Post your best bird shots!

[sedwards]

White-Throated Sparrow
7DII
400mm
iso 400
f5.6
1/2500

0V8A1768 by sedwards679, on Flickr

[Joel Eade]

White-Throated Sparrow
7DII
400mm
iso 400
f5.6
1/2500

0V8A1768 by sedwards679, on Flickr

Very nice detail. I am finding that (for bird photography) the 7D2 is a "good light" camera. In other words, when you have good light it produces great images but, so far, I am finding it difficult above ISO 1000 to really get great bird images.

I think there are a few reasons for this.....

1. In low light and low contrast situations focusing is more challenging although I am very impressed overall with 7D2 autofocusing.

2. Above ISO 1000 noise becomes a bigger problem, especially in any areas that are slightly under exposed, and it is tough to conquer it in post.

3. In low light you may be forced to use a slower shutter speed and with very small pixels and very high pixel density the least little flaw in your technique will be revealed as a less than sharp image.

This is not to say that you won't see some great images at higher ISO settings but I think that the realm of low light and high ISO is the primary weakness of the 7D2. I would say this is to be expected based on the sensor design. I have nothing negative to say about the 7D2 after using it for about 2 weeks now. Would love to know what you think of it.

[Joel Eade]

Male Downy Woodpecker

7d MKII
500mm
Manual mode, spot metering
ISO 800
f/4.0
1/500

[Joel Eade]

We are having thunderstorms intermittently today but there was a brief gap in the weather with really nice light so I took some ISO 1600 shots with the 7d MKII.

I added 1 stop of light to most of them to prevent any chance of under exposure and I also down loaded the version of DPP that came with the camera. I found out it handles the noise better than Adobe Camera Raw

This is a full frame image. The light was very good as you can see from the shutter speed. I could have shot this at ISO 400 and 1/500 sec but I believe the very high shutter speed really helps to produce sharp images of birds especially with this camera.

7D2
500mm
ISO 1600
f/4.0
1/2000

[DavidEccleston]

Joel, Can you do a test? Check how you feel about the noise when you down size to 64-71% (ie: assume you've got a 5Ds 50MP, and you're going down to normal full-frame 20-25 MP image) Assuming 7DII and 5Ds have similar per pixel noise...

The regular 7DII noise levels will be similar to what you'd get in a 5Ds when you need the extra reach/cropping abilities, while the downsized images would tell you if the 5Ds can replace an existing camera, or if it would have to be an addition (thus making it more expensive).

[Joel Eade]

This is another image of the same bird.

Converted to JPEG from RAW using DPP and no further processing except that the second image was downsized to 70% using "Image Size" in CS6





I think down sizing helps very slightly. I don't see a dramatic difference.

[Busted Knuckles]

Joel, explain to me why you wouldn't swap ISO 1600 for 400 and shutter speed 2000 for 500th?

[Joel Eade]

Joel, explain to me why you wouldn't swap ISO 1600 for 400 and shutter speed 2000 for 500th?

Ordinarily I probably would but I am just experimenting with 7D2 to see what it is capable of doing and I wanted to shoot specifically at ISO 1600 for that purpose.

[Bill W]

m Pileated WP listening for mate's call. He was building this new nest site and would take a break to listen for her....she would see him and let him know she was watching his progress.





Cleaning out the debris

[Minerve101]

First post of a picture. I liked the low key effect for this one.