Tag: bird

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7D Mk II High ISO Performance

Last week I went out in the evening to run my new 7D Mk II through its paces with bird photography (most likely my primary use for this camera). Since my mind was in test mode, I decided to stay out after sunset (much later than normal for bird photography) to see how the camera performed in low light situations. I left the camera in auto-ISO mode to let it decide how high it needed to go. About a half hour after sunset, I was packing it in and heading back to the car, when I saw this blacktail jackrabbit eating from a patch of grass.

A blacktail jackrabbit ventures out into the grass just after sunset, Redwood Shores, CA.
A blacktail jackrabbit ventures out into the grass just after sunset, Redwood Shores, CA.

I was a bit skeptical that anything would turn out given how dark it was. Not even sure if the auto focus would be able to work well in the darkness, I splayed out my tripod legs and got very low to the ground. Auto-focus seemed to be tracking well, so I started firing off bursts of shots, not really paying attention to the ISO. I knew it was high, but I wanted to see how high the ISO could go and still produce a usable image. This was highly dependent on the noise produced at high ISOs, and the amount of reasonable noise reduction I could perform in post processing.

The image above was shot at ISO 25,600! While I realized this produced far too much noise for a large print, it seems to be perfectly usable for web-sized images. You can also see here that the auto-focus was extremely accurate, even in low light.

So how does this translate into changes in the way I photograph? Nothing, really – a shot with this much noise is more of a curiosity than any hard data with which to change my workflow. However, let’s look at another example at a more reasonable ISO.

A hermit thrush pauses briefly on a branch in the last night of the day, Redwood Shores, CA.
A hermit thrush pauses briefly on a branch in the last night of the day, Redwood Shores, CA.

I photographed this hermit thrush a little earlier in the evening than the jackrabbit. It was around sunset, but the sun had already set over the coastal mountains, so the light was certainly waning. Because of the extra light, the camera chose a more “reasonable” ISO of 5000 for this shot. But still, ISO 5000 is very high!

With my previous camera, ISO 1600 was really pushing the boundary of acceptability, with only about 50% of those images being able to hold up to the noise level. After running noise reduction on this image however, it became clear that images shot as high as 5000 ISO would be usable for many circumstances. This probably still wouldn’t hold up for a 16 x 20 inch wall print, but would most likely do fine for editorial use.

Finally, in order to show how smooth the images really are at ISO 800, I’ve included a shot of an anna’s hummingbird, followed by the 100% crop of its head.

An anna's hummingbird perches on a thin branch, surveying the landscape, Redwood Shores, CA.
An anna’s hummingbird perches on a thin branch, surveying the landscape, Redwood Shores, CA.
A 100% crop of an anna's hummingbird. At ISO 800, the Canon 7D Mk II performs with amazingly low noise.
A 100% crop of an anna’s hummingbird. At ISO 800, the Canon 7D Mk II performs with amazingly low noise.

With previous cameras, I’ve always used ISO 400 as my standard starting point, moving up and down the range as light would allow. But with the 7D Mk II, I will likely start shooting at ISO 800 most of the time. I’ve run a slight amount of NR on the hummingbird shot, but the noise is so low that I’d rather have an extra stop of light to play with and get faster shutter speeds than feel the need to drop down to a lower ISO.

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Bird Photography With The Canon 7D Mk II

A great blue heron stalks fish in still shallow water, Belmont, CA.
A great blue heron stalks fish in still shallow water, Belmont, CA.

I spent about an hour this morning doing some bird photography with my new 7D Mk II. My primary use for this camera will be birds and wildlife, and I found and photographed some of the usual suspects around my home. This is not meant to be a formal review by any means, but I wanted to share some of my first impressions.

A black-crowned night heron perches above water in pre-dawn light, Belmont, CA.
A black-crowned night heron perches above water in pre-dawn light, Belmont, CA.

Aesthetics

Before we get to performance, I have to address how the camera felt out in the field. It was a real joy! The build quality is solid and the camera was extremely responsive and accurate. Ergonomically, the buttons are laid out well, and I can tell a lot of thought went into designing the UI. The number of settings on this camera can be daunting, but almost everything can be customized to suite your exact photography needs.

A golden-crowned sparrow perches atop an ornamental bush, Belmont, CA.
A golden-crowned sparrow perches atop an ornamental bush, Belmont, CA.

Auto-focus

Obviously auto-focus capabilities are one of the headliner features for this camera. Canon’s new auto-focus debuted on their flagship pro body, and have been filtering down to less expensive cameras in the last couple of years. I haven’t tried out the myriad AF algorithms available (I’ll do further testing with these using birds in flight), but I can say that auto-focus was fast and accurate. Almost everything I captured was tack sharp. I’ll be setting up the camera with different AF settings depending on whether I’m photographing stationary animals or birds in flight.

A blacktail jackrabbit pauses in the morning light to watch for predators, Belmont, CA.
A blacktail jackrabbit pauses in the morning light to watch for predators, Belmont, CA.

Noise Performance

As the sun was rising, I shot mostly at ISO 1600, gradually dropping down to ISO 400 as the day got brighter. At ISO 1600, there is still some noise visible in the shadows, but it was easily corrected in post processing. I found very clean shadows at ISO 800 and below. With my previous camera (7D), my starting ISO was usually 400 and I’d go up from there if the situation demanded it. Based on the performance of the Mk II, I will probably do most bird photography at ISO 800, giving me a full stop of extra light to play with in most circumstances.

A great blue heron is reflected in still water in early morning light, Belmont, CA.
A great blue heron is reflected in still water in early morning light, Belmont, CA.

Frame Rate

Shooting at 10 frames per second felt awesome. Even though I’m used to 8 fps with the older 7D, the incremental speed boost was noticeable. While I didn’t have any action situations that called for this speed this morning, having that capability was reassuring. With the large buffer, I never hit any card write delays, even though I was shooting with a slow card.

A black-crowned night heron stands on a buoy, watching for fish, Belmont, CA.
A black-crowned night heron stands on a buoy, watching for fish, Belmont, CA.

Silent Shooting

At one point, I crept close to a black-crowned night heron and began to fire off 10 fps bursts (mostly just for fun). The chatter of the shutter was loud enough to get his attention, and he stared at me, looking a bit anxious. I then remembered that the camera features a silent shutter mode (it applies extra dampening to the shutter mechanism so that it is very quiet). I set the camera to silent burst mode. This reduces the fps from 10 down to what felt like 3 or 4 fps, but it was nearly silent! I continued shooting photos of the now comfortable bird. This feature will actually be very helpful for getting close to some of the more sensitive wildlife – a nice little bonus.

A greater yellowlegs is reflected in shallow still water, Belmont, CA.
A greater yellowlegs is reflected in shallow still water, Belmont, CA.

Overall Image Quality

So far, the results are fantastic. One caveat is that at the time of this writing, Adobe does not yet support the camera’s RAW files, so I had to use Canon’s software to convert to tiff before processing them in Lightroom. I’m sure I’ll get better results once I can process the RAWs directly with Lightroom, as Canon’s processor seems very poor. But the images are sharp, and the tones are pleasing. Auto white balance seems accurate. If anything, it seems that the Mk II overexposes a little more than the 7D, but I’ll get a feel for where the exposure compensation needs to be for various lighting conditions as I use the camera more.

Of course, the camera also has some goofy crowd-pleasers like multiple exposure and in-camera HDR. While I wont be using these for any serious work, they can be fun to muck around with if you’re bored.

A black-necked stilt fishes in shallow water, Belmont, CA.
A black-necked stilt fishes in shallow water, Belmont, CA.

Overall, this is a fantastic camera, and I had a very enjoyable first time out with it!

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Recent Publication – Bay Nature

A turkey vulture perches on a log along a beach in early morning
A turkey vulture perches on a log along a beach in early morning

I was fortunate enough to have an image selected for the cover of the upcoming issue of Bay Nature magazine. I shot this turkey vulture in soft diffused morning light out at Pescadero State Beach. Once I saw him, I dropped to my knees in the sand and slowly started making my way toward him, every few feet stopping to get a safety shot. Finally I was close enough to frame him in a portrait, and was able to get several head poses. It turned out that he was in no hurry to leave, so after I got the shots I wanted, I crept away from him so as not to disturb him.

While not the prettiest bird, when caught in the right light, you can bring out their feather detail as seen here. In bright sunlight, their dark feathers are usually rendered to an inky black, so it was nice to see some of the lightness of the feathers come through in this kind of light.

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, grab a copy. It is a great magazine and will introduce you to new places around the bay.

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Why I’m Buying the Canon 7D Mk II

This week Canon finally released their long awaited successor to the very popular (5 year old) 7D. The 7D is one of my main workhorse camera bodies, used primarily for bird and wildlife photography.

Canon 7D Mk II

Here is a rundown of why I have already pre-ordered the Mk II. These are the features that are most important to me based on the type of photography I will do with this camera.

Most Important Features

  • APS-C sized (cropped) sensor.

The smaller size of the sensor on this camera is what sets Canon apart from many competitors, who seem to be pushing the high-end pro-sumer market to full frame cameras. Canon still sees a space in the lineup for APS-C sensors, and so do I.  I will primarily use this camera for action (wildlife and bird photography), so having the extra "reach" will be a big benefit to me.

This factor prevented me from considering the 1DX for wildlife work when it came out. Although that is a fantastic camera, I couldn’t justify losing the 1.6X “zoom” factor that a cropped sensor gives me. The 7D Mk II has a much higher pixel density than the 1DX (20 MP on 7D MkII vs 18 MP on the 1DX), which will allow me to capture more detail. In fact, if you compare the pixel density of the same area of sensor between both cameras, the 1DX only has just over 11 MP compared to 7D Mk II's 20 MP.

  • f/8 auto focus capability.  

This has been under-reported on, but is a huge feature for my use. Allowing auto-focus to work down to f/8 means I can pair my 800mm f/5.6 lens with a 1.4X tele-extender, which gives be an effective maximum aperture of f/8. This combo also gives me the 35mm equivalent of a whopping 1792mm, a distance I’ve never been able to use auto-focus with before.

Having this kind of distance flexibility to work with can get me closer to the action without spooking or antagonizing my target species.

A burrowing owl stands on a small berm overlooking its burrow

Species like the endangered burrowing owl will become stressed if you get too close. If it is only watching you, then you are too close – it should be constantly swiveling its head looking skyward for predators.

  • Improved AF tracking (including low light) [65 all cross-type auto-focus]

There is nothing worse for a bird photographer than to patiently wait for your subject to take flight, only to watch the bird fly away as your camera is hunting for focus.  Having the best of class auto-focus will ensure my equipment will not be the one at fault.  In the future, I'll only have myself to blame!

Having so many auto-focus points for the camera to choose from means that the auto-focus algorithms can track a subject throughout much of the frame.  Cross points allow auto-focus on horizontal and vertical lines throughout the frame.  This means faster, more accurate focus seeking and tracking.

A barn owl flies low over a field, hunting for rodents just after sunset, Bodega Head, California.

The 7D Mk II’s improved low light auto-focus tracking should make keeping focus locked on birds such as owls who take to the sky at dusk more manageable.

  • "Intelligent Tracking and Recognition (iTR)"

iTR is a new feature introduced with the Canon 1DX and has now filtered to the pro-sumor line. This employs a new RGB metering sensor which can detect and track moving subjects based on color, size and shape. Theoretically, this should help keep focus on erratic motion, such as flying birds. I’m looking forward to putting this to real world tests.

  • Improved high ISO performance

The majority of wildlife come out during the ends of the days, either in early morning or late evening.  Having a camera that can focus and capture images in this kind of light with relatively low noise will be a huge advantage.  While this camera probably does not match the low noise of cameras with a lower pixel density, it will be a big improvement over my 5 year old 7D.

  • Auto ISO parameters

Canon finally got this feature right, with many manual controls around how the metering will select the proper ISO for a given shooting condition.  I can now set a maximum ISO to use (which I'll set to the highest ISO I deem to have acceptable noise), as well as the minimum ISO. With this feature, I can also set the minimum shutter speed the camera will use before increasing the ISO in low light scenarios. Currently I manually set my ISO up or down as the situation calls for it, but I will certainly be using a limited auto-ISO range so that I don’t miss any critical moments.

Nice to have features

  • 10 fps shutter speed

I already have 8fps with the 7D, but hey, 10 is more than 8, right. All the better to help capture critical action like this:

A male white-tail kite flies past a female, which reacts to his close proximity
  • GPS

Sure, why not?  However, I will now have to be careful to strip out any location data from photos of sensive locations such as this:

The mountains of the easter Sierra Nevada glow red over the Sky Rock Petroglyph, just outside of Bishop, CA
  • Intervelometer

Nikon cameras have had this for years, so its nice to see Canon catch up.

  • Buffer depth (31 RAW vs 25 RAW in 7D)

This is a huge buffer! Having the ability to take 31 consecutive photos at 10 fps is pretty incredible. I’m not a big fan of spray and pray photography, but when you need to blast off a few, knowing that your camera won’t suddenly go quiet on you brings great peace of mind.

Copyright 2017 Hank Christensen