A quick snap

I awoke this morning and casually looked out of my kitchen window (I live in a first floor apartment, that's the second floor if you're reading this in North America!) and noticed this little fox cub playing in the gentle warmth of the early morning sun.

click here to see this image at my Flickr stream

It was one of those "bugger! where's the camera?" moments. I managed to grab my Canon 5D and attach one of my favourite lenses, the superb 100-400mm f4.5-5.6 IS L and fire off a few frames before the cub disappeared back into the undergrowth. I had to take the shot through a window pane as the noise from opening the frame would have scared the little guy away. Unlike most L series zooms it doesn't have constant aperture through the zoom range but, nonetheless it does possess the magic that is Canon L series optics. Now this isn't the finest shot ever taken by a long way but the reasons I like it are as follows :-

• It was taken through window glass (at an angle)
• It was taken from a distance of about 30 meters (100 feet)
• The image above results from a very aggressive crop of the original frame.

Taking the points above into account, it shows just how important good optics are for any shot. I really did crop this very hard (it's less than 20% off the original frame) yet it still retains considerable detail and contrast even though it was taken through a rather grubby pane of glass at a good distance. This really highlights the incredible resolving power of these lenses and ensures the full potential of modern digital sensors can be exploited. These lenses are pricey and the link I've used above takes you to the canon site where the full recommended retail price is quoted; there are, however, numerous sites that offer this lens at a more affordable level. If you're really lucky you may even find a used one but it's unlikely, photogs would give up a limb before giving up an L series lens!