5D III High ISO Milky Way at Badlands, 14mm F2.8

[extremeinstability]

http://www.extremeinstability.com/2012-3-30.htm

I rented the camera and lens, curious what could be pulled out at night, then took it to the SD Badlands.  My initial feelings as far as noise was that it wasn't any better than the 5D II when I had it.  Turns out I guess it is a little better.  I tried to compare some with the 5D II images I have, but obviously I couldn't do same scene comparisons since I don't own the camera anymore.  Had the RAWs converted to DNG then opened in LR3.

Anyway, a bunch of images there with some comparison crops on the second page.  Also on the Milky Way images, I really didn't do any noise reduction(except twilight one and not on stars).  They could be cleaned up and look quite nice, but I really don't think you'd even need to do anything but color noise removal to the sky/stars/Milky Way even up to 8,000 - 10,000 ISO I guess. 

In the end I don't know that image quality would be worth an upgrade from the 5D II but perhaps up at the real high ISOs it may indeed be worthy.  I never cared about speed or focusing, or even video, so I didn't pay all that much attention.  What is rather cool is that live view leveling.  So nice for dark night shooting. 

[bp]

Lovely shots!

Oof, that lens... calls to me.  If it wasn't for the price tag on it

[Dianoda]

http://www.extremeinstability.com/2012-3-30.htm

I rented the camera and lens, curious what could be pulled out at night, then took it to the SD Badlands.  My initial feelings as far as noise was that it wasn't any better than the 5D II when I had it.  Turns out I guess it is a little better.  I tried to compare some with the 5D II images I have, but obviously I couldn't do same scene comparisons since I don't own the camera anymore.  Had the RAWs converted to DNG then opened in LR3.

Anyway, a bunch of images there with some comparison crops on the second page.  Also on the Milky Way images, I really didn't do any noise reduction(except twilight one and not on stars).  They could be cleaned up and look quite nice, but I really don't think you'd even need to do anything but color noise removal to the sky/stars/Milky Way even up to 8,000 - 10,000 ISO I guess. 

In the end I don't know that image quality would be worth an upgrade from the 5D II but perhaps up at the real high ISOs it may indeed be worthy.  I never cared about speed or focusing, or even video, so I didn't pay all that much attention.  What is rather cool is that live view leveling.  So nice for dark night shooting.

Wow, nice shots.  As an UL backpacker, I really want to visit the badlands now.  I imagine water availability is a bit of a crapshoot?  That's probably the biggest holding me back (er, well, that and all the national parks I still need to see).

[extremeinstability]

Thanks.  Yeah I would imagine finding water would be a crap shoot.  The animals must find it somewhere though.  Plenty of wildlife, Bighorns, Deer, Coyotes and Bison are all in no shortage.  It gets extra hot in that terrain.  It wasn't even really that hot out, yet the heat felt intense coming off the mostly light color rock and ground everywhere. The biggest thing there in many areas is how disorientating it gets, though gps and/or compass would cure that obviously. 


There's some other terrain shots here and here:
http://www.extremeinstability.com/2012-1-24.htm
http://www.extremeinstability.com/2012-3-11.htm

For photography it is kinda hard to lose in that place.  Seems something always happens or is photo worthy there. 

[Fotofanten]

Thanks for sharing. It was a very interesting read!

[mdm041]

Great stuff

[Tcapp]

Very nice!

[Daniel Flather]

Thanks for posting.

[Wideopen]

Amazing! Thank you for the inspiration.

[SusanB]

Thanks.  Yeah I would imagine finding water would be a crap shoot.  The animals must find it somewhere though.  Plenty of wildlife, Bighorns, Deer, Coyotes and Bison are all in no shortage.  It gets extra hot in that terrain.  It wasn't even really that hot out, yet the heat felt intense coming off the mostly light color rock and ground everywhere. The biggest thing there in many areas is how disorientating it gets, though gps and/or compass would cure that obviously. 


There's some other terrain shots here and here:
http://www.extremeinstability.com/2012-1-24.htm
http://www.extremeinstability.com/2012-3-11.htm

For photography it is kinda hard to lose in that place.  Seems something always happens or is photo worthy there.

Loved your images and narrative.

Susan

[mycanonphotos]

Just had to say...great shots! Thanks for all te Data!

[Schruminator]

Your photos turned out pretty awesome! Was that the 14L I or 14L II you shot those with?

[rumorzmonger]

Some great images there - thanks for sharing!

[dswtan]

April 2013 folks posting here may not have noticed that the OP is April 2012, which I only just noticed myself. Nonetheless, it is an awesome set, and I enjoyed the read very much too -- felt like I was there! Great stuff.

Mike subsequently did get to the Devil's Tower in September 2012, mentioned as a goal in the April set, which is also fun:
http://www.extremeinstability.com/2012-9-22.htm

I concur with his equipment findings too -- such as the super-annoying magnify feature on the 5D3 not having the nice +/- buttons that I have on my 7D (and apparently even on some Rebels), and the super-crappy coma on the 24mm f/1.4L II making it useless for starfields. I'm on Samyangs (aka Bower, Rokinon) for 24mm and 14mm now for the same reasons.

He seems to be doing well in general, though I have no affiliation, etc.:
http://www.extremeinstability.com/