How the
Canon EOS-1D X Mark III
is changing wildlife photography

Covering some 70,000 square miles, South America's Pantanal region is the world's largest tropical wetland, and has the highest concentration of wildlife on the continent. This makes the national park and UNESCO World Heritage site a magnet for wildlife photography, where conservation-focused nature photographers such as Canon Ambassador Thorsten Milse can track down big players such as jaguar and caiman, along with capybaras, black howler monkeys and colourful macaws and toucans.

On his fifth trip to Brazil's biodiverse Pantanal region, Thorsten spent 15 days in the jungle and on the waterways in search of the wetland's largest predators and Red List endangered species – jaguar, ocelot and giant otter.

This time, he took the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, Canon's new flagship action camera, keen to take advantage of its low-light capabilities when photographing nocturnal hunters, and to put the autofocus system to the test on fast-moving wildlife.

Demanding shooting conditions

"The Pantanal has some special animals living in it," says Thorsten. "The main actor is the jaguar, the biggest predator in South America. It's an endangered species, but there's a really healthy population here, so it's easier to find them to take photos."

Even at ISO25600, using a shutter speed of 1/125 sec gave Thorsten clear shots of the ocelots climbing through the trees, which can stand up alongside images taken in daylight. They are good enough quality for prints close to 2 metres in width for the eventual exhibition of his large-scale project about endangered wildlife around the world. Thorsten also took advantage of the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III's remarkable continuous shooting performance, capturing bursts of 400-500 RAW files using CFexpress cards in the camera's two card slots.

"With wildlife, most of the good shots are taken at twilight," he says. "You must take photos at ISO3200, ISO6400, ISO12800. You have definitely more images using ISO25600. For a long time, I would have got, out of 500 images, three or four at ISO6400 that were really sharp. Now I have hundreds."

To let in that little bit more light, Thorsten tends not to stick to the rule of thumb that, for sharp results, shutter speed should be set to at least the reciprocal of the focal length – so for a shot taken at 560mm, the shutter speed should be 1/560 sec or faster. The fact that he gets sharp images like those above at this focal length at 1/320 sec, or at 335mm at 1/125 sec, also shows the effectiveness of the Image Stabilization in his Canon IS lenses.

Fast AF and improved accessibility

"The most important things for taking really good wildlife shots are ISO and AF tracking," says Thorsten. With a new AF sensor with 28 times more resolution than its predecessor, tracking has been given a significant boost on the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, perfect for wildlife photographers requiring pin-sharp shots of moving subjects.

Thorsten was particularly pleased with the camera's new AF button, which allowed him to change the focus point while tracking faster than ever. "It is perfect," he says. "It's much faster than a dial button or the old joystick. You can change its sensitivity, and it's really fast – if an ocelot is jumping from the left to the right in one second, you can move the AF field as quickly as pressing a touchscreen. The button is sensitive and precise and makes it easier to track subjects in low light."

Thorsten was predominately shooting on his wildlife hero lenses, the Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM and the Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM Extender 1.4x. When photographing jaguars and otters at distances of around 20 metres with these telephoto lenses, it was especially important for the tracking to remain accurate, in combination with burst shooting.

"If a jaguar is swimming, jumping into the water or marking its territory, you need a fast shutter speed and a really good AF system. With the Canon EOS-1D X Mark III, it's easier to track the subject in low light, especially with a telephoto lens, and get sharper photos in the end.

"If you use a Canon EF 600mm f/4L IS III USM lens at 20 metres then it's full frame. If you're shooting a burst, you only have a small space in your frame, so I know that if I take 20 shots, then one will be perfect. Now with the burst rates of 16fps with the viewfinder and 20fps in Live View, you never miss a shot."