Sandhill Crane (Grus Canadensis) at the Bernardo Wildlife Management Area

[Jim Keener]

Greetings. I went to 'Bernardo (50 miles south of Albuquerque, New Mexico) today to compare image sharpness using a Canon 7D Mark II and a Canon 1DX. I had been suspecting soft focus issues on the part of the 7D II. And while there, decided to make one photograph to present here. Basic. The light wasn't the best, as it was about 10:00a, and there was nothing in the sky to add interest. But I did have a good angle on the birds. My next area of focus was, well, focus. And panning.

So. Here's a simple image of a magnificent bird.

• Canon EOS-1D X
• EF500mm f/4L IS USM +2x III
• ƒ/8
• 1000mm
• 1/2000s
• ISO 800
• James Keener rs
• Flash not fired
• Tue, 09 February 2016 10:25 PM
• Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.
• Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6.4 (Macintosh)

ORIGINAL

Canon 1DX
Canon EF 500mm f/4 IS, v1
Canon EF 2X TC vIII

Tripod
Gimbal

BBF
Single point expanded (f/8 limit)
AI Servo

1/2000
f/8
ISO 800

Evaluative metering
+1.3 stops

Lightroom
H -
S +
W +
B -
+ = more light
- = darkening
Slight nudge up on clarity and vibrance

The exposure adjustment caused the already light sky to be lighter still, and I found I had very little latitude to make changes to the color or saturation.

PS
Smart Sharpening

I'm eager to learn any way to improve the image, especially on issues of sharpness and exposure. My panning was okay here. The specular highlight in the eye had but the slightest elongation.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Diane Miller]

Gorgeous "pose"! Nice handling of the light. Tonal processing looks good.

It looks a little soft but it may be something in posting rather than the basic file. Post a 100% of the head for evaluation -- or just inspect it yourself. A 2X TC on a moving subject is skating on thin ice. But getting close isn't always possible, so we do what we can. Looks like you had the head right in the center, where the focus point was.

If the catchlight is slightly elongated you have lost some of the fine detail that contributes to sharpness. Was the Smart Sharpen on the full file before making the JPEG? Are you exporting the JPEG from LR? It usually does a good job. This may be a case where a very judicious smart sharpen on the re-sized JPEG would be a help -- but maybe that's what you meant.

I wouldn't worry about differences in the 2 cameras. AF should be comparable between the 7D2 and 1DX. The much bigger difference will be in field technique -- how well you can track and control the focus -- and that will likely have a lot of variability in different images. It would take a very large statistical sample to see a difference in those 2 bodies for a bird in flight. The main difference is that the 1DX should give cleaner files. There is a graininess to the 7D2 in comparison, but you'll need less crop. Probably a toss-up.

Focus calibration might be something to check, but I doubt it would be an issue at these distances.

Your best strategy is to get closer and ditch the TC. SO easy to say...

 

[Glennie Passier]

Hey Jim. Another one! Your cranes and my butchers. I know your persistence will pay off. The image looks good to me although maybe a little soft. The time of day was not ideal, as you know, but you have managed to get the difficult light under control. Composition is very good, as usual. Diane has covered all the tech stuff, as usual.

 

[Jack Dean III]

Great shot Jim.

 

[Isaac Grant]

Couple of things from me and also a disclaimer. I like the pose very much and I love the clear sky as a background. I know that some are not huge fans of that but I really like that. Brings your eye to the bird which is what we want. Keep in mind that I do not own and have never shot a full frame or a 500 with a 2x so consider this when reading my opinion. But I have a close friend that I often shoot with who owns this lens for a long time and I have been by his side countless times when he was shooting with it. I have also seen his results with all the combinations. He shoots with he 1d4 (with the 1.3 crop).

You are shooting with the version 1 500 f4. This lens does not take the 2x nearly as well as the version 2. This may be contributing to some of your softness.

Your shutter speed was 1/2000 which should be way more than enough to freeze the action in such a large bird. Yet the shot is not sharp so I think it suffers from motion blur (from the panning) and the use of the 2x combined with a fairly big crop.

Some minor nits are that I think you are also a bit over exposed and some of the colors are washed out due to that. I would bring the exposure down a bit.

Also and this is entirely my taste but I would prefer more room to the left of the frame. Give the bird some room to fly in to. The current crop feels a bit cramped to me.

 

[Jim Keener]

Diane | I took the 7D II along to test it for a potential return to the seller. It proved to focus poorly. Bad iteration of a good camera.
Isaac | I'm learning from each of the points your raise. Thanks. The sky is overexposed, but I think the bird is not. However, chacon a son gout. My problem as I look back at the photograph is the blue cast. The WB is off. Check the neck.

I have a sharper image that I made yesterday. I think I'll put it up tomorrow for a compare/contrast post.

Thanks, all.

 

[Diane Miller]

I think Isaac hit on some good points that I didn't raise for lack of personal experience. It does look soft, but there can be several reasons, and you may have several going on at once. The SS could be marginal for 1000mm even on a solid gimbal head. Were you on Mode 2 for panning? I've never seen information on what panning speed you should have before switching to it. But the many issues are solved by one strategy -- ditch the TC (or limit it to the 1.4X) and get closer...

I also can't compare the 7D2 to the 1DX, but I'm not sure why it would be thought to be better. Sounds like you bought a used one and some early ones did have focus issues -- was that why it was for sale?

The WB should be easy to fix in raw conversion and wouldn't affect apparent sharpness unless it was way off, which this one isn't. Bring the WB a little warmer and the Vibrance up a little. Balance both.

Midtones could use some contrast -- that's the Clarity slider and "sharpening" the resized JPEG.

 

[Jim Keener]

I wish I hadn't mentioned the 7D II. I must have been unclear. I made the trip to Bernardo in order to make photographs with it to support my position with the seller that this particular camera had a soft focus problem. I used the results from the 1DX for comparison. It is only this 7D II that I would compare to the 1DX, and solely for this purpose. I finally prevailed with the seller, after some Twitter nudging, and the seller is replacing that 7D II with another one. I plan to sell the replacement. I didn't want to pass on a less than useable camera.

 

[Jim Keener]

I like the wing position of this bird, and that is the only reason I can think of that would cause me to post it. No one here, surely, needs to see another Sandhill Crane. Of course, that's not a promise that I won't post another. The basics are off: WB, focus, and Isaac alleges exposure. Harrumph.

That written, I did get some very good feedback. Thanks, all.

 

[Diane Miller]

Jim, if you don't keep posting, I'll come after you in person!

We're all on a quest here -- including me. And most of us never get to shoot Sandhills -- they are gorgeous birds -- keep with it! And with your equipment explorations -- another thing we all go through.

Best of luck with the 7D2! I shot a full 32G card with mine today, plus 135 on a second card. First time I remember filing a card in one day (actually it was just a morning). Some pelicans and crashing waves at the coast. I hope to have time to post a couple tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Jim Keener]

Some pelicans and crashing waves at the coast. I hope to have time to post a couple tonight or tomorrow.

Okay. Now I'm jealous. Pelicans on the Pacific coast. No wonder your cards are full. There are several things someone must see/do in a lifetime. Yosemite Valley, a great flock of birds lifting off in the sunrise, and Brown Pelicans diving for fish.

I am convinced that the most important thing for me to do is to get a good capture in the frame. I'm getting a bit closer, but not close enough. I'm going to concentrate on that. Last night I developed a lesson plan for that, and the rudiments of post processing, having decided I want to be more methodical. And I ran into this: While there is a lot of information available for post processing study, I couldn't find much, hardly any, for getting birds in the frame. Arash writes a bit about it in his Canon AF guide, and Artie's videos at the Bosque for Canon on YouTube are good, but I can't find much more. Ideas?

 

[Diane Miller]

My plan is point and shoot. Of course, have the right lens on, and find a subject close enough. Today I used the 100-400 exclusively, with the 7D2, handheld, although I had the 400 DO and the 600 II with me, with tripod and TCs. I was lucky to find 4 pelicans at the sport fishing dock in Bodega Bay. They were very bored because the roaring surf had discouraged any sport fishermen, so they posed a bit for me and made brief flying forays. But that was only because after shooting waves farther north on the coast I turned into Bodega Bay and headed for my favorite crab shack for lunch. It was crowded so I went on a bit to see what I could find and found the pelicans. They were pretty close so I had plenty of focal length, and the light was good, with some thin high clouds. After a while I went back and got my crab sandwich, then came back to the dock and no bird was in sight. They were probably at the dumpster behind the crab shack.

My best strategy: luck. But it helps to be there... Have you checked out the Crane Pools? That's where I have gotten closest to Sandhills, as they fly out in the morning or in for the evening. It helped in the evening that my husband was the watch, and would call "Incoming!" as a group was coming from over my shoulder.

I stand a 0.01% chance of luck in Yosemite Valley next week.

 

[Jim Keener]

More jealous. Crab sandwich in Bodega Bay.

The birds aren't in the crane pools this season. Well, not any more. I'll spend some time down there next week to see how close I can get. Somewhere.

 

[Glennie Passier]

You guys! Jim, I love your persisitence with this..a bit like me and the Butchers. I know you are passionate and probably a bit frustrated at the moment, like myself. I googled Bodega Bay. Now I am very jealous. Jealous of Bodega and Yosemite, Diane. We are planning a camping trip the Snowy Mountains, down south. I hope my bird wrangler calls "incoming"!

 

[Diane Miller]

So we're even, Glennie. I'd trade my locations for your southern hemisphere view of the Milky Way, where the extremely interesting galactic center region is so high in the sky, and my local less-than-picturesque birds for your exotic ones!

BTW, the crab sandwich wasn't the best this time -- crab season never opened down here this winter due to some sort of toxin in the crabs, so it was imported from up north and not the freshest.

 

[David Salem]

Pretty funny, now your box is full.

Email me @ [email protected]

Talk to ya soon