grainy raw files with brand new 5D Mark IV

[depshado]

I have been trying different lens and my photos are no way near as good as my Mark II. I am very disappointed with my purchase of this Mark IV after hearing so many reviews of how great it is I have yet to see a landscape or wildlife image that comes close to my Mark II.

I can't upload an image(raw file because a file is too large)

[wq9nsc]

Ernie captured beautiful detail with his hawk capture, it is a great image!  In my true professional setting as a marketing prof I taught retail management early in my academic career.  The answer to the question of: "what are the three most important attributes in determining the profitability of a retail store" is the same answer to the question of what are the three most important attributes in capturing a good wildlife (or sports) photo, LOCATION, location, and location.  Nothing beats being close enough to a subject that you aren't at the limits of focal length and with poor light placement.  Location really constrains what you can do in terms of framing and other aspects of the capture decision.

But often a lot of cropping is required and when that happens, an exposure triangle that keeps you at the lower end of the ISO range is going to be extremely helpful.  The hawk below was shot from much further away than I would like but I could sense he was skittish.  When shooting wildlife I will often get a couple of captures as soon as I am in reasonable range and then try to sneak into a more optimal location but Mr. Hawk was pretty much through with his meal and as soon as I moved from my initial location he took off.  I shot this at ISO 250 with a 1DX III and EF 400 f2.8 lens plus 1.4X extender resulting in a 560mm f4 combination that put me at ISO 250 with my selected 1/1600 shutter speed. 

The first image is a 6.5% crop from the frame, the second is the complete frame down sampled to fit within forum posting size limit.  With a low ISO, you can take a pretty severe crop and still retain quite a bit of detail.  Closer would have been MUCH better but this gives you an idea of what you can do with cropping when the lower ISO lets your sensor produce its best. 

Rodger

[RockbambooPF]

This is soft and has minor fringing on the beak and branches. A better lens might help!

[ebiggs1]

"This is soft and has minor fringing on the beak and branches. A better lens might help!"

Which sample photo are you referencing here?

[wq9nsc · Accepted solution]

You are welcome and I know EXACTLY what you mean about the excitement of photographing wildlife.  It is very easy to be so concerned about capturing the moment that it is far too easy to overlook getting optimal settings and framing.  I have definitely been there and done that! 

Although my setup is different from tradition and what many others use and recommend, I have found that with the excellent auto ISO algorithm in current Canon bodies that manually setting aperture and shutter speed while using auto ISO works very well for action shots.  This is particularly true with a longer telephoto lens.  My rationale is simple, below a certain shutter speed I am not going to be able to freeze motion and without IS or a tripod in use there is a minimum shutter speed to avoid camera shake even if you aren't trying to freeze motion.  So for most of my shooting, shutter speed is going to be set to easily freeze motion.  Most of the time I am using Canon long primes that are about as sharp wide open as they are with the aperture stepped down slightly.  So unless the lighting is excellent or for some reason I need to increase depth of field I will set the aperture wide open or within 1 or 2 stops when I need a little more DoF or want exact focus tracking to be less critical.  ISO is the third leg of the exposure triangle and I let the camera set that, with the shutter speed and aperture fixed by me I know that the camera is going to choose the lowest ISO number it can to provide a standard exposure with best possible image quality.

I started shooting sports using manual aperture and shutter speed with auto ISO several years ago and have carried it over into wildlife.  I don't know about Nikon or other makes but the Canon auto ISO algorithm performs without flaw.  I do shoot everything in RAW so that I can make minor exposure adjustments in post but the camera metering gets it very close if not perfect in the great majority of cases.  When I had a 1D Mark II, I shot mostly in shutter priority to freeze sports motion and depending upon lighting set the ISO to as high as possible without sacrificing too much image quality but with the newer bodies with auto ISO I really prefer the control of pure manual so that the camera is going to provide the level of motion freezing and depth of field totally under my control.

This is one of many eagle photos I shot last month, the only exposure setting changes I made throughout the day was closing down the aperture a bit at times from the wide open f5.6 setting of my 800 mm lens when lighting permitted.  But ultimately you will need to try different setups and choose what works best for you.  Ultimately the old adage of "haste makes waste" really applies to photography and it is better to miss some captures completely if that leads to much higher quality captures in your mix of photos.

Good luck, the 5D IV is a very nice camera and you will love it once you and it are on the same page 🙂

Rodger

Rodger

[RockbambooPF]

Your eagle's slightly out of focus. There's no sharp point, and this is a common issue with the 5D Mark IV that I am trying to get them to fix. Shoot through your LCD (rather than viewfinder) to see the difference.

[ebiggs1]

"There's no sharp point, and this is a common issue with the 5D Mark IV ..."

There are only two factors that determine IQ in the sensors ability to capture a photo.

Resolution, which relates to pixel density, pixel size and capture of fine detail. And, secondly, sensor uniformity, meaning the extent to which QC can eliminate errant pixels and manufacturing flaws. In both these specs the 5D Mk IV excels with its 30MP sensor.

"... I am trying to get them to fix."

However, where you go wrong is resolution and color accuracy is also dependent on the lenses used. In others words use a poor lens and the sensor can not reach its full potential.  Some lenses are not designed to fully exploit the potential of a 5D Mk IV. In the case of the eagle shot the lens used is the best lens made in the 800mm FL class. This brings us to critical focus which is the biggest single challenge of all.  Again, not a 5D Mk IV issue but a human issue.

[wq9nsc]

I love that setting with your 4 legged friends, that is a beautiful location!

You have a difficult lighting situation in that shot with strong low angle cross lighting that creates a really high dynamic range between highlight and shadow.  I have shot a number of late afternoon soccer games in the same lighting conditions where you end up with simultaneous blown highlights and shadows that are in the noise.  That is one area where our human eyes are still better than the best sensor but we are also dynamic range challenged under those conditions.

In this case, you were also pushing the need for depth of field with subjects extending from the foreground into the background area so this pushed you into a narrow aperture which again shot your ISO level higher than you wanted.  This is one of the areas where you have to make a choice and an alternative would have been to frame it differently and feature either the foreground subject or the two in the background instead of trying to capture all three.  With closely spaced subjects and less need for depth, you could have opened up the aperture since you wouldn't need as much depth of field and this would have brought your ISO down much lower resulting in a more detailed image.

I am not sure where you are located, but when you next have good daylight try some images with the aperture much wider (maybe f5.6 or f8) and a shutter speed of somewhere in the 1/250 to 1/500 range and this should give you an ISO around 3,200 or lower under good lighting with much less grain and greatly increased detail.

Rodger