August 31, 2012
Pronghorn Buck Running in Wind Cave National Park, South Dakota, and CopperHill QuickStrips

Things were really slow yesterday evening in Custer State Park, so I drove into neighboring Wind Cave National Park. I stopped to photograph some Pronghorn does and calves (?) right by the road and a buck returned from chasing another buck away from his harem. I photographed some Black-Tail Prairie Dogs there, then switched back to following the Pronghorn buck. When he started to run back towards the other buck, I quickly reduced the ISO and increased the f-stop to get a slow shutter speed. By panning as the buck ran by, I was able create motion blur of the background while keeping his eye sharp.

CopperHill QuickStrips

I had to clean the sensor of my new 1D X for the first time last night because it had gotten some specs of dust on it from swapping on and off the 1.4x. I tried the CopperHill QuickStrips for the first time, and I wasn't impressed. I have been using Visible Dust Vswabs for years, and the cheaper and lower-waste CopperHill QuickStrips looked like a good alternative.

QuickStrips are custom-sized PecPads designed to fit over the SensorSwipe "spatula." The problem is that the SensorSwipe doesn't taper very much and the sides of the QuickStrips kept getting caught on the mirror box and shedding fibers because the mirror box of the 1D X, and also the 1Ds Mk III, is only slightly bigger than the sensor. The business end of the Visible Dust Vswabs are shaped almost like an equilateral triangle, so it's much easier to get the swab on the sensor without scraping the mirror box. The tip of the Vswab is also much softer than the QuickStrips, so it's easier to get the whole tip to make contact with the sensor. The mirror box of the 1D Mk IV has more clearance around the sensor than the 1D X, so I'll try the QuickStrips on that body the next time it needs a wet cleaning.