I have resisted getting a drone because I'm not sure what I would do with it. I fancy myself as a wildlife photographer, and I don't think it is ethical to chase down critters with a drone. But it will be used primarily for photographing real estate. I tested it out today and have the basics covered. I can get it up in the air and take a pictue.
We went to XTreme Bulls last night in rainy, overcast Red Lodge, Montana. With the weather, the light, and our seats high up in the grandstand, I decided not to take a DSLR and big lens. I settled for the Canon M100 mirrorless #10 with the 70-200mm lens, hoping to get one or two snapshots. I set the ISO on 1600 and didn't expect much.
Of course, I ended up taking nearly 400 snapshots, and even found the "burst mode". The specs say the M100 can fire four shots per second using Servo Autofocus. I have never really used this feature in the seven years I have had the camera since it has no viewfinder and usually it is difficult to follow action with the view screen. But bulls stay in a fairly small circle and I found it possible to keep it centered. The longest burst I took was 18 images, at which point the camera's buffer became full and I had to wait. That's only 4.5 seconds, which isn't quite long enough to get the full eight seconds of a successful ride, so I had to be somewhat judicious when holding down the button. I also hadn't cleaned off my memory card recently, so ended the night with the 32Gb card almost full.
With the 1600 ISO, I ran the images through Photoshop AI DeNoise but at only 10%, a much lower level than I used on the 20000 ISO female flicker a couple days ago. The images aren't winning any prizes, but I consider them usable. As I become more used to Photoshop and Lightroom, I find myself becoming more dependent on their features and probably would find it hard to go back to Photoshop Elements. Which is what Adobe wants since Photoshop/Lightroom is ongoing subscription revenue whereas Elements is a one-time purchase.
The Canon M series mirrorless, introduced 2012, is not to be confused with the Canon R series mirrorless, introduced in 2018 and now the company's flagship line. They use different mounts, and Canon has abandoned the M line. In retrospect it was a mistake to buy the M100 back in 2017, but I still use the camera often enough to justify not putting it up on eBay. It has a 24Mp sensor so in terms of number of pixels it is right up there with my two newer DSLRs, and with an adapter it can use any of my EOS lenses. But if I had to start completely over, I would get two Canon R cameras, the R6 Mark II and the 45Mp R5. I have the adapter to use traditional EOS lenses, but of course if you are starting completely over you want R-mount lenses. I feel how Canon owners must have felt back in 1987 when the EOS system was introduced and the FD manual focus cameras and lenses passed into obsolescence.
Anyway, here is one of the better images I got at ISO 1600. The shutter speed is only 1/250th and the aperture was wide open at f/4. If you look closely at the dark bull, you can see it is raining. It's amazing I got anything at all.
Today there was yet another high ISO experience. This deer stuck her nose into the little birdbath a few minutes before 9 pm. ISO was 12800 and I applied my now-customary 10% Photoshop AI DeNoise. Below that is the same scene from the perspective of the Reconyx that has been at home for the past week. Keeping with my recent theme here, the Reconyx reports ISO 200 and exposure time of 1/160th, no f/stop. The device on the tripod is the motion trigger, which wirelessly communicates with the DSLR several yards away to the right. It is a good thing I didn't get the Reconyx back out in the woods Monday because several of the batteries that I thought would be OK totally died in just a few days. Now I've got fresh ones in there and it is probably going out Friday, and I can get a first look at the videos from the new Browning #15.
I'm also including here a shot from the big birdbath of a goldfinch sharing with a couple of sparrows. I haven't seen the goldfinches for a few weeks but they came by today.
