In praise of the RF 35 and high ISO on the R

Alastair Norcross wrote:

I was sitting at my desk a couple of days ago, when my cat jumped up into my lap and looked up at me. On impulse, I picked up my R, which was on a table next to me, with the RF 35 mounted, turned it on and took off the lens cap as I lifted it to my eye. By the time I got it to my eye it was ready to shoot, so I took a couple quickly. It was in tracking mode, with initial point set at the center, so I just positioned that on his eye and fired off a couple of shots before he looked away. I didn't have time to check the settings. It was in Av, with F2.8 and a minimum shutter speed of 1/250 (I've forgotten what I was shooting previously) in auto ISO, which gave an ISO of 16000 at 1/320. I was amazed by how well it came out, considering the ISO. I then switched the aperture to F1.8 and set the minimum speed to 1/125, and got a couple of other shots. Here are the two:

Not only am I impressed by the high ISO performance of the R, but also by the performance of the RF35. I used to own the EF 35 F2 IS, which I sold when I bought my R, and replaced with the RF version (I stopped using the EF 35 on my M cameras when I got the superb EF-M 32). The EF 35 was a fine lens, but it couldn't have taken these shots. That's because of the close focusing ability of the RF lens. The EF lens wouldn't have been able to focus this close. Not only did the RF lens focus this close, but it also focused really fast, which is unusual for close distances.

Wow that is really cool.  I have the RP and when I shoot with the RF 35 1.8, I usually shoot manual, with a slow shutter speed and high Av to bring out detail.  Works pretty good, for sleeping dogs, anyway.

Below is one I shot at 1/125 of a second, F2, ISO 12800, and one shot at 1/13 of a sec, f7.1, ISO 10000.

Where is my treat?

It is exhausting being a dog.