I must say I have been a little disappointed with the the performance of my Canon 5D to date. To be honest, the issue is my photographic and camera management skills.

On Full Auto and Program AE, the quality of the RAW pictures were visibly worse than my Canon iXus 850 point & shoot JPGs.

When in doubt buy more gear is my normal motto. So I went out and picked up a Canon 50mm f1.4 USM prime lens (replacing my f1.8 version). Heading out recently for a test, playing with the manual Shutter (Tv) settings, I managed to capture some half decent images, IMHO. The following are small JPEGS of the originals.

2003 911 Carrera 4S at Arthurs Seat - 2008 (Shutter 1/400, Aperture f/7.1, ISO 200)

And another:

Ten Minutes by Tractor Winery Restaurant, Red Hill - 2008,
(Shutter 1/400, Aperture f/5, ISO 200)

So, progress at last. Even at one of my wife’s riding events in an indoor arena, I managed to take some viewable snaps in the weak internal light using the 24-105 lens this time. Of course, flash is not allowed as it disturbs the fillies & mares. The horses don’t appreciate it either.

Robin riding ‘Diva’ @ Tonimbuk Equestrian Centre - 2008 (Cropped) (Shutter 1/60. Aperture f/4., ISO 200)

I am looking forward to my next outdoor outing but my current challenge is the come to grips with some indoor stuff using the Speedlite flash. There have been a couple of unsatisfactory sessions so far, so it is back to the manual and some experimentation. More soon.