Arizona Sonora Desert Museum

We woke up a couple days ago to find this guy in our rear yard. Sandy took these shots through the screen door; she was only able to get the two-shots off before the cat got spooked and fled the scene. Between this "visitor" and attempting to shoot hummingbirds, we decided to visit the Desert Museum.

Founded in 1952 by William Carr and Arthur Pack as one of the first naturalistic zoos in the United States. The Desert Museum is a cross between a zoo, museum, and botanical garden and one of our favorite places to visit in the Tucson area; it would be a real shame if you were in the Tucson area and didn't visit. Please visit http://www.desertmuseum.org/ for more information.

You saw close up images of hummingbirds taken with the Leica M9 and the 90mm f/2.5 Leica Summarit lens in the previous post; now you'll see images taken with Sandy's Canon 1DsIII camera using the 28-135mm lens. We find ourselves in a rather unique position as whenever we both go shooting we can offer a valid comparison between camera systems be it between the two-35mm's or the Phase One P45+.

Canon 1DsIII

Leica M9

Mexican Wolf - Canon 1DsIII

Mexican Wolf - Leica M9

What surprised us the most is the quality of Sandy's new 28-135 f/3.5-5.6 lens as it isn't the higher quality "L" lens that Canon offers. The images are clear, crisp and resolution is outstanding.

The following image was shot at ISO 50, 1/200 @f/5.6 and 135mm approximately 15.7 meters. The second image is a full size crop sized to 10x15. We did a test print of the crop and you can count the whiskers.

We also visited the Hummingbird Aviary where we walked among them.

Don had to add at least one hummingbird from the M9...

And going from one extreme to another.

Here's a sampling of what you'll see taking the walking paths.

1DsIII 1/40 @f/5.6 ISO 50 95mm

M9 1/90 @f/11 ISO 400 90mm

And two final images of wildflowers.

We hope you've enjoyed part two and as always your comments are welcome.




Sandy & Don