This second part of my just started presentation series brings you three images from Paris, going from the obvious emblem of Paris to a few lesser known details. The timing of our spring trip was pretty much determined by the school vacations of our grand children and was thus quite early in the year, not the most conducive time for photography: particularly in Paris the weather gods were not showing us their usually more benevolent sides, thus the relative dearth of images from this stay. - Then we have a brief glance at a few of the more than 300 castles and numerous towns dotting the countryside along the Loire River, France's "Royalty Alley".

I promised in the introduction to keep my descriptions short and I will do so, but if you are interested to become more familiar with this fabulous valley, I invite you to click on the following link to Wikipedia, which provides a brief description of the valley as well as further links to some of the castles I am presenting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loire_Valley


Notes
TRIP INFO: Set # 1 provides a brief introduction to this series. Please use the link below if you would like to review this intro:
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-797460-1.html

Thanks for visiting, I recommend viewing the downloads and look forward to your comments and questions.

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Hi all,

I just returned from Kenya where I was leading a photo tour. Due to all the rains over the past few months, Kenya is GREEN! And the wildlife are responding by having lots of babies.

I managed to break my Canon RF 100-500mm a week before the trip, so I did almost all of my photography with the older Canon 200-400mm with built-in 1.4x and used the spare camera I bought just before the trip - the mirrorless RF 6 II. I had my Canon R5 with me, but test at my Idaho home a couple days before flying to Kenya seemed to show the R6 II was even better at detecting animal eyes than the older R5, so I stayed with the R6 II. It worked well and I did well with every situation. I used Auto ISO for exposure and exposure compensation nearly all the time and kept continuous autofocus active on the shutter button. While I was a huge fan of BBF for 30 years, I find I no longer need it with the newer camera controls. I did try to buy the newly released RF 200-800mm but no luck as usual with new Canon gear. Actually, I am hoping to buy the Canon R1 and the 200-500mm lens I have heard about, but neither are available. If I can't get the new flagship Canon camera and the new fast zoom lens by fall of this year, I plan to drop Canon and move over to Nikon. Dixie just got the Nikon 600mm f/4 with the built-in converter - what a beast!!!! I wish I had that option in the Canon line. Canon needs to speed up getting new products out there.

For those who are interested in a Kenya Safari, we are planning another one that runs later this year and into 2024. Parks we photograph include Amboseli, Samburu, and the Masai Mara. I have led over 40 photo tours to Kenya and we do it well. Unfortunately, a Kenya tour is not inexpensive as Kenya fees keep going up. We only put three photographers in a safari vehicle allowing everyone to shoot out either side of the vehicle easily, and we fly from park to park. That makes the tour cost more, but it is WAY better for everyone! I still have another 50,000 images to sort through! Kenya is truly an amazing experience and while it is the most expensive trip I lead, it is also the most repeated trip too!

This is subjective, but we two agree at 3200.

As user of several *reasonably modern* FF cameras I can generalize that for 24MP 3200 is usually the sweet spot when needing speed.

Sweet spot does NOT mean usefull limit. For those same cameras, 5-digit ISOs will deliver winderful enjoyable displayable enlargeable images. Noise is plainly visible but not uglee, more like an intentional "texture effect" filter.

Cameras that I would not class as reasonably modern produced uglee noise, so avoiding their noise threshhold was a critical discipline.

I have and actively use both the R5 and R7 bodies, and the 100-500mm lens is my lens used the most.

First, the 100-500mm lens is universally known as an outstanding lens. The ONLY drawback is that if you use an extender with it, you cannot use the entire zoom range. Otherwise, it works well with an extender.

As for the R7 body, you will find about half of users love it and take great photos (like Robert), and the other half pull their hair out trying to get a good photo from it. Review an active forum that is focused on the R7, like the Facebook "Canon EOS R7" group. You'll find many great photos posted from happy users, and many frustrated users who are struggling with it. Unfortunately, I've fallen into the second half and rarely use the R7. I just updated firmware and did a full camera reset as some have done to improve the performance. Waiting for several inches of ice to melt so I can get outside and test it.

BTW, if I took the same photo with the R5 and R7 (assuming I got lucky and the R7 photo was in focus and sharp), I would choose the R5 photo every time even if I needed to crop it. I've slowly morphed from an APS-C photographer to a full frame photographer over time. There are great choices in lens today, like the 100-500mm, that will get you close to your subject without the need for a cropped sensor.