Canadian Railroads > New Camera Gets Three For Three

I picked up a new (to me) camera on the weekend, and yesterday was a good day to see if its autofocus was really an improvement on the old one.  Not only was it sunny all day, but CN actually ran an extra eastbound train into Halifax, giving me another chance to test the follow focus capabilities of the camera.

First up was the train John Reay heard, but didn't see, at about 06:30 in Cumberland Co. Q120 was rolling past Windsor Jct. about 3 hours later, even after having a meet with L507 at Belmont.  507's crew had been called for 03:30, so I'm guessing they spent some time waiting in the siding at Belmont. Q120 had ET44ACs 3049 and 3268 for power, with the detector counting 464 axles.

Meanwhile, as Q120 was going through the junction, the gypsum train, 511, was waiting on the Dartmouth Sub to go west to the mine at East Milford.  That gave me enough time to move to Wellington, mile 23, for another telephoto shot at 09:55 of the empty train splitting the intermediate signals.  511 had another pair of ACs for power, 2815 and 3843, and about 65 cars.

I knew that Z120 had left Moncton at 07:15, and a rough calculation would put them at Truro around 11:00.  What I hadn't counted on was their meet with L507 at Springhill Jct., which cost them half an hour or so.  Just after noon, Z120 was in Brookfield, approaching mile 55 of the Bedford Sub, led by a pair of ex-CREX leasers, now numbered CN 3929 and 3976.  This train had 594 axles, and ET44AC DPU 3047 about two thirds of the way back in the train.  In addition to export intermodal, Z120 also carries domestic intermodal (53 ft. boxes) and any "junk" destined for Halifax, or which there were about a dozen cars yesterday.

So far I'm pleased with the camera.  It seems to be able to nail the focus, even with a moving train.  There were a few little issues with the headlights throwing it off, but that is to be expected, and more importantly, it recovers very quickly.

GTD

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Nice shots all.  I especially like the second and third.

Nice work, hope the new camera is a success.
These images tend to point to the fact that you got a good one.

cn6218 Wrote:
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> I picked up a new (to me) camera on the weekend,
> and yesterday was a good day to see if its
> autofocus was really an improvement on the old
> one.  

Nice. What did you get?

..jr

Looks great here, nice and crisp!

JG

newtonville150 Wrote:

>
> Nice. What did you get?
>
It's a "previously enjoyed" Canon 7D MK II, to replace a 7D that I got back in 2014 (also used).  I'm trying to turn over the gear before it becomes absolutely worthless (anybody interested in a Canon XTi?).

The 7D seemed to have some trouble following focus on a moving train, unlike the 5D MK III, which is my primary camera.  Sometimes it's nice to have the crop camera for extra reach, and it also serves as a backup.  I guess it's newer than the 5DIII, because I had to download a newer version of the Canon DPP to decode the RAW files.

GTD

Good stuff !

Very nice..!!

Three for three isn't just about the focus. Nice compositions.
Fred