The ISO performance of cameras is being dramatically improved with each new camera release.  At the high end of the Canon range a 5D Mark 2 can perform very well around ISO of 3200. On my 40D I try not to push it past 800.

For the test I had the camera in Manual mode and set an aperture of f/16. I then compensated for the change in ISO with the shutter speed. I have decided to only test the ISO’s performance for full stops of light steps. The lowest ISO for my 40D is 200 and this is where I usually try to shoot. I then moved to 400 and then 800.  The below image compares the 3 shots. There is certainly a noticeable difference between the 200 and 800 shots in the sky. The water is also much more silky smooth the the ISO 200 shot. This is due to the fact that the exposure was 4 times longer then the ISO 800 image.

ISO Test. Click to view extra large and scroll across the image to compare. Press ESC to close the image.

There are some great software packages available on the market for reducing the noise. Some of these tools have plugins to most the mainstream graphic processing programs. I personally use Noise Ninja.

The Icelandic Volcano did its best to upset our trip but with some last minute changes we still managed to make it to Istanbul all be it 2 days late. We just had to tag onto our tour and miss seeing some great parts of Istanbul.

It was decided we needed a shot of our tour group and well since I have decided to drag my tripod around for the 6 weeks of travel it looked like a fine time to put it to good use.

So to all the guys we traveled with here it is. I’ll upload more of my Anzac tour photos once I get home and process them. It was a very moving experience to do the dawn service in Gallipoli.

Well this is just a quick post to keep you updated and there will be plenty more to come as we head off to Greece, Italia, France and then back to the UK in the next month.

I was lucky enough to be granted photographic accreditation for the event, and the whole weekend was a huge learning curve. I have taken around 1000 images for the 2 days of competition and will start the task of processing them tomorrow once I get my laptop working again. Its decided to have a few power issues this weekend.

Any athletes wishing to get digital copies of the images please contact me via the contacts page and supply me with their race number. I will upload a bunch of images on my flickr account and display more images here soon.

Here is one image of Patrick Johnson in his heat for the 100 meters.  He finished the days final in 2nd place to Matt Davies who recorded a time of 10.45sec to Johnson’s 10.47sec. I quite like the effect the rain had in this image.

Queenslands State Champion for the womens long jump Jacinta Boyd recorded a jump of 6.42m which was a massive 67cm more then any other competitor.

Stay tuned for more images of the weekend like the long jump, 200m, hurdles, steeplechase and much much more.

Canon 40D

This is my current and first DSLR camera. It has a very simply yet powerful navigation panel, 5.5 fps with up to 75 images captured in a sequential order, a massive 3 inches of screen and so much more. It was one of the first SLR camera’s to incorporate its LCD for composing an image like most point and shoot camera’s do. This function is called Liveview and yeah its has its uses.

Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS

Ah yes my most favorite lens in my arsenal. I refer to it as “The Canon” as this baby gives me plenty of reach and response when its action I’m after. I actually bought this before I bought my camera body. This one lens was the swinging factor of whether to go Canon or Nikon. If your after some fast glass well this is the one to start with. Perfect for sports, nature, portraits and low light photography.

Canon 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS

While its only a kit lens it goes rather well. Its widest aperture of f4 at 17mm and f5.6 at the other end of the zoom makes the lens a little limiting when wanting a shallow depth of field to increase an objects emphasis. For a kit lens the 17mm’s is a great resource for landscape photography. Its a general purpose lens that I hope to replace in the next few years with probably 2 lenses.

Canon 50mm f1.8
My newest lens and most artistically attuned lens by far.  With the Nifty Fifty’s widest aperture of f1.8 it allows for some amazing use of DOF (Depth of field). With it being a prime lens it forces you to compose an image by moving yourself in and out from the subject as opposed to zooming for a tighter or looser shot. The Canon 50mm f1.8 mkii is one of the cheapest lenses on the market but is perfect for portrait and still life photography.

Tripod

Bag

The CompuPrimus AW is made from 100% post-consumer recycled Cyclepet.  So while doing the job for me its also doing its bit to save the world. It cost a little more then the other non cyclepet range but hey whats a few extra dollars compared to the worlds environmental downfall. The bag offers dual compartments which was a major buying factor as I wanted a bag that I could head out trekking for a day and have it hold all my camera gear and my day hiking gears like jumpers, jackets, first aid kit, maps and alike. It also comes with a notebook pocket that comes with its own laptop bag. And being part of Lowepro’s AW range its offers a rain  protection hood.

Flash
The Vivitar 285 Flash with my Cactus wireless remotes allow me to light a subject in the best way. They are much cheaper the Canon 430 or the 530 range but they also are a little limiting. They are perfect for learning how to light off camera and David Hobby of Strobist loves them. With its manual settings it forces you to learn about lighting as you go.Whilst I have heaps the learn about off camera lighting its this baby I will be doing it with.

Laptop
HP NC 8230 laptop with the reliable Windows XP Pro. My main software packages are Lightroom 2.0, Photoshop CS2, Photo Matrix, Mozilla Firefox 3.0.6, and I trial heaps of other software packages out there.
Other
Cleaning Kit, SD Cards, spare batteries, snoot and grid for flash, and other superfluous stuff.

Coming Weeks

Stay tuned as in the coming weeks I will do more details blogs on how I pack my bag and demo’s on all my lenses.