Hello! I'm new to this forum. I'm traveling to Costa Rica in April for a story about leatherback turtles. Of course, no light can be used as the leatherbacks emerge from the ocean to lay their eggs on the beach at night. If they are disturbed, they will not return to the spot to lay eggs. Can anyone suggest either a low light lens or some other equipment that may help me? I shoot with a Canon 20D.
Thanks!
Nikon's new D3 has some incredible low light capabilities, but that's not a help to you and I'm not sure even that would be enough. The fastest lenses around are usually 50mm primes, going down to f/1.4 or f/1.2, which would be a big help in low light. But you still need at least some ambient light.
I guess the thing to do would be to use the fastest lens you own along with your fastest ISO setting and a tripod. After that your best hope would probably be trying to recover detail in post processing in Photoshop.
I do a fair bit of night shooting, and for my own night vision I wear red LED headlamps. It would be interesting to learn from your hosts if red lights were okay. If so, then I'm fairly certain that you could generate enough light to be useful with a red headlamp, followed by color correction in PS.
Posted by Kent Staubus on March 10, 2008 at 11:59 AM
I will second the suggestion of either a 50mm f1.4 or even better an 85mm f1.4 lens, coupled with ISO 1600 or even higher. If there is a full moon you're going to find there's actually quite a bit of light out there.
Kent in SD
Posted by Kelly Rowe on March 10, 2008 at 12:16 PM
Pray for a full moon. Though you >can< use the lenses suggested above, they probably won't work out as well as you would like for three reasons. First, they can get kind of sketchy at 1.2 or 1.4. Even my venerable 85 1.2 is guilty despite costing as much as a used car. Second, you are very likely to have to use manual focus unless you are allowed to use an ST-E... whatever, flash controller that uses an IR beam to assist with autofocus. Lastly, and most importantly, the DOF is razor thin. With my 85 I can get your eyes in sharp focus and have the tip of your nose and your ears go soft at 1.2. Leatherbacks are large animules and I assume you will want to have them all in sharp focus. These huge apertures aren't going to get 'er dun for you.
You know, I'd be tempted to drag along my 20mm f/2.8. It's edge in DOF and handling at low shutter speeds would make it worth a try.
Posted by Bill Chambers on March 11, 2008 at 12:34 PM
I agree with Kelly - pray for a full moon and very slow turtles! You might consider renting a D3 and lens for the trip. I don't know what kind of $ that would be, but I would think it would be fairly reasonable and offer you the best chance to actually collect an image. From the test images I've seen ISO's up to 12,500 were actually viewable!
rent a Canon 1D mark 3 (for high ISO shooting) and a f 1.4 lens from lensrental.com
Posted by James Fillip on March 12, 2008 at 8:04 PM
I'm asking as much as suggesting, as I have never used one. But what about a night vision converter. Could you correct the color in PS? I have seen a lot of turtle shots taken thru some sort of night vision scope or converter. I think they have them for rent at the gear rental place mentioned above.
Posted by David Bostedo on March 12, 2008 at 10:32 PM
Because of the way low light devices (night vision) work, they don't really have color channels like a normal cameras - they're mostly green - I think because those are the wavelengths that carry most of the brightness info. The image would probably need to be artificially colored from that, otherwise, grayscale would be the way to go.
If you can find one that tries to keep color, that would be really cool, but I'm not sure they exist.
I've used several generations and models David, and your suggestion is a creative idea. It would have to be for B/W conversion I bet, and resolution will suffer unless you get into some of the current generation and lotsa buxxxxxxxx. But if you had to have the images and could accept the loss of resolution and color, it would work.
Wow!
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I've been "out of pocket" for a few weeks and so haven't seen these until this morning. I am unfamiliar with some of the suggested equipment, and so happy to learn. Especially interested in the rental site. Can't thank you all enough and will post you on how it worked out. What a great resource this forum is.
Cathleen
Discussion
10 repliesThanks!
Nikon's new D3 has some incredible low light capabilities, but that's not a help to you and I'm not sure even that would be enough. The fastest lenses around are usually 50mm primes, going down to f/1.4 or f/1.2, which would be a big help in low light. But you still need at least some ambient light.
I guess the thing to do would be to use the fastest lens you own along with your fastest ISO setting and a tripod. After that your best hope would probably be trying to recover detail in post processing in Photoshop.
I do a fair bit of night shooting, and for my own night vision I wear red LED headlamps. It would be interesting to learn from your hosts if red lights were okay. If so, then I'm fairly certain that you could generate enough light to be useful with a red headlamp, followed by color correction in PS.
Kent in SD
If you can find one that tries to keep color, that would be really cool, but I'm not sure they exist.
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I've been "out of pocket" for a few weeks and so haven't seen these until this morning. I am unfamiliar with some of the suggested equipment, and so happy to learn. Especially interested in the rental site. Can't thank you all enough and will post you on how it worked out. What a great resource this forum is.
Cathleen