[Kombisaurus]

I was like a kid in a candy store when my boss walked into my office with a nice black glossy box with 1D written on the side of it yesterday!

I'd already downloaded the PDF user manual a week ago and read a lot of it, so I put the manual to one side, threw the battery on charge and plugged the camera into the AC adaptor to use it on AC until the battery finished charging. Took a few test shots around the office - nothing spectacular, but wow... this thing means business. It gives a new meaning to the words "fast" and "responsive" when talking about cameras.
After coming from using a 30D, I find the controls very comfortably laid out and natural to use. There is still a big learning curve, but if you are familiar with a 5D/30D/40D/400D then you should be fairly confident with most of the basics.

Anyway, as soon as the battery was charged I was out the door looking for something to shoot.
I work just around the corner from Perry Lakes reserve, so I went there to take some test shots.

The amount of wildlife that was around the lake was amazing. I've been down there a few times and there are always plenty of birds (mainly millions of white cockatoos and pink and grey galahs), but I was really surprised by the variety I saw there yesterday. Maybe it was just because I was looking for photos and so was paying much closer attention.

I put my 70-200 f/2.8L IS lens on the camera and took a 1.4x TC in my pocket. Within 1/2 hour I'd filled up a 4Gb CF card and only walked about 100m from where I'd started. So I headed back to work to finish my day's work. After work I came back to the same place for another 1/2 hour of shots on my way home. All up I got photos of white cockatoos, pink and grey galahs, rosellas, wood ducks, shelducks, pacific black ducks, a sacred ibis, black winged stilts, dusky moorehens, crows, a little black cormorant, turtles, and a big carp (not a typo! ).


1. A white cockatoo landing.


2. The same bird having a drink.


3. Some black winged stilts flying (note the turtle sunbaking in the bottom right).


4. Some turtles swimming around in the shallows.


5. A sacred ibis shot through the reeds.


6. A pacific black duck having a wash.


7. A large fish (2.5ft long) which I assume to be a carp, swimming past a turtle climbing out of the water.


8. A white cockatoo sitting in a tree.

I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity to take some test shots than this, and to think it was just around the corner from my office. It's great to see such a variety of creatures thriving in a lake surrounded by suburbia. We (as humans) haven't quite managed to kill everything yet!

Oh yeah, and the camera was amazing too! These little images don't do justice to the detail captured.

[wulinka]

fantastic shots! I'm quite sure you would produce something marvelous with just about any camera anybody gave to you, but this tool seems to suite your preferences well indeed.
Did you get the 70-200mm with or without IS? How do you find it?

Uli

PS, the one with the turtles is not my favorite.... really love 1 and 2

[adam]

fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wedding Shooter]

Usual high standard Adrian - but looks like this baby was made for you

The first two are incredible. Just shows, if we slow down and look around we see so much more around us.

[matthew]

Awesome! That boss is a keeper. Good photos, too.

[maheanuu]

Nice work! The birds are fantastic... Waiting to see a whole lot more...

[Kombisaurus]

Thanks guys... the more I use it the more I love this camera!
Those first two shots were my faves too. And yeah Uli, as cute as turtles are, they looked a bit slimy and creepy swimming around slowly like they were with their snakey necks. :/

I've been slowly going through the manual again, customising the camera to my shooting preferences. Nearly there now I think.
But I still need to fine-tune the auto-focus settings to suit me, and with AF being the area of most contention with this camera I am being very careful when playing with these settings.

I need some moving subjects to shoot while I tune the AI Servo AF settings... so I'm off to the zoo! I might as well make this fun by testing the AF settings on moving monkeys or tigers.

[smarti77]

Amazing images for 'test shots'! I cant wait to see your future work.

[Irma]

Beautiful nature pictures Kombi!

Congratulations on your new camera...

[Toad]

#2 is superb. Those long necked turtles seem very alien to North Americans - at least to northerners.