October 5, 2013

This was for a long time the flagship full frame professional camera among Canons digital cameras. Only recently (2012) has it been replaced by the 1Dx.

It has the same 21 megapixel sensor as the 5D Mark II, but of course has an entirely different autofocus system. (It has 45 sensors, 19 of which are high precision cross-type sensors).

The sensor is 36x24mm (full frame) with 5616x3744 pixels (just like the 5D Mark II). This gives it a 6.4 micron pixel pitch. It is interesting to compare this to the 1D Mark III sensor It is 28.7 by 18.7 mm (APS-H and 1.3 crop). with 3888 x 2592 pixels. This gives it a 7.4 micron pixel pitch.

An interesting comment from the Ken Rockwell site:

My pal Steve Cirone uses one of these. He spends all day, every day crawling around in mud shooting birds. When he showed me his camera, I was afraid to mount my clean lenses on it because of all the sand on it.

Steve says he cleans his cameras not with a brush, but with a spray bottle of fresh water to wash off the sand and salt spray.

Another comment on the same vein:
The 1Ds Mark III is Canon's most durable body, designed to withstand heavy rain, hard knocks, desert sand and dust, etc.

Some reviews:

Don't be put off by the "Madagascar" business, the luminous landscape review might be the best review of this camera to read. As the writer says, it is a hands-on field report. He says he used to do technical reviews, but no longer sees them as "terribly meaningful", and I am inclined to agree.

I will join this writer and every other intelligent photographer in the planet in complaining that Canon has not yet provided a single button dedicated to mirror lock up (MLU). Nikon does it, everybody wants it, why doesn't Canon get it? At least there is not a ridiculous direct print button on this camera to add insult to injury. Just for the record, mirror lockup is custom function III-15.

A curious bit of information. Long ago, certain Canon film bodies had a mode in which mirror lock-up was enabled only with the self-timer. Too bad Canon doesn't bring back this feature, it would be wonderful.

He makes a couple of statements worth repeating. One is that this camera will outdo medium format cameras for several reasons (not simply image quality, which is actually comparable, but in frame rates, convenience, and lens choices.) The other is about the ruggedness of the 1D body, as he says, "If you can take it, the camera probably can too".

People warn that you really ought to know what you are getting in for when you buy one of these. The body is big and heavy (3 pounds), and likely to be left behind just for that reason. Here are weights measured on some camera bodies I have access to:

People admire the "My Menu" shortcut collection, where intelligent people can place things like the mirror lockup special function.

This was originally a $8000 camera. Good used copies sell for $2500 in 2013 (and new copies for $6000). Interestingly the 1Dx sells new for $6300 or so, new and as the latest and greatest from Canon.

Viewfinder

I have found difficulty seeing the whole thing, as have others. You could view this as a virtue. The viewfinder is huge and fabulous, but it is pretty much impossible to see the entire viewfinder along with both of the displays (one below and one to the right). This trouble is made somewhat worse if you wear eyeglasses.

A note on live view

Prolonged use of live view will heat up the sensor. This will first result in degraded image quality, and ultimately can result in damage to the sensor. A thermometer icon is supposed to appear in the viewfinder warning you to shut down live view. A hint that this is an issue is that using live-view rapidly runs down the battery (you are told to expect 300 live view exposures as contrasted with 3000 normal exposures).

What does the "s" in 1Ds stand for?

All kinds of ridiculous and humorous things have been suggested. In particular, people suggest that the symbol "$" was intended but that the vertical line somehow got left out. In a paper on the original 1Ds,

Canon says:

"The final "s" of EOS-1Ds stands for Super, Superior, or Supreme, representing that the EOS-1Ds is the highest image quality model based on the EOS-1D. ..."

Also, "Canon" is the English sound translation of two Japanese words, 佳能。 The first means "excellent", the second "ability".

SD cards

This camera has both a CF and a SD card slot. Note that CF cards are substantially faster, if that matters to you, and it might if you are doing burst mode photography. The camera will only do 10 M/s to the SD card, no matter how it is rated.

I am using a Kingston 8G SDHC card with a "4" rating with no problems.

This is a subject I need to research in depth.

Feedback? Questions? Drop me a line!

Tom's Digital Photography Info / [email protected]