Post by Romy Ocon on Jan 24, 2009 2:56:33 GMT
As a long-time cropped sensor shooter (300D, 350D, 20D, 40D and 1DM2), it takes a while getting used to the "shrinking size" of the subject in the 5DM2's viewfinder when using my birding lenses. Sometimes, I really have to fight hard the urge to add a longer TC and thus make the bird larger in the frame (at the expense of diminished IQ at the pixel level).
Here's an uncropped photo of a bird which is 8 inches in total length and shot from a rough distance of 40 feet, taken at Candaba wetlands recently.
White-browed Crake (Porzana cinerea)
CANDABA WETLANDS, PHILIPPINES, 5DM2 + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, 700 mm, f/7.1, ISO 400, 1/1250 sec, 475B/3421 support, uncropped full frame, processed and resized to 800 x 533
The saner side of my brain prevailed in my internal debate - I skipped the 2x TC, and just used a 1.4x, hoping at that time to crop the shot later and still have enough pixels to print fairly large.
Here's a cropped version of the above capture, trimmed to 3072 x 2048 (300D photo size), processed and resized to 1350 x 900. I've printed 20"x30"s from 8 MP 20D shots before and, if I did my part well during capture, feather detail is still great even when viewed up close. This 3072 x 2048 crop should print well to at least 16"x24".
A semi-processed 100% crop of the photo, optimized for detail rather than noise elimination:
My lesson learned? Don't always give in to the urge of trying to fill the 5D2 frame with the subject. Sometimes, a shorter focal length (with AF and better IQ at the pixel level) is enough for fairly large prints.
An added bonus is the large canvas available that affords me the flexibility to go for either a landscape or portrait composition. In other words, I can print the posted photo to 16"x24" either in landscape or portrait orientation, with the subject filling a good portion of the cropped frame.
Here's an uncropped photo of a bird which is 8 inches in total length and shot from a rough distance of 40 feet, taken at Candaba wetlands recently.
White-browed Crake (Porzana cinerea)
CANDABA WETLANDS, PHILIPPINES, 5DM2 + 500 f4 L IS + Canon 1.4x TC, 700 mm, f/7.1, ISO 400, 1/1250 sec, 475B/3421 support, uncropped full frame, processed and resized to 800 x 533
The saner side of my brain prevailed in my internal debate - I skipped the 2x TC, and just used a 1.4x, hoping at that time to crop the shot later and still have enough pixels to print fairly large.
Here's a cropped version of the above capture, trimmed to 3072 x 2048 (300D photo size), processed and resized to 1350 x 900. I've printed 20"x30"s from 8 MP 20D shots before and, if I did my part well during capture, feather detail is still great even when viewed up close. This 3072 x 2048 crop should print well to at least 16"x24".
A semi-processed 100% crop of the photo, optimized for detail rather than noise elimination:
My lesson learned? Don't always give in to the urge of trying to fill the 5D2 frame with the subject. Sometimes, a shorter focal length (with AF and better IQ at the pixel level) is enough for fairly large prints.
An added bonus is the large canvas available that affords me the flexibility to go for either a landscape or portrait composition. In other words, I can print the posted photo to 16"x24" either in landscape or portrait orientation, with the subject filling a good portion of the cropped frame.
you gain a more than decent TC-like effect at the len's native focal lenght. in the future, a very sharp 300mm prime will be the usual tool for newbie birders and still probably get today's 500mm quality shots. Now that is economical 