Camera Labs

Hi folks,

Before we buy a new camera we agonise about the various features and sensor noise is usually a big concern, especially at high ISO settings. For landscape or studio work, however, it is usually possible to use a low ISO and so the purpose of this post is to show what the 40D is capable of, particularly with landscapes. Right at the outset I'll admit to being a "happy snapper" so don't be too hard on my artistic shortcomings please, although I am happy to receive constructive suggestions. If you feel compelled it is probably best to do this via PM as this post is about the camera rather than the camera operator!

Unless otherwise noted all pictures were taken at ISO 100 using the camera's "pattern" metering and with autofocus and image stabilisation on. The lens used was either an EF 24-105 mm f/4L IS USM or an EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM. The pictures you see are highly compressed JPEGs but all are "clickable" so that the full resolution JPEG may be viewed (saved from the original using Photoshop with quality level 10, usually around a 2 to 3MB download). Each picture retains the EXIF data if you need more. All pictures are from "Large Fine" JPEGs direct from the camera and start with Daylight white balance and "Landscape" style with just one extra notch of sharpening in camera over and above the shipping default. That said, over half of the pictures have subsequently been processed for levels, colour balance, contrast etc. using Photoshop CS2. Parameters that have not been processed are sensor/picture noise and sharpness. A précis of the Photoshop manipulations, if done, is included with each picture.

Obviously the 40D will be called on for many duties other than landscapes but I hope this selection will at least give a feel for how well the camera performs in day to day situations when we aren't trying to review it to death! You might guess that I am delighted with the general IQ.

Location The English Lake District

Near Waterhead Pier looking out towards Crinkle Crags
28mm, f/10, 1/200 sec.


Wraymires Tarn, Claife Heights
24mm, f/16, 1/50 sec.
Cropped


Wraymires Tarn, Claife Heights
35mm, f/10, 1/200 sec.
Developed: Auto contrast, Saturation +10


Oatmeal Crag, Claife Heights
24mm, f/8, 1/125 sec.


Another view from Waterhead looking towards Crinkle Crags
200mm, f/5.6, 1/320 sec.
Developed: Auto contrast, Shadow/Highlight - Shadows + 25%


Tilborthwaite Fells
24mm, f/9, 1/160 sec.
Developed: Contrast +10


View towards the Esk Estuary from the Hard Knott Pass
47mm, f/8, 1/160 sec.
Developed: Auto Levels


Ennerdale Water
24mm, f/11, 1/40 sec.


Looking west over Crummock Water
24mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec.
Developed: Auto Levels


Looking south over Crummock Water
24mm, f/7.1, 1/100 sec.
Developed: Contrast +10


Looking west over the top of Lake Windermere towards Crinkle Crags and Scafell
47mm, f/8, 1/200 sec.
Cropped


Looking west towards Crinkle Crags and the Old Man of Coniston
ISO 400, 24mm, f/10, 1/200 sec.
Developed: Hue/Saturation - Saturation +50


From Waterhead Pier looking towards Loughrigg Fell
24mm, f/9, 1/160 sec.


Whoops, how did this one get included? Candid shot taken in a hurry. Shallow DOF unfortunately.
121mm, f/5.6, 1/250 sec.
Recognise the camera, anybody?


Haverthwaite Railway demonstrating how IS can't freeze motion!
24mm, f/4, 1/20 sec.


Lake Windermere. Auto exposure did a nice job on the sails.
105mm (24-105 lens), f/5.6, 1/250 sec.
Developed: Auto Levels


From Loughrigg Terrace north over Grasmere
28mm, f/8, 1/125 sec.


From Loughrigg Terrace north over Grasmere
32mm, f/9, 1/160 sec.
Developed: Auto Levels


From Loughrigg Terrace east over Rydal Water
32mm, f/8, 1/125 sec.
Developed: Auto Levels


The beck near Rydal Hall. Rescue of an image grossly over-exposed to allow blurring of the water.
Camera rested on the ground, IS Off, 24mm, f/22, 1 sec.
Developed: Auto Levels, Highlights/Shadows - Highlights 50, Brightness Contrast - Brightness -50 and Contrast +5


High Wray Bay, Windermere. Can't have a steam train and no steam launch in the set!
105mm (24-105 lens), f/4, 1/30 sec.


Lake Windermere, honest!
24mm, f/5.6, 1/60 sec.


Yes, you guessed it: A Helicopter. Rushed shot which the camera coped with well
192mm, f/7.1, 1/640 sec.
Cropped and Developed: Out of focus insect removed from the sky.


North over Lake Windermere towards the Langdale Pikes
200mm, f/5.6, 1/400 sec.
Developed: Auto Levels


Bob.

P.S. I don't use Flickr or the like so my apologies for the size of the post.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Hi Bob, you've got some lovely photos there - I love the UK Lake District and even though I have a great big lake right in front of me here surrounded by lovely mountains, I do miss that area!

As you know, I personally felt the 40D's default settings benefitted from an extra notch in sharpness, so I was interested to see you were doing the same. Having used the camera for a while now, do you think this is a sweetspot for the 40D?

PS - spot the camera - is it a Sony W200? There's not many compacts with a viewfinder these days...

Following your review I added that extra notch of sharpening and haven't felt the need to experiment further. It works for me.

I never got to see the camera in question. Pixel peeping reveals Kanji labels but I can't make out a maker's name. All sorts of technical defects with the picture and the AF obviously locked on to the sleeve. I included it because it is the only photo I took with a significant area of flesh tone. Also the composition appeals to my warped sense of humour with the disembodied hand appearing from the left. I thought I would deflect adverse comment by including a "competition" element - sorry, no prizes!

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

the camera looks like a Casio Exilim
here it is:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/0602/06022 ... exz850.asp

_________________
40D, 400D, 24-105L, EF 50 1.4, 580EX MKII, EF 100 f/2.8 Macroe, EF 85 1.8 (on order)
http://strobemonkey.blogspot.com/

It is a Casio Exilim, just click the thumbnail and as it loads you can see the word Exilim in the bottom corner of the screen.

_________________
Canon EOS 5D + 50mm f/1.8

http://flickr.com/photos/nathan_ward

haha beat you Nathan!

_________________
40D, 400D, 24-105L, EF 50 1.4, 580EX MKII, EF 100 f/2.8 Macroe, EF 85 1.8 (on order)
http://strobemonkey.blogspot.com/

Well done guys but what's the make of the camera pictured in the Exilim's LCD screen?

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

a failed attempt at getting a picture of the girl in the black sweater.hah.

_________________
Canon EOS 5D + 50mm f/1.8

http://flickr.com/photos/nathan_ward

Sort of.

The two girls were having a whale of a time taking pictures and I wanted to try and capture a sense of the fun. Trouble was I was sitting in full view less than 10 metres away and the last thing I wanted to do was spoil their day. For me (personal taste) the real picture that is "in the picture" is this



but as it's only a small portion of the original frame it isn't printable at any decent size. Framed in this way the girl's face being slightly soft adds depth while the main interest is in the interplay of the hands. If I had this picture at anywhere near full frame I would also want to spend some time airbrushing that sticking plaster away!

However, as with the other pictures in the original post, I am really pleased with the IQ (no processing on this one) and that is what I am trying to highlight.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Are you saying Gordon you would add sharpness to all picture styles or just to the Landscape style?

By the way, I enjoyed your pictures Bob. UK has beautiful landscapes,,,

_________________
Roger,


Canon 7D, Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM , Canon EF 70-200 f/4 L IS, Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 USM, Canon Speedlite 580EX E-TTL II, Manfrotto 055XPROB tripod and Manfrotto 322RC2 grip ball head, Lowepro SlingShot 200 AW

Hi folks,

Just a heads up of another image of the Lake District in this post over in the Imaging Software forum.

It's another view of Grasmere but this time given the HDR treatment. The 40D was set up to fire off three shots in quick succession (6.5fps) when the shutter release was pressed with the second and third shots giving ±1 ev.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Hi Camera Guy, I personally peferred adding an extra notch to the default style as I think it benefitted all images, but it's all personal taste... and of course whether you prefer to do your sharpening using superior tools on your computer instead...

Hi folks,

I used my 40D at ISO 3200 for the first time last night while taking some photos of the Orion Nebula. How the full shot is obtained is described in this post but I thought it might be useful to show an ISO 3200 image in this thread as well.



This is a 100% crop (clickable if you want to see the original). It will be no surprise that this image has been heavily processed. In fact it is actually three separate images which have been combined in software but, if you want to spend the time doing the subsequent processing, I imagine it is perfectly feasible to take an automatic AEB sequence with a very small ev spread when doing more conventional photography. Not something I've ever tried, though. In addition to the stacking technique the final image was Photoshopped with some effort being put into combinations of noise reduction and sharpening.

I chose to retain a degree of background noise (the red mottling) in order to show the most nebulosity. The clipping of the brightest parts of the nebula is a consequence of the extreme dynamic range of astronomical subjects. Might be fun to try an HDR sequence one day.

OK, it's not conventional subject matter but I hope that it shows that, with some effort, the 40D is quite a capable machine even at ISO 3200.

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.

Hi Bob,

I would sure like to upgrade to the 40D, but it's not in the stars for me right now (pun intended). I have a lot of respect for all you astrophotograhers out there. That photo of Orion is very cool indeed. Even though astrophotography pushes the limits of dynamic range it looks like the 40D coped with it quite well. What was the TV and AV of each image?

-steve

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Leica M9, Nikon D300s, Leica X1, Canon S95, Zero Image 6x9

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the kind words. Each of the three exposures was 60 seconds, f/4 & 200mm and, as mentioned, ISO 3200. Have a look at this post for more details..

Bob.

_________________
OM-D E-M5 + ED 12-50mm, H-PS14042E, H-F007014E, L-RS014150E, M.ZUIKO DIGITAL 45mm 1:1.8.
Gitzo GT1541T, Arca-Swiss Z1 DP ball-head.
Astrophotography: TEC 140 'scope, FLI ML16803 camera, ASA DDM60 Pro mount.