Eye of the Pelican.

[Dennis]

I think I was only a couple of metres from this magnificent bird as he waddled over to the water’s edge. Luckily for me, the camera was set to auto everything and I didn’t have to think.:lol:

1/1000 sec at F10. ISO 400.
Canon 40D with EF70-200mm F4L IS USM lens set at 200mm, hand held.
Currumbin Wildlife Reserve, Gold Coast, 14th November 2007.

This is about ¼ of the full frame.

Cheers

Dennis

[ving]

very interesting shot dennis :)

[Omaroo]

Very cool indeed. :thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Thanks Dave & Chris, these giant birds sure are photogenic.

One thing that does puzzle me, is that I expected to be able to read the camera-to-subject distance in the Meta data in CS3, but I couldn’t find it. I then used the Canon software and an EXIF reader and still couldn’t find it.

Maybe the subject distance isn’t captured in the image header?

Cheers

Dennis

[Tamtarn]

Great Depth of sharpness around the top of the eye Dennis.

Starting to get envious of this camera. :)

[firstlight]

Only starting? I've moved on from envy to desire and now lust:love::D

[SkySearcher]

Nice!

I really like the unusual composition and dark background.

:thumbsup:

[Dennis]

Thanks guys - I appreciate your nice comments.

Cheers

Dennis

[xstream]

He's got the eye on you Dennis, nice shot.

Now that you've been able to have a play with the 40D, what's your overall impression of it?

[Dennis]

Hi John

Its early days yet, but so far the camera has easily lived up to its expectations. I purchased it primarily for terrestrial photography, for use mainly on our day trips and for the Live View and MLU capability for attaching to the telescope for photographing (stationary) bird’s at a distance. However, one night at the telescope has now shown me that it will be possible to do some serious (in my terms) astro photography too, where again it has exceeded my expectations in terms of noise although there are a few operational quirks I have yet to understand and master.

As with all things new, the degree of sophistication and incredible functionality was quite daunting when I began to read the manual. However, the day after we made the purchase, we went to the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary and with the mode dial set to “P” the camera performed flawlessly and turned in some memorable images.

The biggest difference I have noted is no so much with the camera as I haven’t yet needed to exercise all the advanced functionality, but in the sharpness of the EF70-200 F4L IS lens compared (unfairly) to our (cheaper) Pentax kit lenses. I also liked what Canon and Nikon were doing with their range of DSLR’s and unfortunately Pentax seemed to be lagging behind. I chose the 40D mainly because of Live View and MLU and it was over $1,300 cheaper than the anticipated price of the Nikon D300 which I also considered.

Generally, I like all the controls, buttons and dials and the Menus are easy to navigate. The only niggly thing I can think of right now, is the fiddly position of the main on/off switch at the bottom of the body at the back. Maybe I’ve got big fingers? LOL.

Cheers

Dennis

[xstream]

Thanks Dennis.

I've been considering upgrading my 300D but haven't been able to convince myself (Anna really, yes I know you're reading this Dear!) that it's worth the extra dollars.
I'll grovel a bit more. :D I really want this camera now.

[Dennis]

Hi John

Narelle has said that since we purchased the camera, I’ve become a much nicer person to live with and now pull my weight around the house, doing the chores and paying more attention to her. It seems the camera has somehow transformed me into the kind of bloke that she has always wanted!

See if that works! LOL.

Cheers

Dennis

[Tamtarn]

Tried the above Dennis. Didn't work. - Not yet anyway. ;)

David

[Dennis]

:lol::lol: My challenge for now, is to make the new behaviour persistent. I’d get a good thumping if I dropped it after a few weeks; my supply of astro toys would dry up swiftly!:whistle:

Cheers

Dennis