Pushing the 5D

Hey all,

Since the new cameras are out and we're all excited, I figured I'd take my 5D out and push it to its limits!

Up until the past few days, I've done all my wildlife photography with my 30D -- more apparent reach, you know? But yesterday I decided to max out my 5D. I got out my 300mm f/2.8 lens, a monster but fast enough so that I could use my 2x teleconverter and still have autofocus.

But I didn't stop there. I put the ISO up to 3200 to see how that would work with wildlife and what hit I would take with IQ. Then I headed up to the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge near my home in Washington State.

Well, of course there was a big hit with IQ! ISO 3200 murders detail! That, possibly some softness with the TC, and the fact that most of the time I had to take my shots out of a car window (getting out of the car will likely drive your subject away, plus you're on a one-lane gravel road and you have to act quickly because cars frequently come up behind you).

Anyway, the results weren't terrible, just not what you would like, but at least they are viewable.

If you're interested in seeing my processed results, you can check out my latest Ridgefield Refuge visit on PBase. If you want to see some pairs of pics with ISO 3200 and Noise Reduction and Sharpening off/on, then check out my Pushing the 5D gallery on PBase.

For this forum, here's a pic of my rig:

Cool... I guess.

Not really sure what this test is supposed to show. Yeah, IQ is going to suck out of a car window, wide open with a 2x t-con at ISO3200. But, you didn't need 1/8000th to shoot those shots, so you could have easily remedied this with a lower ISO and smaller aperture (I'm sure you knew this already and were just pushing for the sake of pushing. I'm just commenting).

Still, I guess given the circumstances, you now know what you can expect if you absolutely have to shoot ISO3200 wide open with a 2x t-con. Not great, but better than no picture at all.

AirBrontosaurus wrote in post #4226835
Cool... I guess.

Not really sure what this test is supposed to show.

...

Still, I guess given the circumstances, you now know what you can expect if you absolutely have to shoot ISO3200 wide open with a 2x t-con. Not great, but better than no picture at all.

That was pretty much the idea, pushing the limits just to see what the outcome would be, since in my "real world shooting" I would avoid the highest ISO settings. Even with my wildlife shooting I don't go above ISO 800. But, the point of yesterday was to do the test, see the results, then back to normal (which I did before the day was through).

Tony