Had my first ‘official’ run with the Canon 40D at the L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival and I’ve been VERY impressed by it’s high-speed shooting & very low noise at ISO 1600.
I remember with my Canon 400D, even after I’d resized images for web (between 640 ~ 1024) I’d still have to run noise ninja to remove some noticeable artefacts. The Canon 40D has saved me this extra step!
I will say at this point I was shooting sRAW for most of the festival, I have read around the traps that sRAW does appear to keep noise at bay better than RAW (all equations being equal) though I’d like to prove this myself. The beauty of sRAW is that I could fit more onto my CF Card, smaller file sizes and quicker downloads.
Unless i’m shooting for something that’s eventually going to be blown up to a large poster, I think i’ll be shooting sRAW from now on – a good advancement from Canon!
Interestingly, the photographers from Getty Images were shooting JPEGs at the event. Their circumstances were different however as they had to upload the shots immediately after the show – they simply don’t have the time to sift through all the RAW files, tweak, convert, save & send. It amazed me how much faith they put into the camera and essentially themselves to get the settings right from the get-go (esp. where white balance is concerned) and from what I saw… RESPECT!!
For the runway shows I used a 70-200 F4L lens. I shot manual @ F4 (which is why I had to bump upto ISO1600) and between 400 ~ 640 shutter depending on the whiteness of the garments. Most of the photographers with Canons I spoke to at the event were running around ISO800, but then again they had 70-200 F2.8L IS lenses. I’m thinking this ought to be my next upgrade to give me more ISO/shutter speed headroom – though I am happy with these pictures and think it can wait.
I’m loving this camera the more I use it and at this stage (compared to the Digital Rebel series) feel as though I’ll be happy enough to keep it until there is something evolutionary from Canon.
Tags: 70-200 F4L, Canon 40D, ISO1600, L'Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, sRAW
March 11, 2008 at 9:14 pm |
Well written and very useful post, I’ve just switched to a 40D for wildlife photography and the low noise at high ISO is amazing. I must try sRAw soon.
March 24, 2008 at 6:10 pm |
thanks much, dude
June 19, 2008 at 2:10 pm |
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Coati.
August 31, 2008 at 1:26 am |
Hi there,
I’m a romanian wedding photojournalist.
I own the Canon 5D
Sometimes I’m forced to work in poor light condition.
I shoot only in RAW format, and I edit in Aperture on Mac
I wanted to buy Canon 40D… to be my second camera, but now I think that I’ll waiting for 50D
For me the sRAW 9,2Mb it is fit