Best Of

In my previous thread - https://dgrin.com/discussion/268132/a-few-birds-and-other-critters-from-south-texas#latest - I mentioned that I had ordered the Canon R3 body last October 2021. It finally arrived in late April of this year, and I have spent the last 4 weeks chasing small birds in west central Indiana with the R3 body, and an EF 100-400 IS v2 + a version III 1.4 tele-converter that I already owned. This gave me a 560mm f 8 lens for my R3 body. I wanted to see how the AF faired at f8, and how the IBIS worked with the non-RF lens. I own and use an RF 100-500 on my R5, but this post is about the R3.

The lighter weight of the R3, compared to my 1DX Mk II, is appreciated, the inbody IBIS allows me to hand hold lenses that I would otherwise need a tripod with a standard DSLR. The larger LP-E19 battery means I don't usually need to carry a couple extra batteries for an afternoon of shooting, like I might with the R5. The viewfinder in the R3 is a joy to use with no apparent blackouts which are so disturbing if you are shooting birds in flight.

A catbird in front of rhododendron bush 560mm, f8, 1/800th, ISO 2500. This image, like most of these posted here, are significant crops, barely 1/4 of the full frame image. The R3 is 4000 x 6000 pixels, or 24 Mbts in size which is 25% bigger than the files from my 1DX Mk II

I have several frames of blue jays, here is one in the rhododendron bush with a peanut 560mm, f8, 1/800th, ISO 8000

This frame of a blue jay flying directly toward me at 1/800th second shows how well the AF system can be at f8 in the shade, 560mm, ISO 1600 - the eye seems pretty sharp

This cardinal was captured at 560mm, f8, 1/800th, at ISO 3200

I know a shutter speed of 1/800th is too low for birds in flight, but in deep shade with an f8 lens, what are you gonna do? The fact is that the combination of 1/800th and IBIS works pretty well for this body - better than I would have thought.

Now I am eager to see what Canon reveals in a couple weeks with the announcement of the APS-C R7 - A 32 MPxl mirrorless body with, hopefully, the AF and IBIS of the R3. We'll know more pretty soon

Any comments or questions about the images I have posted are heartily encouraged.

A collection of Alaska coastal brown bears taken on a Muench Workshops trip to Katmai. The coastal brown bears are essentially the same species as grizzlies but they live on the coast and eat fish all day. They actually grow larger than grizzlies due to the high protein and fat diet. The is probably the best place in the world to photograph bears because they're too busy fishing to bother with photographers. For the most part, we stayed in one place and the bears would come to us. Just amazing.

All pics taken with the Canon R5 and EF 100-400 MKII on an adapter with the exception of a few landscapes.

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A Few of the obvious suspects from the ponds

Snowy White Egret

Gamble's Quail

European Starling after a bath

Gila Wood Pecker

White Pelican