UPDATE: There is a new version of this article which has been expanded and covers all the currently available Canon cameras.
See here for the new version:
Choosing a Canon DSLR for nature photography

Which Canon DSLR is right for bird and wildlife photography?
After answering the question for Nikon DSLRs, I want to focus on Canon digital SLR cameras today.

Here is an overview of the current Canon DSLR lineup:

Canon EOS 1000D

A nice camera with a very good image quality. But I don’t recommend it for serious wildlife and bird photography. The AF is not the best and it doesn’t provide the frame rate needed for action photography.

Canon EOS 450D

If you don’t want to spend a lot of money, the EOS 450D is not bad. I offers great image quality and the AF is better than with the 1000D. It’s not as robust as the 40D and 50D. If you can afford a more expensive camera, I suggest to get the 40D or 50D.

Canon EOS 40D

The camera I currently use. For the price I think the EOS 40D is one of the best cameras on the market. The autofocus is fast and accurate, at least with a fast lens like the Canon EF 4/500L. The frame rate of 6.5 frames per second is enough for most situations. The camera is lighter and smaller than an EOS 1D body which is great when you travel or hike long distances.
The only thing that many photographers don’t like is the fact that AF only works up to f5.6. That means with a 4/500 or 4/300 lens, you won’t have AF with a 2x extender.
With Canon cameras, AF up to f8 only works with the EOS 1D bodies.
Beside this I think the EOS 40D is a great camera for wildlife and bird photography and many photographers use it.
If you need more megapixel but want an otherwise pretty similar camera, I recommend the EOS 50D.

Canon EOS 50D

Everything I wrote about the EOS 40D is also true about the 50D. Great camera with some small improvements over the EOS 40D (like AF micro adjustments) and a huge increase in resolution from 10 megapixels to 15 megapixels. If you want the extra resolution go for the 50D.

Canon EOS 5D Mark II

The successor to the popular EOS 5D. The 5D Mark II can shoot only 3.9 fps which does not make it very useful for action photography. It also has a lower pixel densitiy than a EOS 50D, which means that you get less pixels per subject than with a 50D.
But the image quality of the 5D Mark II is a little better than the 50D, especially at higher ISO settings. If you don’t need the crop factor of the 50D and 3.9 fps are enough for you, the EOS 5D Mark II might be a good but more expensive alternative to the 50D. If you also shoot a lot of landscapes, the EOS 5D Mark II might be a better choice. If you can afford it, go for two bodies. The 50D of wildlife and the 5D Mark II for landscapes and macro work.

Canon EOS 1D Mark III

The EOS 1D Mark III has gotten a lot of bad press because of problems with it’s autofocus system. See this detailed report to get more information.
Quite a few people moved to Nikon because they were disappointed with the 1D Mark III. That said, there are also many photographers who get great results with the AF of the EOS 1D Mark III.
Beside the AF problems, this camera is great. The 1.3 crop factor is useful for shy animals and the 10 fps are perfect for action scenes. The camera has full weather sealing which is great in harsh landscapes like deserts, rain forests or at sea.
It also can autofocus at f8, which means you can use a 4/500 or 4/600 with a 2x extender and still have AF.

Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III

This is the big sister of the 1D Mark III. It has 21 megapixels of resulotion, but can only shoot a 5 fps. If you want a full frame camera and the 5fps are enough, the 1D has everything you need.
But I would advice to really look at the 5D Mark II if you want a full frame camera. It has the same resolution. The AF is slower and the 5D Mark II isn’t as robust as the EOS 1Ds Mark III, but it is a lot cheaper.
In my opinion, for most photographers it would be better to get the 5D Mark II and invest the money saved in a good lens.

Conclusion:

I don’t recommend getting the EOS 1000D. It’s a good camera for the money but it has too many limitations for serious bird and wildlife photography.
If 10 megapixels are enough I recommed the EOS 40D. I’ve been using this camera myself for about a year now and I really like it. Autofocus is fast, the 6.5 fps are great for action shoots and the image quality is very good, even up to ISO 1.600.
If you want more resolution, go for the EOS 50D.

The EOS 1D Mark III is a more professional version and if it hadn’t all those autofocus problems, I would highly recommend it and probably own it myself.
If you don’t need the features of the 1D Mark III I think the EOS 40D or 50D will be a good choice.
I expect an 1D Mark IV from Canon soon and I hope that model will not have the autofocus problems of the 1D Mark III.
Another alternative would be to get a used EOS 1D Mark IIN which has a better autofocus, but only 8 megapixel.

The full frame cameres EOS 5D and EOS 1Ds Mark III are great for landscape photography and if you need a lot of resulotion.

If you can afford it, it might be good to get two cameras. Sometimes having two cameras ready can be very helpful. And you have a backup on vacation if one model stops working or gets stolen.

A good combination would be to get a EOS 50D (or 40D) and a EOS 5D Mark II.
Professionals sometimes use a EOS 1D Mark III for birds and wildlife and the EOS 1Ds Mark III for landscapes. This is a great combination (if you have a model without the AF problem) but also very expensive.

The lens is more important than the Camera. It’s better to have a EOS 40D with a Canon EF 500mm f/4L IS USM than a EOS 1Ds Mark III with just a Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM. The 300mm is just too short for most situations but would make a great addition to the 500mm lens.

With the announcement of the Leica S2, Leica surprised the photography world.

Beside the much larger sensor (30×45mm, 37.5 megapixel), the introduction of an autofocus system is also new for Leica SLR cameras.

The new systems looks very interesting. I think it is necessary for Leica to set themselves apart from current DSLRs. Against cameras like the D3 or Canon pro DSLRs they probably have not much chance. And with the recent introduction of high quality wide angle lenses from Nikon (the wonderful 2.8/14-24) they loose their advantage here too.

But with a much larger sensor they may have a chance. Hopefully more lenses will be available soon. They will need a lot more lenses to make this system successful. At least a wide ange and standard zoom. And probably a longer telephoto lens.
So far the lenses are all primes (probably of very high quality as expected from Leica). The longest lens is a 180mm lens.

If the sensor delivers high quality and the lenses are good (which I expect) then I think this is great for landscape photographers and studio photography.

Existing Leica photographers may still want a digital version of the R9 to use their current collections of high quality Leica lenses. Maybe a digital R10 will follow.

It will be interesting to see how much the new system and the lenses will cost and if it is enough to help Leica survive.

Adobe has published the release candidate for Lightroom 2.1.
A release candidate is not yet a final version. Adobe says it’s well tested but would benefit from additional testing by Lightroom users.

Many bugs have been fixed and the new version has support for some new cameras including the Nikon D90 and Nikon D700.

More information at the Adobe website:
Lightroom 2.1 update.

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II is avaiable for preorder at amazon.com. You can either buy the body alone or in combination with the Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM lens.
Click the links below for more information (left is body only, right with the 4/24-105):

Adobe has released a release candidate (well testet but not yet the final version) of Adobe Camera Raw 4.6. The new version adds support for the Nikon D700 and Nikon D90 DSLRs and also for the Fuji Finepix IS Pro and
Nikon Coolpix P6000.

It works with Photoshop CS3, that is people who buy the new D90 or D700 won’t have to upgrade to the upcoming Photohshop CS4 to work with RAW files from the D90 and D700.

Once Adobe Camera Raw 4.6 is final, there should also be an update for Lightroom 2 with support for those cameras.

Click here for more information and download from Adobe

After a long period of waiting and speculation in many forums and on many websites, the new Canon EOS 5D Mark II is finally out.

Let’s look at the important features of the EOS 5D Mark II and see if it really is a worthy upgrade from the old EOS 5D.

21 megapixel sensor

This is a huge increase from the 12 megapixel sensor of the old EOS 5D. The sensor is similar to that in the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III but with some improvements. It is supposed to offer the best image quality of all Canon EOS cameras so far. The 5D Mark II is also supposed to offer the lowest noise of all Canon EOS cameras. The ISO can be adjusted up to 25.600. If this is usable or was just included to have the same number as Nikon with the D3 remains to bee seen.

If the camera is as good as Canon says, then I think this alone will make the camera very popular for studio and landscape photographers and for everyone who shoots in low light conditions. I hope the first tests confirm this.

Sensor cleaning

All new Canon EOS DSLRs offer sensor cleaning. It really works very well with my EOS 40D. It was no surprise than the EOS 5D Mark II also offers this feature.

3.9 frames per second

This is only a small increase from the 3 fps of the old EOS 5D. But given this huge increase in resolution, I think 3.9 fps is not too bad.

98% viewfinder

It’s not 100% but close. Many non professional DSLR only have a 95 or sometimes smaller viewfinder. This can be annoying when you want to make sure that there are no distracting elements or colors at the side of the image. With a 98% viewfinder this should no longer be problem.

Movie recording

After the Nikon D90 introduced video functionality, it was clear that other cameras would follow. The EOS 5D Mark II provides movie recording with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. You can record movies up to 12 minutes in lenght (in VGA mode up to 24 minutes). This is more than the Nikon D90.
Some people think this is useless, others are very excited about it. I think most future DSLRs will provide movie recording.
No matter if you like it or not, it is definitely a step forward from the EOS 5D.
It’s a little strange that the recently introduced Canon EOS 50D does not offer movie recording. Maybe Canon wanted to keep the prices down.

Sound recording is supported in both mono (built in) or stereo mode (via an external stereo microphone).

LCD with large resolution

The new 3 inches LCD has a resolution of 920,000 pixels. This is a huge step forward from the EOS 5D and seems to be the same display as in the new EOS 50D.

Autofocus with nine AF points and six Assist AF points

The autofocus system of the EOS 5D Mark II is similar to the EOS 5D. New features are micro adjustments and the ability to detect the color temperature.

I think the new AF system is not much of an improvement. After all I’ve read it still works only up to f5.6 which means if you have an f4 lens (like many wildlife and sport photographers with their 4/500 and 4/600) lenses, you won’t be able to autofocus with a 2x extender.
If you shoot shy animals and small birds, using a 2x extender is often necessary. It’s a disappointment that the new EOS 5D Mark II does not support AF up to f8.

Live view

If you like live view, the 5D Mark II now supports this feature including autofocus while using live view.

Conclusion

These are not all of the improvements. For a full list, see the links below. But these are what I think the most important improvements compared to the old EOS 5D.
Overall I think the EOS 5D Mark II is a real upgrade to the old EOS 5D. The much higher resolution and the (according to Canon) even better image are a huge step forward.
The very attractive price of US: $ 2,699 (EU: € 2,499, UK: £ 2,299) is way below the EOS 1Ds Mark III and also below the Sony A900 and the Nikon D700.

The new camera is not the right tool for everyone.
I think the EOS 5D Mark II is for photographers who want a high resolution but don’t shoot a lot of action. That makes the EOS 5D Mark II very interesting for studio and landscape photographers.

The situation is different for photographers who shoot a lot of action scenes. The AF is not very exciting (although probably not bad) and the 3.9 frames per second are good but not great if you shoot moving subjects like sports or flying birds.
If you want a faster camera for wildlife and sport photography, the new EOS 50D or the 1D Mark III are better suited. As is the Nikon D700 which has “only” 12 megapixel but a better AF and can shoot up to 8 frames per second.

I think Canon has shown that they are still one of the leading manufacturers and I am sure this new Camera will be a huge success among landscape and studio photographers who want high resolution, great image quality and don’t want to spend more than 6.000 Dollars or Euros for a 1Ds Mark III.

Further information

For a detailed coverage of all the features of the new Canon EOS 5D, please use the following links:

anon EOS 5D Mark II Hands-on Preview at dpreview.com

Canon EOS 5D Mark II at robgalbraith.com

Preorder from amazon.com

After the introduction of a 50 and 85 mm lens for Canon, about which I wrote yesterday, Zeiss has introduced another lens for Canon (and also Nikon and Pentax) today.
The lens is called the Distagon T* 2,8/21 and works on both analog and digital SLR cameras.

I am not sure if those new Zeiss lenses will find many buyers. If I were a Nikon shooter, I would prefer the wonderful Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S. This lens is extremely sharp and the zoom is much more versatile.

Canon’s wide angle zooms – though not perfect – are very good lenses, too. And they have AF and are from Canon itself.

Many photographers today prefer zoom lenses.
If Zeiss came up with a very sharp 4/16-35 that outperforms the (very good) Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, I might consider buying it.

See this review at luminous landscape for an interesting comparison of the and Zeiss Distagon 18mm f/3.5 and the Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G ED AF-S.

German lens manufacturer Carl Zeiss (famous for their sharp lenses) today announced two new lenses designed for Canon EOS cameras:

Planar T* 1.4/50 ZE
Planar T* 1.4/85 ZE

ZE is the name for the Canon mount. The lenses don’t have autofocus, but the focus confirmation when using manual focus remains available.
Except for the lack of autofocus, the lenses are fully electronic and support all exposure modes like aperture priority (AV) or shutter priority (TV).

It remains to be seen if those lenses will be successful. Canon has a pretty good Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM and two very good 85mm lenses (Canon EF 85mm f/1.2L II USM and Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM). Time will tell if people choose the Zeiss lenses over the Canon lenses.

Zeiss plans to introduce more lenses for Canon EOS cameras in the future.

For more information, check the homepage of Carl Zeiss.

This book is a little different from other books about Adobe Photoshop Lightroom that I am currently reading (and soon be reviewing here).
First of all, it’s not only about Lightroom 2 but about the whole DSLR workflow from shooting to managing and developing the photos with Lightroom and then fine tuning them with Photoshop.

Of course a single book can not cover everything in complete detail. As the author explains in the introduction, he does not cover the Lightroom moduls Slideshow, Printing and Web. He only covers the Library and Develop Modules.
And of course he doesn’t explain everything Photoshop is capable of. But this is probably impossible to do in a single book.

The book is divided into four parts:

1. Part one covers the digital SLR camera and choosing your computer hardware. The author explains the advantages of a DSLR, how to use memory cards, which image format (RAW or JPEG) and how to calibrate a monitor.

2. Part two covers the configuration of Lightroom 2 and how to import and organize your images.

3. Part three covers the Develop module of Lightroom 2. The Develop module is the most difficult for most newcomers to digital photography and Lightroom. I found the explanations in this book very easy to follow. Sometimes I wished they were more detailed.

4. The last part is all about Photoshop. It’s not a beginners introduction to Photoshop. The author explains some interesting techniques like creating Panoramas, how to make HDR images, using Adjustment Layers, and creating some interesting effects with Photoshop. Black and White images are also covered. As with the Lightroom part, I found the explanations easy to follow, but sometimes I wished they were more detailed.

Conclusion:
As I already said, this is not a complete introduction to Lightroom and Photoshop. This wasn’t the intention of the Author when he wrote the book.
If you really want to master Lightroom and Photoshop, you will need other books, too. For Lightroom 2 I highly recommed The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book by Martin Evening, which I reviewed here.

I like the workflow presented in the book and I think it’s a good basis to build your own workflow on if you haven’t already established one or are looking for new ideas how to do it.

I think the books succeeds in explaining how a digital workflow could look like. I recommend this book for beginning and intermediate photographers who wand to build a workflow around Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 and Adobe Photoshop. It’s also a good book for people coming from film to digital photography. If you are already an advanced digital photographer with an established workflow or if you want a complete book about Lightroom and Photoshop, this book is probably not for you.

Buy from amazon:

Scott Kelby’s new book, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers is now available at amazon.com.
I really liked Scott’s book about Lightroom 1 and I am sure the new book will also be a great resource for everyone using Lightroom 2.
As soon as I get the book and finish reading it, I will write a detailed review here on my website.

Get it from amazon: