Gone Digital

About a week ago I eagerly anticipated the arrival of the UPS truck. I canceled office hours, and ate lunch at home, driving to campus and paying the exorbitant parking fees TWICE that day. Reluctantly I drove back up to campus for my Public history seminar, where I sat fidgeting all afternoon. Once class was finally over, I fought the Seattle-learned driving hordes of 18-year olds in their desperate hurry to find a kegger as I hurried home hoping to catch Mr. Brown. But alas, a brown and yellow sticker greeted me as I walked up to the door of our apartment. Dammit, I missed UPS, again. In their commercials, UPS tirelessly asks, "What can brown do for you?" I suggest that brown offer a "pick up delivery" option so those like me who cannot be home all day can simply drive by the UPS station on the way home from work and pick up our package, are you listening, brown?

I crawled back into my pickup and drove down to the UPS transfer and presented the brown and yellow UPS note and asked to pick up my package. This has become routine for us, we're never home for UPS. Fortunately, the driver, no doubt finding most of his route not at home, was already clocked out for the day and I was able to pick up my package from B&H: a new digital SLR! At home I eagerly went through the boxes contents, one Canon EOS 5D, batteries, and flashcards.

After some lengthy discussion with a good friend and longtime digital SLR user, followed by much contemplation, I settled on the 5D over a used 1DS primarily for the extreme low-light capabilties of the 5D's 3200 ISO setting. The 1DS maxed out at 1250, and was grainier over 800 ISO than the 5D. The advantage of the 1DS was its full weather sealing, a feature I could certainly benefit from while shooting grain harvest. However, as harvest is but a couple of weeks of my shooting year, and knowing that I could definitly benefit from being able to shoot inside elevators, warehouses, trains, etc., the extra ISO range became the deciding factor.

The 5D feels very similar to the EOS 3 that previously occupied my camera bag. Both have a "plastic" feel, but are very solid and my 24-70/2.8L feels right at home on either body. Fortunately, the 5D arrived just before I was scheduled to depart on a trip to Fort Union National Historic Site, near Williston, ND. I was eager to try out the 5D, and knew that I would have several opportunities while riding the Empire Builder across Montana. In particular, I was very interested in exploring the potential for some night "action" photography at 3200 ISO.


The first photograph (above) was taken at the Spokane, WA station at about 2am Sunday morning, January 29th. Our eastbound train sits patiently waiting on the right, while the Seattle section of the westbound counterpart is serviced on the left. The exposure data for this and most photographs below is 1/50 at 2.8, 3200 ISO, HANDHELD. No longer is it *necessary* to trudge around with tripods to make some night exposures!


The second photograph is also at Spokane, also at 3200 ISO, as passengers board the eastbound Builder.

Unfortunately, on the trip east to Williston, I developed an incredibly painful "perianal abscess" which required a trip to the ER for draining and a prescription for antiobiotics. After that set back I had plenty of work to catch up on, which included a very pleasant and mild afternoon visiting the recreated Fort Union Trading Post.

Here, an eastbound BNSF doublestack train passes by the recreated palisade of Fort Union. I'd like to improve upon this grab shot with the westbound Empire Builder!

That evening, after dinner with a historical architect from the National Park Service, I was able to catch the eastbound Builder, #8, arrive at Williston and try out some more low light photography. In the following photograph, desperate passengers step into the cold North Dakota air for a long-needed nicotine fix, while others board or deboard at the attractive former Great Northern depot.

It only takes a few minutes for the depot agent to unload the checked baggage and for the conductor to herd the smokers back onto the train. Once again the platform is quiet save for the remaining passengers gathering their luggage. The BNSF's Williston Local, powered by a ATSF geep, and an eastbound grain emtpy idle nearby awaiting their crews.


Alright, I can hear a skeptic say that this 3200 ISO thing looks pretty good on the monitor, but it can't be that good, can it? Personally I think the "grain" at 3200 is about comparable with Kodachrome 200, or Provia 400. At anyrate, it is damn good. For the skeptics, here is an unaltered crop from an image at 100% -- 1/60 at f/2.8 3200 ISO.

Although the 3200 ISO is very nice, and it was very liberating to run around taking HANDHELD night photos without guessing at exposure, without bracketing. There will be plenty of times when I will mount the 5D on a tripod and shoot at lower ISO settings; but it is truly amazing what this new camera is capable of accomplishing. The price was steep, and I've got a lot of eBay selling ahead of me to pay for this baby, but, Scott, I've finally gone digital and I ain't a goin' to look back!