Wow!

Just got my first look at the Turkey Trot photos, shot at ISO 3200, and it is absolutely astonishing how noise-free these photos are.

For all practical purposes, viewed at 100% into the embedded jpeg in an unconverted RAW 3861x2574 image, 250th second at f5.6, there is simply nothing that I would call "grain" or "noise".

Nothing.

Here's a random crop into the middle of one random photo, shot at ISO 3200, that's been converted straight-up as shot: no sharpening, no noise reduction, no exposure compensation, just a 100%, 567 pixel by 318 pixel crop right out of the resulting 3861x2574 180ppi tiff, saved as a jpeg, quality level 10:



And for some sort of reference, here's the full size uncropped tiff, just saved as an 800 pixel by 533 pixel jpeg at 180ppi and quality 10:



Can't wait to do the Nutcracker in the Vashon High School Theater in about four weeks!

Just shot...

...Turkey Trot 2009 down at Chautauqua in a pouring rain.

Definitely Kata rain cover time :-/

I'll be very interested to get a look at these photos: they are the first shot I've with the new 5D Mark II at ISO 3200.

Heavy cloud cover, so ISO 3200 and Aperture priority exposure of f5.6 produced (for those I noticed) shutter speeds around 250th to 320th second.

Shooting in the rain with center-point focus and focus lock means I look through all the raindrops on my glasses, look through all the rain drops on the Kata rain cover, wait for the red square to light up, and bang.