dropped down at the border between a strip of grass and a food plot of oats, Essex dwarf rape, and clover. It was now to close for the 500mm so I carefully worked into position with the T3i and 100-400mm lens and filmed it from several angles, before getting into a head on position.  After I had enough footage, I switched to shooting stills and alternated between the 7D and T3i bodies. 

Young Fawn: Canon T3i 100-400mm at 135mm ISO 160

Many claim the 60D, 7D, and T3i have the same sensor, but this is not the case.  They all have the same mega-pixel rating, but there are differences and this has been confirmed by Chris Hurd who runs the premiere video discussion community on the internet today-- DV Info Net.  I have found the T3i to actually be a better video camera than the 7D, but the 7D beats  the T3i hands down for still photography.  This is mostly because it handles digital noise better, but even it is not that great at ISOs above 640. I recently installed a firmware hack called  Magic Lantern on the T3i in an attempt to improve its' video capabilities, and in my opinion it has improved the video functions of the camera immensley, but it also seems to have the added benefit of giving a smoother, more pleasing still picture as well.

What is "Magic Lantern", many will ask.  That is definitely a subject for another time, but suffice it to say it is not for the casual user nor the faint of heart.

Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill

Canon T3i: A Powerful Tool For Long Range Video

In early2011 Canon introduced a new top of the line entry level DSLR, which is known in most of the world as the 600D, but is called the T3i here in the United States.  It features an 18 MP sensor as does the 7D and the 60D.  They camera is available as a body only, or in kit form with the 18mm-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS II.  This post is not intended to be an in-depth review of the camera, but will rather dwell on what factors influenced me to purchase it over other models that at first glance may appear more desirable.

Canon T3i with 18mm-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS II Lens, Rode Videomic Pro, Manfrotto 516 Video Head

Lets face it, I am primarily a video shooter with a strong interest in still photography and even call this blog Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer, but when push comes to shove I will turn to the video over the still.  Even at this point I think still photography is better suited for blogging as in many cases a video will not play back smoothly or quickly online and readers do not want to take the time to deal with it. Suffice it to say that my still photography has often suffered due to taking second place to video.  A prime example is that while I almost always use a tripod to shoot video, I have taken a lot of Pennsylvania elk stills handheld or without some of my best lenses, because I used  the tripod for the camcorder and shot the still camera hand-held--often resting it over the top of the camcorder to obtain an extra measure of steadiness.  HD camcorders can take still photos, which are usable on the internet, but not suitable for enlargement purposes.

When the Canon 7D became available I had high hopes that it would enable me to take both high quality stills and video  and thus alleviate or eliminate the need for two separate systems, but while it did improve things it still did not allow serious wildlife film makers to move away from cameras such as the Canon XL-H1.  The Canon XL series uses (or should I say used--as they are now discontinued?)  an EF adapter to enable one to attach Canon mount still lenses.  Since the video cameras have 1/3' sensors, this makes a given focal length effectively 7.2X more powerful than it is on a 35mm camera.  In practical purposes this means that a 500mm lens becomes a 3,600mm 35 equivalent on an XL-H1.  One can often crop a photo quite a bit during post processing in still photography, but even high definition video is currently only about 2MP and one must be very restrained at cropping in post production so one either gets acceptable image size by getting close or by using a very powerful lens and these adapters enable one to use the powerful lenses.  The downside is that the cameras are/were very expensive with the XL-H1 coming on the market at nearly $10,000 in 2005 and dropping to the $8,000 range until it was replaced by the XL-H1s which sold for about the same price range.

At his point Canon has not yet offered a replacement for the XL cameras and while it is assumed that one is coming it will almost certainly be a different lens mount and the price will likely be very steep.  With that in mind, I am always hoping that a more economical way develops to take long rang video footage.

I got the 7D in October of 2009 and have been shooting it and a 40D since then, while still pressing a 30D into service at times, but this spring I was thinking that with my strong video interest that I needed to have both DSLRS to have video capability and this really came to a head one morning in late spring when I was taking stills with the 7D and 300mm 2.8 and the 40D with 70-200mm f2.8.  I was checking images on the LCDs to evaluate what I had taken and even though I had been aware of this all along at this point it really came home to me how good it was to have an LCD that was sharp enough to evaluate the sharpness of a photo.  At this point I decided that the 40D had to be retired.  I had almost decided to order a Canon 60D, which has HD video, an articulating LCD, and manual audio control.  The last two features make the 60D superior to the 7D for video.  In my research I noted that the 60D also had a "crop mode" which gave an added telephoto effect, but that this feature was in standard definition only.  A bit more reading and I found that the new Rebel, the T3i, actually had a 3X crop factor that was HD quality.  It is beyond the scope of this post to explain this completely, but bearing in mind that HD video is only 2MP, camera manufacturers reduce the resolution of an 18mp sensor to 2MP when recording video.  In short they are able to take a 3x crop from the T3i sensor and get the 2MP needed for HD without actually cropping pixels and destroying fine detail as is the case with using what is usually known as "digital zoom".  While Canon says the camera has a 3x-10X digital zoom--the 3X does not degrade quality (in fact some claim it is superior as it does not show some of the artifacts caused by scaling an 18mp image to a 2mp), while the 5X and 10X does as it does begin enlarging pixels beyond 3X.

Now with most of the technical talk behind us, what does this mean in terms of practical application to wildlife filming?  Today we will deal with this camera and the 500mm F4 Canon lens with 1.4 extender attached.  First the T3i along with the 7D and 60D has an aps-c sensor which has a 1.6 crop factor in Canon cameras compared to 35mm.  This alone makes the 500mm the 35mm equivalent of of an 800mm lens.  When one adds the 1.4 extender, it becomes  the 35mm equivalent of 1,120mm.

Canon T3i with 500mm F4 IS Lens and 1.4x Extender

While some would consider this to be an unwieldy rig, it is actually much easier to control than an XL-H1 with the same lens and I think it is easier to carry than the XL with even smaller lenses such as the 100-400mm Canon L.  First lets look at some whitetails feeding at  a tremendous distance and at this point we will just look at a photograph of the LCD.  The first photo is the 500mm F4 and 1.4 extender without the 3x crop engaged.

Canon T3i with 500mm F4 IS Lens and 1.4x Extender 1,120mm  35mm equivalent

Now lets look at deer at the same distance with the 3X crop engaged--the composition has changed somewhat, but this is still the same distance.  (I am not sure of the distance, but it has to be over 400 yards and may be well over it as I did check the distance on some clips that I took of deer that were much closer and they were over 300 yards).  At this setting the lens becomes a mind-boggling 3,360 35mm equivalent.

Canon T3i with 500mm F4 IS Lens, 1.4x Extender with 3x crop engaged: 3,360mm 35mm equivalent

Camera In Position: Red Cross Marks Where Deer Are Feeding

At this point you may be asking, why not just get closer?  Well, this is not always an option, especially with wild whitetail deer such as these ,which are in hunting country, or in the case of other birds and animals which are very small or shy..  This much power can also be useful around restricted areas where one may not enter.  In this particular circumstance, these deer are utilizing a group of backcountry fields that area spread over a large area, yet by standing in one central portion a person can see everything of importance, yet it they try to hide in a particular spot to get closeups with a normal video camera or even a big still rig, it is very hard to find a spot that gives one a good vantage point and then it is likely that the center of activity will be in another spot, As an example I recorded more bucks at this spot in just a few days , than I was able to in an entire summer using ordinary camcorders and got excellent results while doing so.

I hope to continue this discussion at some point and give more tips about long range filming, but for now I will close with two clips taken  at slightly over 300 yards distance. The first is of a whitetail buck taken in early morning with the 500mm F4 and 3X crop for an effective focal length of 2,400mm at ISO 400.



The second is of this buck interacting with a smaller yet impressive buck and is taken at about the same distance and at ISO 400 with the 500mm F4 with the 1.4 extender and 3X crop mode for an effective focal length of 3,360mm.



Originally posted at Pennsylvania Wildlife Photographer by Willard Hill