I’ve been constantly smiling since picking up my 5DIII: smiling when I’m shooting, smiling when I’m not shooting, smiling when I’m in Lightroom and smiling in my sleep.
I loved the 7D but as my ability to use the camera increased so did my appreciation of image quality and my desire to be able to shoot in poorer light and shoot birds in flight. I managed to get some shots with the 7D that I like, and some that did well in International competitions but the limitations of the camera restricted when and what I could shoot. After a week with the 5DIII I am totally, helplessly besotted.
Superb Fairy-wren
Canon 5DIII, 100-400mm L IS USM, 1/640, f/5.6, ISO 400, focal length 400mm
Can you see the little aphid in the fairy-wren’s bill? The 5DIII has a 61 point auto-focus system. I saw this wren in my peripheral vision, I turned and shot and captured the moment. It was that quick. There was no searching for focus, which was good because it was a shot that would have been missed with a delay of a fraction of a second.
Striated Thornbill
Canon 5DIII, 100-400mm L IS USM, 1/1000, f/5.6, EV 1 2/3, ISO 800, focal length 400mm
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Striated Thornbills are tiny birds, 10cm and 7g, that could sit quite comfortably on a 50c piece. They rarely pause. I experimented with ISO settings and was happy to see that there was minimal noise at ISO 800.
Eastern Spinebill
Canon 5DIII, 100-400mm L IS USM, 1/500, f/5.6, 1 1/3 EV, ISO 800, focal length 390mm
Eastern Spinebills are arguably one of the prettiest honeyeaters, I always enjoy hearing their piping call and catching a glimpse of them as they flit around taking nectar from blossoms. They weigh about 11g and their bill contributes to their 16cm length. I caught the damp honeyeater above between the dip into water and the shake.
White-naped Honeyeater
Canon 5DIII, 100-400mm L IS USM, 1/400, f5.6, EV 1, ISO 800, focal length 400mm
Early one morning I tested the 5DIII at ISO 800 in a backlit situation and was impressed with the detail it picked up. These little honeyeaters are 14cm in length and weigh about 13g, they move as rapidly as the thornbills.
New Holland Honeyeater
Canon 5DIII, 100-400mm L IS USM, 1/400mm, f/5.6, 1 EV, ISO 1600, focal length 400mm
Then I tried ISO 1600 and still no problem with noise! New Holland Honeyeaters usually look like long, thin birds so it was fun to capture this one looking like a fluffy puffball. The background in this shot was closer to the bird than in the other images. I very much like clear, non-distracting backgrounds (as in the other images) that allow birds to stand out but I don’t overly mind the glow of blurred leaves behind the New Holland.
Flying bird food
Canon 5DIII, 100-400mm L IS USM, 1/320, f/5.6, ISO 400, focal length 400mm
I’m keen to have more luck capturing high quality images of birds in flight and am hopeful as last week I captured the above image of bird food in flight! If anyone can ID this little critter I’d like to know what it is.
I spent a year waiting for the 7D Mark II to be announced. I wanted several features including improved autofocus, less noise, more megapixels, a larger rear screen with better definition and a dial lock. I’d hoped to keep a cropped sensor to keep birds a little larger in the viewfinder and I liked the eight frames per second continuous high speed shooting but photography is about compromise and I am more than happy to drop to six frames per second and to have a full frame sensor.
Many thanks to everyone who gave advice and helped me with this decision and purchase, without you I wouldn’t have spent so much of the past week under my camo hide, I wouldn’t have been able to share these images and I wouldn’t have had a European Blackbird land on my lens or an unidentified bird land on my head – what a wonderful week.
Happy birding, Kim
PS The Equipment page has been updated to include the 5D Mark III and various other items.
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