Pileated Woodpecker Flight: 5D Mark III

[Doug Brown]

I just got back from a week of photography in Florida with my good friend Jim Neiger. I loaned him my Mark IV for most of the week, and spent my time getting to know the 5D Mark III a little better. IMO the 5D3 has the best AF system of any Canon DSLR ever produced! Here's a Pileated Woodpecker flight shot taken with the 5D3. <embed id="application/x-exifeverywhere" type="application/x-exifeverywhere" width="0" height="0">I'll be posting some detailed impressions of the 5D Mark III in my blog in the next week or two.

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Canon 5D Mark III, 500mm + 1.4x, f/6.3, 1/2000, ISO 800, manual exposure, hand held<embed id="application/x-exifeverywhere" type="application/x-exifeverywhere" width="0" height="0">

[Stu Bowie]

Hi Doug, with many images of woodpecker's perched on tree trunks on the site, its great to see one in flight. Excellent flight angle and posture with the raised wings, and you have exposed this very well. Tack sharp, and I do like the show of the splayed primaries. Looks like you had a successful time and that you are very happy with the 5D MK III. :w3

[Bill Holsten]

Great shot Doug, very crisp! I'm looking forward to hearing more about the 5D MK III.

Bill

[Lorant Voros]

We don't often see photos of this bird in flight. I'd wish for a head turn towards you. Good to know that the AF is that good on the new body. Looking forward to read your blog. TFS,

Lorant

[Neal Cooper]

Good image of this woodpecker in flight. The crop feels a little tight but overall a challenging shot well executed.

[Randy Stout]

Doug:


Very nice flight shot of this male, not an easy bird to capture in flight ( I have tried a number of times, unsuccessfully).

I like the climbing flight, angle in frame, exposure and details.

Could see it a shade looser re: crop as well, but if you got the pixels, I guess you want to flaunt them :bg3: with a tight crop.

Cheers

Randy

[dankearl]

Best in flight photo of the Pileated I have seen.
Very nice. I do see some noise on the bird, is this a large crop?

[Jim Crosswell]

Excellent image Doug! I like the flight angle, sharpness and exposure.

[Doug Brown]

Best in flight photo of the Pileated I have seen.
Very nice. I do see some noise on the bird, is this a large crop?

Thanks Dan. For a challenging subject like a Pileated, I think it's pretty large in the frame. The cropped version that you see above measures 3174 x 2116.

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[Doug Brown]

Could see it a shade looser re: crop as well, but if you got the pixels, I guess you want to flaunt them :bg3: with a tight crop.


Thanks Randy. That's precisely why I went with a tight crop. Plus it's a truer test of AF when you crop in tight on your subject and the detail still holds up.

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[arash_hazeghi]

this is a fast flyer! great job catching it

[Morkel Erasmus]

Very nicely done Doug. Will be interested in that blog post.

[Sanjeev Aurangabadkar]

Fantastic image. It's a really swift flier & you did pretty well getting it in flight!
Sanjeev

[Kaustubh Deshpande]

Doug, this is a tough one and you've nailed it. I like the size in the frame. great details.

happy to see that the AF system is so impressive. Its pretty clear that Canon has focussed more on AF than on pixels with the latest generation cameras.

[Doug Brown]

Appreciate the comments everyone!

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Not easy to achieve this type of picture, especially with a flying WP! well done and with very nice details, HA is not so problematic in this particular image! Would love to have one half as good as this one!