A High ISO Christmas with the Canon EOS 5D MkII

Posted by James - Sunday, 4th January 2009

I had fun this Christmas getting to grips with my new 5D MkII – it’s slowly becoming as familiar as my previous body, the 350D. The difference is wonderful – the massive viewfinder (and massive LCD) makes composing (and checking results) an absolute dream. The low light performance is amazing; I’ll comfortably use ISO 6400, especially as the noise looks quite nice in B&W. The overall ergonomics are perfect for me – it makes me wonder how I managed with the 350D for so long (I’ve got big hands) and I’ve now received my vertical grip and spare battery, which just tops it off. I didn’t give myself enough photo opportunities as I wanted over my Christmas break, but I do have a few to share. Here is an ISO3200 shot of Lynsey’s Nana, Lily, on Christmas Day. My father-in-law’s wallpaper is a perfect backdrop!

During a card game on Christmas day I tried out photographing using Live View with the camera over my head in an upper corner of the room:

On boxing day I was sitting having breakfast in my in-law’s kitchen watching the birds at the bird feeder. I’m not much of a bird photographer, in fact I haven’t even tried it before. It was a very dull day so I thought it might be another good time to try out the new camera. These were shot through a double-glazed window, which significantly affected the sharpness, but the results are still quite nice. I took them with my longest lens (the 70-200mm f/4L) and so these take advantage of the massive 21 Megapixels of the 5D MkII – I cropped off nearly 75% of the pixels leaving me with a 2156×2695 image (that will happily print at 8"x6" at 300dpi, in fact it will still need to be reduced in size!). Who needs longer lenses!?

Here are a couple more:

I love the seed in the mouth of the Blue Tit. I believe the other bird is a Coal Tit.

Between Christmas and New Year we stayed at my Mum’s house and visited my sister and her family. We went for a walk along the River Nidd in Knaresborough and I spotted this poor tree that’s suffered many years of graffiti and people swinging on rope swings – made for an interesting capture though.

Jodie met a lovely pair of King Charles Spaniels who she was somewhat terrified of; much to our amusement! I think her body language in the shot below says it all!

Since buying the 5D MkII, Lynsey has now got the 350D all to herself. Here’s one of her in action with the 350D and the 50mm f/1.8 with our favourite model:

What kind of Christmas would it be without Chocolate – so why not a chocolate fondue? Here’s a chocolate covered Sophie and Thomas…