The first snowfall of the season came to the the Wisconsin Northwoods in the last week of October, offering an opportunity to capture the peaceful scenery of an enchanted forest with the Canon 1DX Mark II as the snow settled in for the long winter ahead.
There was not even a whisper of wind in the trees making the waters of the river that winds its way through the forest as smooth as glass. The lack of movement in the air meant the large, puffy flakes that originated as lake effect from the great Lake Superior settled gently over the woods.
As the temperature hovered just a degree or so below freezing, it was a very wet, if scenic snowfall. Capturing this on camera meant the need to use equipment that could stand up to less than ideal environments.
Choosing the Canon 1DX Mark II and EF 24-105 f/4 L Lens
This meant weather sealing. Canon’s most thoroughly weather sealed cameras have always been their lineup of 1-series cameras. Wanting to capture the scene unfolding outside in 4k resolution meant that only two cameras that we had currently available would suffice: either the Canon 1DC or the 1DX Mark II. For this adventure, I chose the 1DX Mark II.
A camera is only as weather sealed as the lens you mount to it, so in this case the choice of lens was the Canon EF 24-105 f/4 L, a long-time workhorse in the Canon L lens lineup. Perhaps not as razor sharp in its optics as a prime lens or Canon’s well-regarded big, white zooms, the 24-105 nonetheless offers a compelling level of performance for its price and has very useful features like image stabilization and weather sealing paired with a very useful range of focal lengths throughout its zoom range.
Though not letting in as much light at max aperture as an f/2.8 zoom, let alone a fast prime lens, when paired with the very low-light friendly Canon1DX Mark II concerns about shooting with the lens in dim environments are largely alleviated.
Low Light in the Forest with the 1DX Mark II
A forest comprised of primarily evergreen trees like white pine and balsam fir can be a dim environment, even on a sunny day as the thick needles keep the forest floor in shadow. On a dim day, such as this with snow settling in, the light was very dim. Fortunately, even at relatively high ISO settings, the 1DX Mark II sensor remains remarkably noise free while retaining great resolution, clarity and dynamic range.
Having shot with most of Canon’s semi-pro and professional DSLR camera lineup over many years — meaning the 5D series and 1D series cameras respectively — I find the Canon 1DX Mark II’s low light shooting capability to be consistently surprising in its effectiveness, even compared to the Canon 5D Mark IV which is no slouch and has been our primary camera workhorse for many years due to its high resolution and image quality standards.
Weather Sealing and the 1DX Mark II
Even though the Canon 1DX Mark II paired with the 24-105 is reasonably well weather sealed, since I don’t use a UV filter on the lens — a requirement for ensuring the best possible weather sealing — I still wanted to protect the camera as much as I could from snow landing on it and melting during the shoot. A plastic shopping bag did the trick.
I spent roughly an hour in the forest holding the bag around the camera and lens to protect it from the elements, with some success. The camera and lens still ended up wet, but the combo passed its weather sealing test with flying colors.
Scenic Shooting Locations
The shoot unfolded at three locations in the forest of the Wisconsin Northwoods.
The first was on a forest path looking into the woods with a medium sized maple tree framed by the dark green needles of a stand of balsam fir behind. The bright colors of the fallen maple leaves had disappeared and the all that was left on the forest floor was a trail framed by dark granite stones left behind by the great ice sheet of the Ice Age glacier that once covered this area.
The entire scene had a rich, luxurious dark tone to contrast with the bright white of the peacefully falling snow. This, I captured using the 1DX Mark II’s 4k at 60 frames per second.
The second shooting location was from the nearby bank of the wild Northwoods river that flows through the area. Without a ripple on the slowly flowing water, a peaceful grayness covered the scene contrasting with the yellow-orange of the grass on the river bank, the serenity of the place enhanced by the falling snow.
Finally, further along the forest the path opens into a wetland meadow with the forest edge of poplars and balsam fir giving way to eruptions of Alnus incana — a common species of alder brush in Northern Wisconsin that grows well in low areas, especially around streams and river banks and that can become almost impassable when it forms a thicket.
This location offered another view of the snow as it transitioned into a cold mist. Here, too, were a few remaining green leaves offering almost a fluorescent color against the falling snow that made for an interesting scene.
Equipment Used & Affiliate Links
We used the Canon EOS 1DX Mark II camera with the Canon EF 24-105 f/4 L lens.
If you'd like to get your own copies of this camera and lens combo, and support us a bit at the same time, we recommend shopping at MPB.com.
For support, we used the SLIK Pro 700DX Tripod. Though this is a heavy tripod it has proven sturdy over many years of use. It is available from Amazon here: https://amzn.to/49bSg6e
We use that tripod with SLIK's Fluid Effect Pan Head, an inexpensive video tripod head that we have used for many years. While not designed for heavy cameras, its primary virtues are that it is very smooth and can be adjusted for vertical shooting. It is available at Amazon here: https://amzn.to/4eRQV5F
