Today proved to be perfect weather for ducks, and pretty good weather for testing out the 7D Mark II in some fairly challenging conditions. I’m still tweaking settings as I go, but I’m getting it closer to how I want it to work and learning more about some of the incredibly useful controls you can use while still glued to the viewfinder.

Anyway, it was raining cats and dogs this morning when I arrived at Falmer Pond. Not that the ducks were complaining. Given the conditions I would not have attempted these shots with the original 7D. It was truly gloomy out there, but a good test of the cameras ISO capability. After the first shot I increased ISO from 1600 to 3200 to retain a decent shutter speed.

Duck in rain
Sleeping duck (ISO 1600)
Duck in rain
Happy Duck (ISO 3200)
Duck in rain
Serious Duck (ISO 3200)

It was still raining at lunchtime, though there were breaks in the weather. The ducks were still enjoying themselves.

Hybrid Duck (ISO 3200)
Hybrid Duck (ISO 3200)
white duck
White Duck (ISO 3200)

A female mallard flew across the pond. These are from a longer sequence

Duck in flight
Duck in flight (ISO 2000)
Duck in flight
Duck in flight (ISO 2000)

And to close: Swimming in the Rain…

Ducks swimming
Swimming in the Rain (ISO 1600)

Still much to learn and to test out, but early impressions are of a highly responsive camera, with great and easily accessible controls, great focusing and excellent low light capability.

Camera note: all photos taken with the Canon 7D Mark II and EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L USM IS lens.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. If that’s the fine weather for ducks, then they must be enjoying their life over here 😀 More than 50 litres per square meter in last 36 hours o_O

    1. Darko, I can’t work out how much 50l per sq metre is in real money, but it sounds a lot. We still talk about rainfall in inches. 😀 Much better today. We had sunshine!

      1. Err… something over 2″, You know, Canada is kind of weird when it comes to measurements. They are using inches and feet but also centimeters, Celsius for temperature and pounds for weight. Coming from a country that used only metric system, I needed to adjust to that when I’ve found a job here 😀

        1. Darko, that figures. The battle between Imperial measures and metric must be quite something on your East Coast! We still use ‘furlongs’ in horse racing 😀 Temperature is pushing to C but most people still use F.

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