Last time I grabbed a Canon EOS 1D4, it was in a winter period when there was little happening on the car photography front, so the test I did back then concentrated on it’s low light capabilities. But I was still interested to see what it brought along to a car photo shoot, where outright speed is not vitally of the essence, but accurate AF and consistent results are what’s needed. I’ve been asked several times for a quick follow up from the original article, so sorry it’s a bit late!




Fast forward to last month when Phil Raby at Total 911 tells me we’re going to be shooting two icons, a Porsche 959 and Ferrari 288 GTO. A quick call to the guys at The Flash Centre in Leeds nabs their demo 1D4 for the days of the shoot, 1DS packed as a spare and off we go.

I’ll write later about the cars, they are simply stunning and thanks must go to Specials Cars in Malton for arranging the access, plus writer Kevin Hackett’s patience at standing around waiting when all he really wanted to do was launch over the horizon on the quiet North Yorkshire roads.

I’ve been using my Canon 1DS for this work pretty much since I went digital. It’s like my favourite pair for trainers by now. If you’re a 1D series user, you’ll be able to pick up a 1D4 and use it without opening the manual. All the main controls are exactly where you’ll instinctively feel for. However, once the newness wears off, you’d do well to download some of the PDFs from Canon’s European website that walk you through the advanced customisation features.

What I was most interested in was the AF performance in tracking shots. Shooting from car to car, with a slow shutter speed for motion blur but a pin sharp car, inevitably has a high failure rate. The 1DS is generally OK, but sometimes the AF will hunt for no reason and then just as the composition falls into place in the viewfinder, you get the dreaded “BUSY” in your eye as the buffer fills and the camera writes out to the card….. Frustrating until you learn to pace your shooting so as not to choke the buffer. Not so the 1D4. No chance of filling the buffer, even at the maximum burst rate. In fact, on tracking shots, the burst rate is so high, it’s easy to have too many ’similars’. Better to turn down the firing rate slightly and keep recomposing the shot.

As for the AF, there’s no doubt it’s the best system I’ve tried yet, with far fewer failures due to AF errors. This is probably down to the fact that I set the AF to ’surrounding points’ which takes into account the area immediately adjacent to the AF point you need. On low angle tracking shots, where you’re not looking through the viewfinder, but holding the camera down near the road, there’s no doubt it gives a greater hit rate. Read more about the AF adjustments for the 1D4 on the Canon Europe website.

The only thing I’d be critical of, and it’s purely personal, is that for the first time, I found myself missing my full frame sensor. I always shooting tracking shots at the wide end of my 17-40 zoom and several times, with the 1.3x crop I found myself struggling to get both cars in frame, leaning back into the camera car to try and fit them both in and still give the empty space the guys doing the layouts will need. Canon would do very well with a non-EFS lens similar to Nikon’s 12-24 at a price point of around £500 – £700. They do have the amazing, stunningly sharp 14mm, but at £2500, beyond the reach of many. A mental re-adjustment after the first run down the road and some hand signals to Kevin and it was forgotten.

Static shots we handled using Elinchrom’s Rangers with a Skyport trigger on the 1D4, no problems. Shooting a glossy brilliant white Porsche 959 against the matt black of Yorkshire Air Museum’s hangar doors was a challenge, the black background sucking the power out of the lights, but the more powerful Rangers were able to keep up. My preference is normally for the smaller Quadra, but the Ranger certainly allows the lights to be set further back for a given output, something that can be useful for multi-car shoots.

If you’d like to see the how the shoot shaped up in the magazine, grab Issue 63 of Total 911 or download their new iPhone app to read it on your iPhone or iPad.

The history of our armed forces is a subject close to my heart. Forget the politics, I just appreciate the sacrifice that ordinary people have made over the years. Last week, I was shooting background plates for a new website project for The Yorkshire Air Museum’s new site, going live in April. In the edit, this shot leapt out at me. Not because it’s technically perfect, far from it. In fact it was just a fire-from-the-hip shot and I’ll re-shoot it again later.
But it brought home to me the loneliness of the rear air gunner position in a World War Two bomber. Add in the shuddering statistic of a life expectancy of around two weeks and it made the hairs on my neck rise….

There’s something about a brand new 1D series Canon when you first pick it up. My 1DS is still in great shape, but these days it’s got shiny edges, scruffs on the hotshoe and marks on the baseplate from endless tripods and rig shots and after a while, you take it for granted, just like your favourite pair of trainers.

Then I pick up the brand new 1D Mk4 and recall what a brand new 1D series camera body feels like. Sure, the 5D is superb and the 7D too. But pick up a 1D Mk4 and there’s something about the built quality of these things that you instantly feel. The rubber grips are brand new, not shiny and it’s got the feeling that it was machined from a solid billet of metal. Power it up and start handling it and there’s almost a slight disappointment that there’s nothing to learn with the basic operations – everything is in exactly the same place. If you’re an EOS 1D series user, the initial learning curve is flat. Note that I said initial, there’s a lot more to this thing..

My big concern was the 1.3x factor of the chip. I’m used to my full frame 1DS and I shoot a LOT of wide angles. That was probably my most pleasant surprise – the 1.3 factor didn’t really have a big effect on the style of shot I wanted from it. Sure, you lost a little all the way around, but it still looked like a wide angle and the field of view still felt pefectly good to me. I’m sure you’d see the difference with a 14mm, but for most shots, I didn’t miss the full frame sensor.

Given that I only had the camera for a week and it arrived at short notice in mid winter, there was no way to get anyone with a supercar to come and play. I’d seen the Laforet movie shot in murky light, so Plan B was to find some lousy light and stretch the ISO. Eldest son’s kayak activities to the rescue, as an evening canoe polo training session in a pool lit by dim tungsten and distant fluorescents should be the perfect thing..

The canon 1D Mk4 - not easily distracted...

From a photography viewpoint, there’s lots going on and it’s very easy to fool the AF as a player moves into the frame in either foreground or background. Add in the tungsten lighting and a row of strip lights across one wall and you’re asking a lot of a camera keep concentrating on the core subject, even with selectable AF and deliver a useable result. I didn’t have access to the excellent Canon Custom Function guide published recently, so considering the settings on the camera were just the plain ‘vanilla’ ones as it arrives out of the box, I was really impressed. Fast moving action with people constantly passing through the shot didn’t upset it in ways that would have my older EOS hunting and racking frustratingly back and forth. In this sport, 10 frames per second is simply superb, as you can guarantee that with arms, elbows and carbon paddles flailing around, faces get obscured and it’s surprising just how quick these guys can flick the ball around. Even at 10 fps, you’re constantly trying to predict where the play will move to next.

6400 ISO, f3.2, 1/500th sec. Interesting set of numbers!

Canoe Polo - you'll spend time upside down...

Canon had to get it dead right with this camera after the public flogging over the early 1D Mk3 issues and from what I’ve seen so far, it’s superb. But the weirdest thing of all is when I look at the shots taken that night, there wasn’t that much available light in the building, it’s as if this thing creates it’s own lighting….. Quite what it’s going to be like when I get to use it on my core subjects of cars transportation and aerial work is an exciting thought.

Canon AF holds the main subject

And the amazing ISO setting of 102,400…. I’ve already thought of aerial subjects I’d love to shoot at night. Then you can think about evening drift car meetings, night races like LeMans 24 Hours….

And don’t get me started on it’s 1920×1080p HD video….
Many thanks to Tees Tigers for the poolside access and the wet feet…

Like most of my work, there’s always an embargo for publication, so I’m often writing about things several months after the shoot. This Total 911 shoot is one such, it’s just been published in the Jan 2010 issue and you can buy a copy here.

I owned a 930 Turbo a few years ago, but sadly finances at the time dictated that it was a heart-rather-than-head purchase and ultimately it had to be sold to release funds for other projects. It was a lovely car and I miss it dearly, to the point of not allowing myself to read such things at Total 911 until recently, as it was just too painful – yes, really.

So when Phil Raby calls me to shoot some 911’s, then tells me it’s going to be two 930 Turbos, my heart skips. This could be painful, like catching a view of your ex-girlfriend across the room, laughing with her new partner. Sure enough, it was. I caught sight of the wonderful Turbo LE, sporting the same chin spoiler with extra oil cooler just as mine had, plus the four pea-shooter exhausts, I felt a physical pang. Writer Kevin Hackett and I stood by as the cars were started and I felt a pain and lump in my throat as the car sprang into life with that typical bark, slight engine hunt up and down while the old ECU wakes, then settled down to that busy idle.

Concentrate, Neill. It’s just another car. Only it’s not. 911’s have always ‘done it’ for me. Plenty of people out there just don’t get it and I’m fine with that, but if you’ve been bitten, then nothing else matters.

On this particular shoot, I was using the Canon 5D mk2, plus one of the first Canon 7D’s, my regular 1DS relegated to backup duty, despite it’s imposing structure. Main reason was to become familiar with them before the first of our new Shooting Supercars series, where the two cameras were to be used heavily. Lighting was the superb Elinchrom Quadra packs that I’ve quickly found myself unable to be without. Fast, plenty of power and above all, lightweight.

We head off to the first location and I’m following the cars to the timber yard. The wonderful winding Yorkshire countryside means that Kevin ahead in the Turbo LE is often lifting off the gas over the blind crests in the road. When he does, there’s a lick of flame from the pipes as unburnt fuel hits the glowing turbo. Kevin’s having fun.

Statics shots complete, we head to the location for moving shots. Kevin and I jump into the LE for a quick recce of the road ahead. Then I remember why the Turbo was so addictive. From the passenger seat, there’s a huge lag, but then you feel the gathering wave of power, just like the beginning of a tidal surge when surfing in the sea, gathering until the tacho seems to be moving at the same pace as the speedo, the flat six noise becoming muted behind us by the wind noise from the old style body shell’s A pillars. You can’t help but grin and suppress the giggle in your throat.

Kevin’s words do the cars justice, putting you in the seat and recalling the hedonistic 80’s, so go grab yourself a copy of the January mag if you’ve an ounce of soul in your body. You’ll love the cars and remember the shoulder pads. Personally, I won’t rest until I once again have an aircooled Porsche 911 sitting in my possession.

As for the cameras, the 5D was, as ever, superb, delivering great colours right out of the card, with the minimum of post required. The 7D? I liked the rapid fire burst rate, higher than my 1DS, but when shooting the tracking shots, I found the lack of weight actually a hindrance, my arms much more used to the ‘heft’ of the 1D series cameras when hanging out of the back of a camera car. Purely personal, nothing against the 7D, it’s a superb piece of kit and I’m sure that if I owned one, I’d quickly become used to it.

The Quadras were super reliable. I’m, constantly amazed at how many high output shots I can get from the batteries without running out of power. plus they seem to take very little time to recharge and are quite happy sitting in the car boot feeding off my inverter. A natty little by product of their compact size is that you could probably just about squeeze them behind the front seats of a 911…

I was sad to see the passing of Borders Bookstores here in the UK. My local store always had a good range of photography books, plus there was a large shelf dedicated to international magazines, things like Excellence, the USA Porsche mag and some great film and photo mags. So my post-Christmas wandering took me to WH Smith where I found the silver lining for my cloud.

100 Best Pictures is published by the newly renamed “Aircraft’ magazine, formerly Aircraft Illustrated. It’s a good buy at £8.99 with some of the best known aircraft shooters in the world featuring, but when I was in store this week, it had 50% off, making it a no-brainer. Lovely and glossy, with that new-magazine smell, it proved to be a good read. There’s some well known names, but my favourite is Japanese shooter Katsuhiko Tokunaga with his killer shots and distinctive style.

If you don’t have a branch of WH Smith near you, grab a copy online at the publisher’s website I’ve only one grumble – the spine bound format makes it difficult to open out fully, making some of the full bleed, double page shots hard to view, but then, for a fiver, you can’t grumble!

I’ve always been a time lapse fan, but never really got around to shooting any and to be honest, there’s no good reason why not! However, inspired by some of the stunning time lapse work by Tom over at Timescapes, I decided to borrow an intervalometer from the guys at The Flash Centre. Philip Bloom’s workflow tips were very useful and I had a subject in mind in the shape of the beautiful, newly finished Infinity Bridge over the River Tees at Stockton.



Using the intervalomter set to fire at eight second intervals on the Canon 5D Mk2, I set aperture priority, Jpeg low as the file size (which felt very odd for someone who always shoots RAW) and let the camera run for around 55 minutes. I’d like to have let it run longer but time was pressing and the cloud cover looked complete, only to reveal twinkling stars as I hiked back to the car! They would have been a nice finish.

The final file created in Quicktime is huge, but using ‘Export for web’ you’re able to create several file sizes to suit different viewers.

I’ll write again a little later about my thoughts on time lapse, as it’s looking curiously addictive and as well as being fun to make and watch, I can think of several ways that my existing clients might be able to use it. That’s always an exciting thought.

It’s something I needed to do. I’m moving more and more into shooting video and as I climbed the learning curve, it made my head hurt, but I really needed to do it.

There are lots of stills photographers out there moving to video as an extra skill. Right now, there are great new oportinities to use video and new technologies to tell stories in ways we’ve never been able to until now. You’ll have read how I shot the Ice Driver video in Sweden on the Canon 5D Mk2, but how easy is it for a professional stills photographer to move into shooting video? Until this year I’ve been a 100% stills photographer. I shoot a combination of car editorial and commercial work, together with commercial aerial photography and ground based building assignments. Early last year, I could see the potential, but it took the Canon 5D Mk2 to unleash it.

Canon gear is my livelihood, I use it to make my living. I’m very comfortable with my 1DS, it’s been my constant companion since 2003 when I went digital. Everything is under my fingers and I rarely think about what I need to do. Even when I used the Canon 5D Mk2 to shoot video in Sweden, it easily became intuitive to use. So when I got the chance to begin using a Canon XH-G1 I jumped at the chance to move to a ‘broadcast’ spec camera.

So if you’re a stills photographer moving to HDV and are trying to figure the workflow, I hope the following helps you get up and running quickly. I’ve shot a couple of shorts on the XHG1 now and as soon as I can get permission, I’ll post them online, meanwhile, here’s some tips I hope you’ll find useful if moving to a Canon HDV camera, particularly the XH series.

First thing you’ll find on opening the box is that it’s actually a lot lighter than you think it’s going to be. In fact, it weighs less than my Canon 1DS with a wide angle zoom attached. Roll it over onto it’s left hand side and there’s lots of buttons, far too many for someone like me, but that big selection switch in the centre is very similar to the top dial on an EOS DSLR and if you’re an EOS user, you won’t need the manual to figure out what they do. In true photographer style, or course, the owners manual stays in the box and a tape is loaded (more about tapes later) and the power switch flicked….

First thoughts were that the zoom ring was a far better way for someone like me to control zoom for framing the shot than by using the button on the top of the handle. The second thing was that the viewfinder was too small, the LCD screen being my preferred method, though even that was difficult until I discovered the ‘peaking’ and ‘magnify’ buttons. Better, but still not great and a common factor on many cameras of this type, it seems. Once my initial ten minute fiddle without the instruction manual was over (you know how it is…), time to set up some presets. One of the first things I set up was in ‘display’ and I set up a ‘level mark’ which is basically a white horizontal line across the screen to help judge hand held shots for a reasonably accurate horizon. I’ve left that set ever since and find it invaluable.

Then I went to Final Cut Pro on my Mac and set up the settings for importing / cataloging clips and started playing back my tape. Initially, I was a bit dissappionted. It looked pretty cold and blue, like early Kodachrome and nothing like the richness of the colours I’d got from the Canon 5D. Better read that instruction manual for the Fujichrome look, then….

This camera is massively configurable compared to any prosumer camcorder and allows you to set ‘looks’ based upon various presets that can be loaded from a memory card. I wanted to find a look that emulated what I’d seen with the 5D, so headed over to the superb DV Info website. There’s a huge list of presets there for all sorts of looks, so a quick chat with photography colleague Nick Wilcox Brown who already owns an XH series and he emailed me over the look he’d found. Loading it is simple and I won’t go into it again here, but it transformed the look and I’m now far happier with ‘out of the camera’ footage. Ultimately, though, I know that to achieve the look I want, I’m going to have to hit the credit card and buy a professional grading app such as Magic Bullet Looks… More software to learn….

The final thing so far ( and it’s a biggie if you’re a stills shooter) is sound. You obviously need to record it, but also monitor it and control it.

You can record using the on-camera mike (which is what I’ve been doing so far) but the results are less than perfect when it’s windy or when there’s distracting noises nearby. I need something windproof, directional and XLR Powered, plus a wireless laveler mike for interviews and in-car shooting.
You need to monitor it. Plug in some headphones and listen. Otherwise, it’s like shooting without looking through the viewfinder.
Control it – Definately set the levels manually, but don’t just use the tell-tale bar graphs, use the heaphones and listen as you record. A sound check before you start rolling is nearly always wrong, as for me, people’s voices, cars and other sounds all change once you hit the button.

Other things that a stills photographer needs to budget for when moving into shooting motion content? There’s masses of it, but here’s a quick list of a few of the gadgets and bits of gear I’m going to have to look into:

A good video head. You just can’t use a traditional, non-damped photographer’s item
Barn Doors & Filters – None of my stills gear fits… More money.
Sound equipment – never needed as a stills photographer, so starting from scratch. Looks like I’ll need a good directional mike and a wireless Laveler mike for recording in-car sounds while the camera is on the outside and other moves I’ve got in mind.

I’ll be writing about each thing as I find the time, but if you’ve any suggestions, feel free to chime in with comments below. Meanwhile, here’s some links for the Canon XH series cameras you’ll find useful.

Great tutorials and short clips on Youtube about setting up the XHA1

DV Info – A superb forum with a whole section dedicated to Canon XH series discussions.

Canon Professional website. An excellent set of tutorials on Final Cut Pro plus some other information on setting up the Canon X series cameras

Finally for now, I’d got used to tapeless aquisition with the 5D and going back to using DV tape was initially a pain, as I had to get back to the FCP manual and work through the import process. It’s very straight forward, but to anyone coming from a tapeless background, it feels like a backward step. There’s little doubt on my part that the next generation of Canon HDV cameras will probably offer at least one tapeless version

My posting on car magazine websites and video content certainly generated interest. Many writers I spoke with and indeed one publisher reckoned it summed up the way they were feeling, but they also felt I was being a little harsh – not all videos are bad. Indeed, that’s true, so to put the record straight, here’s a vid from Australian blog Car Advice giving a run down of what it’s like to drive two Astons along one of the great driving roads in that continent. It’s a bit long, so you might need to take the load off and grab a coffee, but I think it’s a pretty good stab at it

Here’s an edit of the final footage. You can see a hi res version on SmugMug here. The learning curve for me as a first time user of Apple Final Cut Studio was a steep one and thanks go to various people for their help and advice in getting me up there. Most notable being Graham Fox at The Flash Centre and Canon for helping put the idea together and for trusting me to bring back their gear in one piece. For the edit, Final Cut expert Dave Hackney provided virtually a constant stream of email advice from his iPhone and together with advice from colleagues on the excellent Pro Imaging Membership List we figured the workflow.

When I have time, I’ll put together an edit showing how we did it and how the camera was rigged, plus some notes on what worked, what didn’t and what we plan for the future on the back of this idea. Finally, thanks to professional driver and my mate Andy McKenna, the man whose creativity behind the wheel you see here.

Previously, I described how I prepared the lightest possible collection of gear to use the Canon 5D in Sweden, hoping that we could cover all the bases and get what we needed. My 1DS works fine in temparatures below -30c, so I had no worries about the camera dying, though previously when shooting stills and rigging cameras on cars, the speeds are very low and the shutter speeds slow to create speed. This time, we are shooting HD video, so the speed was real and the effect of wind chill on the 5D was a factor on my mind. No way to test beforehand, we just had to rig it up and shoot.

Because of the light weight of the 5D compared to my 1DS, I was able to rig the camera on the roof and bonnet (hood) of the car with just a couple of Manfrotto Magic Arms and some suction cups. Normally, I’d be using several suction cups, some Arri grip heads and all manner of belt and braces. I’ve since read on Luminous Landscape and other photographer’s forums about Canon 5D’s failing in the cold. If I’d read those pages before I set off, I’d probably not have tried this, as the air temp was -25c, plus the cars was travelling at up to 80mph at the fastest part of the track….

Photo by Beefa

Happily, the mounts stayed in place, the camera kept rolling in various configurations and rigging points and everything worked just fine. In my next post, I’ll try and cover some of the points we found when editing Canon 5D video footage, plus what it’s like to use the Steadicam and the 5D together.

Finally, although I’m used to working in these low temparatures, I forgot about the effect on cold metal of a 80mph breeze…. Taking off my glove to remove one of the Superclamps resulted in a sharp burn across my palm….