Which is more inappropriate to use for sports photography? A 50mm f/1.4 lens or ISO 12800 or the odd combination of the two? I’ve always held the notion that given access to an arsenal of capable equipment, you exercise the right to use whatever gets the job done. I recently tested the EOS 5D Mark III with an original EF 70-200mm f/2.8 IS and shared an incredible ISO 12800 unedited photo. Two days later I returned to the same badminton hall to catch the inter-school tournament and since I was allowed to plant myself very near the players, I was thrilled to use the 50mm f/1.4 lens instead just to give stress the camera’s AI Servo motors a bit.
With this much exposure headroom from the large aperture lens, there was really no real need to bump ISO to 12800 but I did so to reiterate a point I had already made earlier — ISO 12800 is just so clean! Nobody really shoots fast action sports at f/1.4 aperture either so doing so would seriously test the sensitivity and responsiveness of the Mark III’s Digic 5+ processor (single instead of the EOS-1D X which features Dual 5+ among other incredible technology). AI Servo on the 5D Mark III is furiously fast and I suspect the 50mm f/1.4 had difficulty catching up.
Chung Hua Middle School KB contestant Edward 50mm at ISO 12800, f/2.5, 1/1250 secCHMS vs CHMS: Both photographs at 50mm ISO 12800 f/2.5 1/1250 secEdward makes a dive to retrieve a net shot played by opponent Nicholas. A portion of the shuttlecock is captured in the frame at ISO 12800, f/1.4, 1/3200 sec. Perhaps the EOS-1D X's 14fps would be better suited 🙂Another shot of Edward approaching a shot at ISO 12800, f/2, 1/1250 sec
Back in 2009 when I wrote I Jump. Do You? in an effort to demonstrate my newly acquired 5D Mark II’s ISO 6400 performance and AI Servo tracking capability, some readers suggested that the test was flawed. That was then, this is now. III years on (pun intended) and again I find myself holding a 5D Mark III at the same sports hall where I conducted the 2009 test and I’ll let you be the judge of this test: EF 70-200mm f/2.8, @ ISO 12800, 1/500 sec, Auto White Balance.
Of course, I know that 600 pixel wide images do not mean anything until you see one of reasonably large size to pixel peep. For that, I include an unedited RAW converted JPEG image (1.4 MB) that I think is good enough to show you just how clean ISO 12800 is (remember, though the venue is a dedicated badminton court its lights are rows of fluorescent lights not spot lights that you’re probably used to seeing at world class tournaments). Many thanks to Cyril who took charge of the 5D Mark III while I was getting an intense workout!
Click on image to see a larger version (1000px) of an unedited RAW-to-JPEG file (1.4 MB)
This 620 pixel wide image is post-processed for contrast and colour like I always do. The EXIF files show ISO 12800, 1/500 sec, Auto White Balance. If you’re a seasoned photographer these numbers tell you a lot.
On another occasion, I took the unusual step of fitting a Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 lens to the 5D Mark III to shoot badminton because where I was allowed to sit during the tournament, that focal length made the most sense. Read more in my other post EOS 5D Mark III + EF 50mm f/1.4 at ISO 12800 for Sports Photography?
Chung Hua Middle School KB contestant Edward reaching for the shuttlecock captured using EF 50mm f/1.4 at ISO 12800 f/2.5 1/1250 sec.
There are more than enough reviews of the incredible Canon EOS 5D Mark III on the internet to make your head spin. If you’re new to photography and you’re thinking of picking one up as your first dSLR (because also you can afford one) let me congratulate you on a worthy investment. Having owned and shot with Canon dSLR all of my 8 years as a professional photographer, let me just say the 5D Mark III is the one that finally delivers the performance I have asked, prayed and failing that, begged of Canon in the years I’ve used the EOS 300D, 20D, 1D Mark II, 5D and 5D Mark II.
Mode: A+ refers to Scene Intelligent Auto. This is a fully automatic mode where the camera analyzes the scene and sets the optimum settings automatically. Detecting whether the subject is still or moving, it also adjusts focus automatically. A+ may not mean much to a professional photographer but that lock on top of the dial is as important a feature though a subtle one. The days of the dial skipping a mode or two are over.
Some changes such as the mode lock are subtle while others are huge such as the 61 AF points of which 41 are high precision, highly sensitive points. It’s quite insane — I never thought Canon engineers would put what is essentially the brains and power of the flagship Canon 1DX into the 5D. I thought, instead of the usual reviews of the camera’s awesome high ISO performance, I thought it would be more interesting to show you some of the menu options that feature the new improvements especially meaningful to current owners of the 5D Mark II looking to upgrade. Many thanks to Interhouse Co. for providing this loaner ahead of the official launch in Brunei.
Once considered exclusive to EOS 1 series, dual storage capability is now standard on the 5D Mark III. The last camera I owned with this capability was the EOS 1 Mark II. Click on image to see comments on Facebook.The image counter on previous 5D models including the Mark II were limited to just 3 digits. This can be quite annoying when you have a large capacity flash card and all the camera ever shows is 999. On the 5D Mark III this is expanded to four digits — much more informative.
The 5D Mark III features 6 Case setting combinations of subject-tracking sensitivity, acceleration/deceleration tracking, and AF point auto switching. Page 85 of the covers these functions in easy to understand description and situations that apply just as I have captioned below.
AI Servo AF Characteristics
For any moving subject.Tennis players, butterfly swimmers, freestyle skiers, etc.Starting line of a bicycle race, alpine downhill skiers, etc.Soccer, motor sports, basketball, etc.Figure skaters, etcRhythm gymnastics, etc.
“You can take artistic photos having a high dynamic range and preserving detail in highlight and shadow areas. HDR shooting is effective for landscape and still-life shots. With HDR shooting, three images of different exposures (standard exposure, underexposure, and overexposure) are captured for each shot and then merged together automatically. The HDR image is recorded as a JPEG image.” HDR shooting is possible within the range of ISO 100 – 25,600. — Pages 173, 175
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