Saturday, January 08, 2022

Re up Digital Blasphemy

I thought I'd re-up this blog.


Richards Pipit
Isles of Scilly
Date: 27/08/2003
Model: Canon EOS-D60 Lens (600f4): 250 ISO: Aperture: 4.5
Shutter: 1/500 Exp. Comp.-0.7 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: AI Servo AF


Wilson's Petrel
At Sea Isles of Scilly
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II  Lens (400f4 Do)

As I've just bid on one of canon ancient cameras that I use to own over twenty years ago   I've bid £10.00 on a Canon D60 6.3Mb.  I paid in 2002 £1.600+ for the camera, but my reason for the re-up is can you tell the difference between 6Mb and 24+mb?

So I didn't win the item on eBay, it sold for £15.00, but I have won/purchased on eBay a Canon 30d 8.2 MB ill 


A twenty-year review of my ancient Canon EOS Digital Cameras 


Blyth's Pipit
Isles of Scilly
Date: 19/10/2007
Time: 13:37:22 Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II
Lens (mm): 840 ISO: 200 Aperture: 7.1 Shutter: 1/2000

It's something that I've been planning to do.  A review of my Canon Digital cameras and the image quality.  So make your mind up and draw your conclusions. 

There are lots of photos to look back on from my archive of images from around the globe.  To be honest, my camera equipment is now showing its age, it's a bit like me getting old and creaky and banging on a bit.

Red-Throated Diver

Of
 interest, I was up to my waist in the sea photographing this Diver when it dived right between my legs.


Date: 27/08/2005 
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens (300f4): 250 ISO: 160 Aperture: 4.5
Shutter: 1/1000 Exp. Comp.-0.7 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: AI Servo AF


Semipalmated Sandpiper
 Porth  Hellick
 Isles of Scilly
Date: 02/08/2003
Model: Canon EOS D60 Canon Lens (:300f4) and ISO: 100 Aperture: 7.1 Shutter: 1/400 Exp. Comp.:-.3
Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF

 

Gannet
At Sea 
Isles of Scilly
Date: 27/08/2005 
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens (300f4): 300 ISO: 160 Aperture: 4.5
Shutter: 1/5000 Exp. Comp.-0.7 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: AI Servo AF

You'd think with the advances made In digital SLR photography and Mirrorless cameras, megapixels, sensors, autofocus, lens optics, screens resolutions, and so on, you'd be thinking there'd be a massive improvement, in image quality. There has been in certain areas, an improvement, flip out, rotating screen and resolution, autofocus speeds, operating system, menus etc?  

I'm now starting to feel, a bit of a photography dinosaur, now after 50 years of photography, using a variety of different formats 35mm, 6cm x 6cm square images on 120, 126mm,  Slides, and print film, Polaroid's, medium format, Hasselblad's etc and finally Canon EOS Digital.  

Steve Young from Birdwatch Magazine ( my amigo) said back in the day,  digital photography, it's never gonna catch on.   In those days we'd sell prints to birders of rare birds, we've never let him forget what he said about it. Digital photography and how it is now mainstream.

Short-billed Dowitcher 
Isles of Scilly
Model: Canon EOS 550D ISO: 200 Aperture: 6.3 Shutter: 
1/640 Exp. Comp.: +0.3 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF

 I owned full-frame cameras that we're at the time was the very best you could get,  I have other types that could rattle off 10 frames a second, which I rarely used the high frame rate, which would occasionally frighten off the bloody bird.  That's a good thing about mirrorless no shutter noise,  I've almost always had the latest high-end cameras from Canon. But for me at this moment in time, I seem to be reverting backwards in time.  All I'm using the camera and lens for is just to record what I've seen, I guess that's what most bird photographers do? 

Razorbill
Isles of Scilly
Date: 16/06/2004
Model: Canon EOS D60 Lens (300f4): 300 ISO: 200 Aperture: 5 Shutter: 1/2500
Exp. Comp.: -0.7 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: AI Servo AF

 I've never really felt the need to use all those bells and whistles that we're on offer in the sub-menus. I'm a bit of an instinctive photographer, a single shot at a time, when everything looks right, I Press the shutter


Black-capped Petrel
Off Auckland New Zealand
Date: 31/03/2008
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens (300f4): ISO: 400 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter: 1/4000 Exp. Comp.: -0.7 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: AI Servo

But can I justify spending another £3.500+ on yet another Digital camera? for my very low-resolution Birding Costa Blanca blogs. 

White Chinned Petrel
Date: 12/11/2003
Model: Canon EOS D60 Lens (300f4): 300 ISO: 100 Aperture: 4 Shutter: 1/800 Program: Aperture Priority
Focus Mode: AI Servo AF


Arctic Tern.
At Sea South Atlantic.
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens (400f4 DO) ISO: 200 Aperture: 10 Shutter: 1/200
Exp. Comp.: -1.7 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF

  I don't think I'll be winning any more awards for my type of photography as nowadays as it's mostly from a car or a hide. I'm not getting down and dirty for a bird's eye view,  I find it hard just getting down there never mind getting up nowadays.  I'm not supplying rarity bird images for publishing and probably not reaching the minimum requirements needed, for publications.

Cream coloured Courser
Isles of Scilly
Date: 13/10/2004
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens (600): ISO: 100 Aperture: 8 
Shutter: 1/500 Exp. Comp -0.3 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF

My good friend and amigo Hadoram Shirihai, who's is the most brilliant photographer /writer/ researcher said to me this. .... His camera and lens is just a tool to help his research, which will forever wind me up no end, because of the fantastic photographs he takes. And the camera for him was just like a brush is to a painter/artist.

Montague's Harrier 
Extremadura Spain
Date: 14/05/2016
Model: Canon EOS 550D Lens ( 840) ISO: 200 Aperture: 7.1 Shutter: 1/1000
Exp. Comp.: -0.3 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF

My question is this?

Can you see any difference between any of these photos taken with my various ancient relic Canon Digital Cameras close to the top is a photo of a Semipalmated Sandpiper is taken with a mere 6.3 megapixel D60  but it doesn't look any worse or any better than the Canon 760D 25 + megapixel Alpine Accentor photo?   Most images were taken canon L lenses

Great Spotted Cuckoo
Guadalentín Spain
Date: 17/04/2018
Model: Canon EOS 5D full-frame Lens (740) ISO: 100 Aperture: 7.1 Shutter: 1/800 Exp. Comp.: -0.7
Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-ShotAF

 I'm I going mad?  

Honestly, I'm not seeing any major difference in images quality?  considering the difference in pixels size, density, crop sensors, and full-frame, and very little difference between the cameras over the last twenty years of research and development.

 I must be missing something?

 I get it, that more pixels make bigger enlargements and finer detail possible, but do we need a 2 foot high Alpine Accentor photo?

Alpine Accentor
Pyrenees Spain
Date: 19/06/2017
Model: Canon EOS 760D Lens (600F4) ISO: 400 Aperture: 7.1 Shutter: 1/2000
Exp. Comp.: -0.3 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-ShotAF

 If anything digital noise looks a little bit worse on the Canon latest 1.6 crop sensors cameras.  (It might be different on the mirrorless camera? ) I guess because there cramming more pixels in the same crop sensor resulting in more noise.  Post-production noise reduction can be used with care, it does add a little softening and loss of image detail.

Wilson Snipe
Isles of Scilly
Date: 23/10/2007
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens ( 600F4) ISO: 100 Aperture: 8 Shutter: 1/32 Exp. Comp.: -1.0 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF


Interesting comparison of images over time"

All images processed in the latest Adobe Camera RAW, only basic level's and sharpening applied, little or no noise reduction applied

Pied Wheatear
Isles of Scilly
Date: 16/10/2003
Model: Canon EOS D60 Lens (600f4) ISO: 100
Aperture: 5.6 Shutter: 1/800 Program: Program AE Focus Mode: One-Shot AF



Desert Wheatear
Isles of Scilly
Date: 12/10/2010
Model: Canon EOS 40D lens (600f4) ISO: 400 Aperture: f8 Shutter: 1/3200 Exp. Comp.: -1.0 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF



American Golden-Plover
Tresco 
Isles of Scilly
Date: 04/10/2006
Model: Canon EOS 20D Lens (600f4) ISO: 200 Aperture: 9 Shutter: 1/1000 Exp. Comp.: -0.7
Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF


Buff-breasted Sandpiper
St Agnes 
Isles of Scilly
Date: 17/09/2006
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens (600F4) ISO: 200 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter: 1/2000 Exp. Comp.: -0.7 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode One-Shot AF


Royal Tern
Cuba
Date: 13/01/2008 
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens ( DO: 400f4) ISO: 125 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter: 1/2000 Exp. Comp.: 
Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF


Short-tailed Albatross
Chichijima Northern Pacific
Date: 01/05/2008
Model: Canon EOS 40D Lens (400f5.6) 400 ISO: 125 Aperture: 6.3 Shutter: 1/1000 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: AI Servo AF

KaguNew Caledonia South Pacific
Date: 09/04/2007
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens (135) ISO: 250 Aperture: 5.6 Shutter: 1/80
Exp. Comp.: -1.0 Program: Aperture Priority
Focus Mode: One-Shot AF

Conclusion my personal view
My favourite Canon Digital camera body of all time very fast accurate autofocus and
pin-sharp images, it never missed a shot and would buy again without hesitation.
Canon 1D Mk Il only 8.2  megapixels and a 1.3 crop

King Penguin
South Georgia South Atlantic
Date: 20/03/2006
Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II Lens (DO 400) ISO: 200 Aperture: 10 Shutter: 1/200
Exp. Comp.: -1.7 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF

The Canon D60 is a bit of a relic at only 6.3 megapixels it's a bit slow autofocusing using a telephoto lens and challenging for seabird photography, but I've used it and done it and the results are fine.  I've seen it for sale on eBay as low as 99p in working order with a lens attached, I think I paid about £1.600

Southern Royal Albatross 
Kaikoura New Zealand
1/11/2003 
Model: Canon EOS D60 Lens (130) ISO: 400 Aperture: 6.3 Shutter: 1/640Exp. Comp.: 0.0 Program: Aperture Priority Focus Mode: One-Shot AF

below is my list of the Canon cameras I've owned and or still have

EOS 550D/Rebel T2i/Kiss X4 

EOS 650D/Rebel T4i/Kiss X6i

EOS 760D/Rebel T6s/8000D

EOS 5D 

EOS-1D Mark II 

EOS-1D Mark III

Used purchased EOS D30 

EOS D60

EOS 10D 

EOS 20D

EOS 40D

EOS 50D

Mirrorless Canon EOS M

hope you've enjoyed my review

Have a great day

Cheers BT




1 comment:

  1. Thank you Bryan. That was was very interesting and informative.

    ReplyDelete