ISO 1600
With the Canon D30

In The Trees at ISO 1600

On arecent tripto an eco-lodge in the rainforest inCosta RicaI did all of my shooting with theCanon EOS D30. Most of the images shot were at ISO 400, because of the low light levels encountered on the jungle floor.

Monkey 1600 � Costa Rica, 2001

Photographed with a Canon EOS D30 and 100~400mm f/5.6L lens @ 400mm
1/90 sec @ f/8 â�� ISO 1600 

Late one afternoon, after returning from a long hike, I sat on the lodge’s deck overlooking a stretch of forest, relaxing with a well deserved cold beer. I saw rustling in the tree-tops and with my binoculars spotted a small troop ofSpider Monkeysworking their way though the jungle canopy.

By the time one of them emerged from the dense foliage to find a ripe berry at the end of a branch, the sun had set (which happens very quickly near the equator). The light level was getting quite dim, though there was still some sky glow.

Figuring that I had nothing to loose I set the D30 to ISO 1600, something that I hadn’t tried before. I was very pleased afterward to see that quite a decent image had been produced. Sure, it’s grainy, but without it the shutter speed would have been far to slow for any kind of usable results. (As it was I was hand-holding at 1/90th of a second with a 400mm lens â�� a testament to the Image Stabilization technology).

The enlargement below is an “actual pixels” reproduction from Photoshop. While noisy, it allowed me to get the image I wanted, something that I doubt would have been as usable even if I’d pushed a roll of ISO 400 film two full stops.