I shoot some candids at a Dane specialty recently. Horrible lighting. 7D, 70-200mm IS at 2.8, ISO 12,800, exposure pushed one stop and ran thru Noise Ninja. Prints beautifully at 8x10. Haven't tried larger. The next day I set the in camera noise reduction to strong and I think I got better results.

Nina, Julie,
I shot the 7D at this year's Rottie National so I know what it can do. To get moving shots like this:





I need to shoot longer bursts and get my timing right. "Perfect" moving shots are my candid bread & butter and higher fps usually means a better chance of capturing that exact moment when the dog is fully-extended on one side and fully-contracted on the other.

Having said that, that first image was taken with my 40D and the second with the 7D. Clearly, the second was harder because it was indoors, high ISO, slower shutter speed, etc. but when I review my action shots from the 40D, I'm not disappointed. Nina, thanks for the feedback and I'm going to rent a 50D for some shows coming up in Jan. and, if I like it, I'll probably buy 2.

Jim

this is very interesting, I normally shoot only RAW with my 50D, but am going to try the JPG with the high ISO NR turned on strong,, wondering though,, at what ISO does the NR start working? I can't find my book right now. I did a couple of test shots at 12,800 and seems to be a lot of color noise with that, but not really a lot of light where I tried it. I take a lot of deer and other wildlife outdoors, but sometimes there just isn't enought light early morn to get a decent shutter speed without a tripod, which is hard to use with a moving animal. Thanks,

the thing to remember when pushing the ISO up there, besides using in camera NR on JPGs, is to overexpose your image, an underexposed or even properly exposed image has more noise than one that your highlights are blinking, and your histogram is mildly clipped to the right (not a ton) ... but remember to keep the detail in the white dogs ... I change my shutter speed from my average for the show, down one for all black dogs and up two (from the average) for the all white dogs ... as those who shoot agility, you understand the challenges we must endure just to get a picture while shooting in a dark dungeon LOL

Jim .. the fps are enough, honestly, I've never noticed a slowdown, or felt I needed more, it writes soo fast on the extreme III cards I use, that I litterally could hold the hammer down & machine gun it if I wanted to.

what I love about the 50D is many bought it & couldn't figure out how to use it well, so it's resale value is low, meaning we can collect them at a reasonable price LOL

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what I love about the 50D is many bought it & couldn't figure out how to use it well, so it's resale value is low, meaning we can collect them at a reasonable price LOL

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Nina, that certainly enters into my thinking as well. When I look at the features vs the 7D, there's not that much difference -- at least for the ones that I use most. Perhaps the 7D's focusing system is a bit more sophisticated but I've never had a problem with the 40D's. As for high-ISO performance, I'm not going to be shooting too many indoor Trials where it would make a difference. Ring candids at Conformation shows are an issue but with fast glass I can keep the ISO at controllable levels. For the bulk of my work, the 50D is more than adequate.

Jim

Well I usually shoot in raw , but I am definitely going to try the method you suggest, Nina. I have an indoor training center shoot for a new agility book to do this week and will see how well your method works... it will certainly make my work flow alot faster if it works !