Feb. 12, 2010
Here are some photos taken with my new Canon 1D MarkIV using the Canon
100 f2.8 L IS macro lens. The new type of image stabilization on
this lens is really more capable than I originally thought. Since the IS
only compensates for up and down and side to side movements and not movements
parallel to the plane of focus, I set the camera on AF servo at the fastest
tracking setting and that does the trick. These were all hand held
between 1/125th sec. and 1/250th sec. using between f8 and f11. Since I
always have binoculars hanging around my neck when doing any sort of birding
or photography, they rested against the lens hood and added to the stability.
Almost all were razor sharp in the full-sized files. Any unsharp photos
I got mostly resulted from me not keeping the lens parallel to the plane
of focus. These are all ice patterns in my backyard flood plain of
the Scioto River in Columbus after a recent freeze, but before snow covered
all the ice. Ice patterns always make interesting photographic subjects
to me. The new Canon IS macro lens really works well for this stuff, and
it is a lot easier to be able to get quality results by hand holding a
lens than getting on your knees and painstakingly setting everything up
on a tripod. Because of all the fine detail in the photos, these files
are large and may take a while to download.