Junior, how many times do I have to tell you to comb

1/1250, f/5.6, ISO 800, 400mm, 7D, 100-400mm, range 50yds, 400mm, overcast. Very close deer family, they where very attentive to each other.

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great capture of how the mother deer takes care of her babies

Mama deer could use a little grooming as well, It looks like she's covered in ticks. In the north east US this year, it was a BAD year for ticks. My dogs and cats were constantly getting them, when in years past, none.

They are probably not ticks. Rather they are little seed stickers. I would not bet on it though. But my socks had a few in them this morning.

Great shot, Jack. I noticed the photos looks great at ISO 800 on that 7D of yours. Do you find it has a ceiling of acceptable noise for overcast shots like this?

Wonderful moment to capture. Congrats!

You are talking over my head. I'll answer what i think you are asking. I can reduce the noise to an acceptable level in processing. The camera makes a lot of noise if it is not micro adjusted correctly. I know that sounds odd. But for me it is the truth. I'm one of those people who learn by doing, I think i;m getting better, but I'm shooting a lot. Only about 3 1/2 months of experience. But jam packed.

Jack, that makes sense. Noise is always more pronounced in out-of-focus mid-tones such as background trees or other objects. High contrast scenes (those shot on sunny days for example) have greater contrast and thus more brightly lit and shadowed areas (where noise is less of an issue) than shots taken on overcast days when everything can be mid-toned (like your shot here). That was the basis of the question, sorry for not making myself clear. I find that my 50D performs perfectly well up to around ISO 400-640 but then starts to reveal some warts in mid-tones above that. It sounds like the 7D also performs pretty well.

Congrats on the photo. This is a great shot. You should make use of those 18MP and print it.

Lots of cloudy days. Had a sunny day then guessed wrong and drove over the mountain to a cloudy area. I really think that the 7D is good about noise up to about 1600. It is hard for me to tell because I have such a small kwowledge base. I am wondering if the 100-400mm I have is "sharp" I wonder if any 100-400 is capable of getting truly "sharp" My problem could and probably is operator error.