First Shots with the Canon 5D

I got a new camera body at the end of March 2006, the Canon EOS 5D, a 12.8 megapixel digital SLR. The "old" camera is a Canon EOS 10D. I must say one thing I noticed right off the bat is the 5D renders color really well. It is also capable of incredible detail. I've included a couple of pixel level crops (i.e., as zoomed in as far as it gets) near the bottom to demonstrate this. On the downside (if there is one), the 5D is much less forgiving than the 10D because it has 1.6 f-stops less depth of field and twice as many pixels. To get pictures that are sharp even when fully "zoomed in" is challenging. The following pictures were taken hand-held, with flash, and all manual settings. The lens is a Canon 180mm f/3.5 macro with a 1.4X teleconverter. The flash is a Canon 550EX with a sheet of white acrylic to soften the picture.

Cricket. East Turtle Bay, Redding, CA - 4/26/06.

Common Ringlet on Blue Dick. Near Coleman Fish Hatchery, Shasta County, CA - 4/29/06.

Western Fence Lizard. Near Coleman Fish Hatchery, Shasta County, CA - 4/29/06.

Pacific Forktail, male. Battle Creek Wildlife Area headquarters, Shasta County, CA - 4/29/06.

Pacific Forktail, andromorphic female. Battle Creek Wildlife Area headquarters, Shasta County, CA - 4/29/06.

Pacific Forktail, very young female. Battle Creek Wildlife Area headquarters, Shasta County, CA - 4/28/06.

A full crop (down to pixel level detail) of the above picture.

Another full crop.

Looks like a Widow Skimmer, but it is apparently a strange looking Eight-spotted Skimmer or an Eight-spotted/Widow hybrid. I was able to go back two days later and catch this individual for further study (by others). Battle Creek Wildlife Area headquarters, Shasta County, CA - 4/29/06.