Showing posts with label 2019. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2019. Show all posts
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Another great year at Matt Cuda Nature Photography!  This year was certainly the year of firsts as far as species photographed.  I was able to photograph several species which I had never even seen in the wild before.  As is my tradition, this article will take a look at what I think were my best images for the year.  I hope you enjoy it!  I start with #1 being my best image.


#1 - Fluffy Eurasian Eagle Owl, CRC, NC
March 30, 2019,  Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 300mm f4 L, 300mm, f4.5, 1/500, ISO 1000

During an event at the CRC, I was able to capture this image of a Eurasian eagle owl, who was fluffed out to the max.  This is one of the serendipitous moments where God is smiling on your day.  This guy was so fluffed out, in fact, that I had a hard time keeping the fluff in the frame!



#2 - Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Forsyth County, NC 
June 6, 2019,  Canon EOS 1DX Mark II, Sigma 150-600 C, 252mm, f13, 1/1250, ISO 8000

Hummingbirds will almost always make my top ten, as I love to photograph them.  This guy posed perfectly against the pink flower background for this shot.  I love the wing position and relationship of the subject to the flowers.




#3 - Blue Morpho Butterfly, Butterfly Garden
July 27, 2019,  Sony A7 III, Canon 100mm Macro, 100mm, f5.6, 1/640, ISO 4000

Although macro is not my forte, I do love to photograph insects when I can.  This image, with its slight tilt and extreme sharpness always pulls me in for a closer look.  It is for that reason that it made the list.



#4 - Mountain Lion, NC
Canon 7D Mark II, Canon EF 300mm f4

I didn't have all the meta-data handy for this one, so I apologize on that, but I fell in love with this image of a mountain lion in black and white.  I love the engagement of the subject with the viewer.  I always look for eye contact from my subject.

#5 - Florida Alligator, Merritt Island, FL
November 16, 2019,  Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 600mm, f7.1, 1/500, ISO 320
Gators are a common presence in Florida, so it is important to find an uncommon or engaging way to present them to the viewer.  This alligator, again is engaging the viewer with an eye to eye contact.




#6 - Elk in Fog - Cataloochee, NC
September 15th, 2019,  Sony A7 III, Sigma 150-600 C, 238mm, f5.6, 1/400, ISO 2500

Wild elk make a great subject and I particularly like them in partial fog.  This beautiful specimen has the perfect turn and his front leg up.  This makes the image more interesting and engaging to viewers.



#7 - Cattle Egret Eating Lizard, Merritt Island, FL
November 17 2019,  Sony A7 III, Sigma 150-600 C, 421mm, f6.3, 1/640, ISO 3200

The perfectionist in me didn't want to put this in the top 10 because of the head turn and the junk in the lower portion of the background particularly.  However, when I have a situation where there is high action and good technical quality, I know it can be a real winner.  The bottom line is that I love the subject here and I just couldn't leave it out.


#8 - Snarling Red Wolf, NC Zoo
December 21, 2019,  Sony A7 III, Sigma 150-600 C, 600mm, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 2000

There are days when captive animals are just on fire as photographic subjects.  You can't depend on it, but it will happen.  This pair of red wolves were fighting over some meat and the alpha (pictured below) was winning.  Here you see him in full snarl while looking back toward the beta male.


#9 - Springtime Dark-eyed Junco, Forsyth County, NC
Spring 2019, Canon EOS R, Sigma 150-600 C, 531mm, f6.3, 1/800, ISO 1000

I made this image while testing the Canon EOS R.  This junco was perched so perfectly on this blooming plum tree.  The blooms really accentuate the bland nature of  her feathers.  





#10 - Anhinga with Speared Fish, Merritt Island, NC
July 17, 2018, Canon EOS 7D Mark II,  Sigma 150-600mm 516mm, f6.3, 1/500, ISO 800

Again, the perfectionist in me did not like the head turn, but I decided this image had enough action to make the top 10.




I hope you enjoyed this years top 10 list.  I encourage you to do the same with your images as it is a great practice to help you decide what you did right and what you need to improve on for 2020.

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It is no secret that the world of photography is moving away from the DSLR and toward Mirrorless.  Canon and Nikon could no longer sit back and watch companies like Sony and Fujifilm dominate the mirrorless market.  Of note, Canon has had several mirrorless cameras over the years, including the EOS M, but, although a fine camera, it lacked features that series photographers needed.  

 Canon's latest response to the growing mirrorless market is the Canon EOS R.  As promised, I got my hands on an EOS R, and ran it through my normal wildlife photography testing.  Although this camera is not marketed toward the wildlife or sports photographer, I still wanted to see just how far I could take this body, and what the results would be.

Canon EOS R
Canon's EOS R Mirrorless Camera (photo courtesy of Canon)
Specifications
  • Lens Mount - Canon RF (EF with adapter)
  • Weight - 1.45 lbs / 660 g
  • Sensor - CMOS 30.3 Megapixel / Full Frame
  • File Formats - JPEG, RAW, MP4
  • ISO - 100 to 40,000 (Expansion possible to 102,400)
  • Shutter - Electronic and mechanical (30 seconds to 1/8000)
  • Bit Depth - 14 Bit
  • Memory Card Format - SD, SDHC, SDXC
  • Image Stabilization - NONE
  • Focus Modes - Continuous-Servo AF, Manual, Single Servo AF
  • Frames Per Second - up to 8 fps.  Only 5 fps in AI Servo!
  • Viewfinder - LCD, 3,690,000 DPI
  • Viewfinder Coverage - 100%
  • GPS - Yes
  • Wi-Fi - Yes
  • Bluetooth - Yes
  • Price - $2,299 US

Build Quality/Ergonomics 

Picking up the EOS R, I found it to feel smaller than my Canon EOS 7D Mark II, and I also found it slightly less comfortable, however, it does have a nice grip when comparing it to its other mirrorless competitors in this price range.  The overall build quality seemed comparable to my 7D Mark II.

 The EOS R lost ground with me on layout of the buttons.  I found them difficult to find and in some cases operate when compared to the 7D Mark II. I particularly struggled to find the AF-ON button when using back button focus.  I do feel confident, that with daily use, I could get much faster in the basic operation.  If you are someone who has both a DSLR and want to guy the EOS R, you might find it difficult to switch back and forth.  Perhaps the biggest loss to me was the thumb wheel which is normally located on the back of the Canon bodies.  On this camera the "wheel" is really just a disc with arrows on it.  It is very similar to how the Rebels operate.  Canon really "cheaped" out here and I can't help but ask "Why?"
Canon EOS R
Photo showing the amazing fully articulating touch screen, but also the somewhat horrible disc shaped navigation control often found on cheaper Canon cameras.

The EOS R redeems much of what it lost with the odd positioning of its buttons with the use of a fully articulating touch screen.  I found this to be a great "go-to" when I was having trouble with the manual buttons.  Also, the articulating screen will make this attractive for videographers, vloggers and landscape photographers.

 The menu system is exactly what you would expect from Canon, and I had no difficulty moving from tab to tab and selecting the correct options.  Of course, being able to create your own custom menu tabs is a big help as it is with other Canon cameras.

 While looking through the viewfinder, I could definitely tell I was looking at a screen.  I am not saying it was terrible, but I could tell it wasn't real.  The reason I mention this, is I have heard others say that the screens are so good now, you can't tell very well that you are not looking through a traditional viewfinder.

 Also, related to the viewfinder, I noticed that there was some lag between shots and sometimes it would freeze for a moment before getting back to the correct live view of the scene.  This caused some confusion as to what the subject was doing, and did I actually miss something?  Perhaps this feature can be turned off?

 Finally, I had a total failure of the camera right when I needed it most.  It actually froze up, and I had to remove the battery and essentially reboot the camera.  I chalked this up to it being a new design.  I remember when my old 7D classic used to freeze up like this, and I had to remove the battery on it also.  

 Auto-focus
First, let me say that overall I was very pleased with the auto-focus system.  I am not going to tell you that it was 1 Series fast, but it did a fine job, and would handle most of your normal photography needs.

As you may know, I am a wildlife photographer, who specializes in wild bird photography.  So that was where I spent my testing time.  The auto-focus did not let me down when paired with my Sigma 150-600 and the Canon EF to RF adapter.  It quickly found focus but from time to time, it would focus to infinity and just stop.  After fiddling with with the lens and placing it on different targets, it would slide in to where I wanted it to go.  The latter is very important.  This lens does not slam into focus like a 1 Series.  It slides into focus and valuable time is lost.  Although a useful feature for video, still photographers will find this a disadvantage.

 I used the EOS R in Servo mode, which makes the lens continually focus when holding down the shutter button half way or using the AF-ON button.  Note, when you switch to Servo, the 8 fps drops to about 5 fps.  This made me laugh a bit, since AI Servo is where you need the 8 fps. I am sure that Canon knew that, and simply hit a hard wall on the engineering side.
Dark-eyed Junco - Canon EOS R, ISO 1000, 1/800, Sigma 150-600 C, f6.3

I did not have time to go somewhere to photograph birds in flight this time, but my gut feeling is that it would not be nearly as good at action as the Canon 7D Mark II or Canon 1DX Mark II. To be fair to Canon, that is really not who this camera is designed for.

Throughout my two days of shooting, I noticed a very strange thing happen while using servo.  I held the AF-ON button down, it focused and then as I fired off a burst, it would go out of focus almost every time. During this time, I never moved my auto-focus point off the bird's head.  My guess is that this is a bug in the firmware.  Finally, the lag I experienced when firing bursts of 5 fps was pretty bad. It was almost like it was trying to preview while firing 5 fps. 

 My guess is there is a way to turn this off, but I did not find the setting for it.  If there is a setting, this should be enabled by default when shooting in servo mode.

 EF Mount Adapter
You can't talk about the EOS-R without talking about the amazing EF to RF mount adapter.  This adapter will convert your existing EF mount lens to the RF mount.  Since all I had were EF lenses, I used it extensively.  

 I found it to work quite well, but perhaps some of my early autofocus issues could be attributed to this adapter.  Having said that, I was really amazed at how well the conversion worked.  My particular adapter also had a ring which can be programmed to control whatever you want it to.  It would make a great aperture ring, for example.
Canon EF to RF Adapter - $99 to $199 depending on the version of the adapter.

 I have used the MC-11 with Sony cameras to adapt my Sigma 150-600 and they did not work at ALL!  Good job Canon!  You made it work to almost perfection!

 Image Quality
In general, I found the image quality to be excellent, and not at all unexpected.  The auto white balance seemed to achieve a very nature look, and I did not have to warm the scene up in post (in most cases).  Canon seems to make auto white balance better on ever new camera model.
Northern Cardinal - Canon EOS R - ISO 1250, 1/1000, Sigma 150-600 f6.3, 468 mm (cropped in post)

I did shoot almost exclusively between 800 and 1600 ISO,  just to get a feel for an ISO a little on the higher side of things.  The results were good, but not great.  I think this is due largely to the 30 megapixel sensor.  It was better than my APS-C, but not as good as I would like to see. The shadows seemed particularly noisy, even in decent light.  Cleaning up the noise in post was not difficult at ISO 1600.

 Perhaps the greatest advantage of the 30 megapixel sensor in wildlife photography was in the cropping advantage.  I could crop an image in half and still have a solid 15 megapixel image.  In wildlife photography, this is a powerful feature. 
Northern Cardinal - Canon EOS R - ISO 1250, 1/1000, Sigma 150-600 C, f6.3, 600mm


Conclusion and Wrap Up
First, I applaud Canon for taking their first step in making a serious mirrorless camera. This camera is not a camera to laugh at, and in many cases will be all the photographer would need.  I particularly think this would make an amazing landscape and macro camera.  The 30 megapixels delivers great detail, and having a fully articulating LCD display allows for low angle shots and vlogging.

 Let's talk about the elephant in the room.  The price of $2,299 dollars is a bit on the high side.  I would like to see this camera come down to about $1,800.  Although a really nice camera, it simply does not have the feature set to support this price point.  Compared to my Canon 7D Mark II, it is a loser in my opinion in most respects.  Yes, I am being tough here and of course it is just my opinion. Remember though, I am a wildlife photographer and not a landscape photographer.  That is the perspective of this review.

 As far as wildlife, I would not recommend this camera as a primary wildlife camera.  Canon hasn't positioned this camera on the market as a fast action camera, so that should not come as a surprise to you.  Having said that, It would fill in some of the cracks in my kit as a good static bird and wildlife camera.  Having a viewfinder that simulates my exact exposure cannot be overlooked as an awesome feature.  I could also see this camera as a good camera for use with a trigger trap.  Since it can support higher ISOs which can help increase shutter-speed, it could be very useful in this role.

 So, in general, I recommend this camera, IF you are the right audience for this model. I am looking forward to the more feature rich/professional version of this camera. Good job Canon and keep them coming! You are on the right track for sure.