For a $4,000 difference between the 1D, the 1Ds emblems are gold plated

Sooo, if you’ve been following me on Twitter, you may have noticed my mention of a “new toy”. Well, the wait’s over, my new toy is a camera. Not any camera, but Canon’s top-top of the line, the much sought after and highly desired Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II. Up until August 2007, it had been the highest megapixel camera for a full frame (or even cropped sensors) 35mm digital sensor. Introduced in September 2004, it took the photography world by storm offering the most megapixel at the time in a full frame sensor. The Canon EOS 1Ds (mark I) was the first dSLR to feature a full frame sensor with the Kodak DCN-14n following suite.

All this for only eight thousand dollars ($8,000). So, yea. Quite out of reach even for many professionals photographers.

I already currently own a Canon EOS 1D Mark II, which up to this point served as my primary body with a Canon EOS 5D as my secondary/backup body. I’ve been itching for another 1D body, as it makes sense to have identical bodies when shooting fast paced events such as wedding because all the controls, menu layout, and functionality are identical. So when an opportunity arose, I jumped, and now I’m a proud owner of a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II.

Canon EOS 1D Mark II versus Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II

There are more similarities than differences between the 1D Mark II and 1Ds Mark II. Here’s a quick comparison:

The biggest differences are: sensor size, resolution/megapixels, crop factor, and continous drive. You can’t really compare these two SLRs to each other because they serve two entirely different functions. Obviously from the specs, the Canon EOS 1D Mark II is a sport/photojournalist photographer’s camera. At the sacrifice of resolution (8.2 MP versus 16.7 MP), the Canon EOS 1D Mark II can burst up to 8.5 frames-per-second, which was the fastest dSLR until the Nikon D3 and Canon EOS 1D Mark III were introduced. The 1D Mark II also can store more images in it’s buffer (40 versus 32), most likely due to the resolution differences. On the issue of crop factor, it has been my experience, that sport and to some degree, most photojournalists, enjoy the crop factor because of the perceived “reach”. But on the other hand, having a full frame sensor allows all lenses attached to the 1Ds Mark II to utilize it’s native focal length, so 16mm is really 16mm and not an equivalent to 20mm.

So if the 1D Mark II is primarily for sports and photojournalism, then what is the 1Ds Mark II’s primary role? Obviously photojournalism is one area where you need the use of wide angle and super wide angle lenses. That’s one of the reasons why the Nikon D3 is popular among photojournalist: speed, full frame, high ISO capabilities, and in my opinion the Nikkor AF-S 14-24mm f/2.8G ED N lens (the sharpest wide angle lens currently). Landscape photography is another great use. Although the Canon EOS 5D is used by a lot of landscape photographers and cost considerably less, there are a number of landscape photographers who need or want the extra four million megapixels along with superior weather sealing. But I think one of the biggest selling point for the 1Ds Mark II is portrait photography. The images produced by the 1Ds Mark II when used in portrait photography is nothing less than spectacular. Just look at the images on Flickr taken by the 1Ds Mark II. This isn’t to say you can’t use a 1Ds Mark II for sports photography, but it’s like you wouldn’t use a chain saw to cut carrots. It works, but not quite exactly the right tool for the job.

Conclusion

So how will the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II serve me? Well for wedding photography, the Canon EOS 1D Mark II will be for fast paced action scenes such as bouquet toss, garter toss, first kiss, ring exchange, the dances (father/daughter, mother/son, first dance) and anything else where I might need the 8.5 fps burst speed. The 1Ds Mark II will be for the formal portraits, tender moments, etc. Most likely I’ll be using my Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM on the 1D Mark II because I usually don’t need super wide angle and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM on the 1Ds Mark II because I generally don’t need super reach, but I do like the bokeh produced by using a telephoto zoom lens on a full frame body.

The biggest advantage of shooting with a 1D Mark II and 1Ds Mark II is that the menu and camera functionality, for the most part, are identical. Switching ISO is the same exact two buttons. Reviewing images are the same buttons, changing focus, etc. Plus both the Mark II’s use the same NP-E3 Ni-MH batteries which mean I only have to lug around one charger. Also both the Mark II’s use dual memory storage for images so I can easily have a backup of all the images I take.

Be on the lookout for my 1D Mark II and 1Ds Mark II review with pictures coming soon.

Canon EOS 1D Mark III with Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L IS USM

The Canon L Series Lenses

The class started off with Jim Rose discussing about what makes Canon “L” lenses so special from the normal consumer level lenses. He also confirmed that the “L” does, in fact, stand for Luxury. What defines a L lenses is the existence of:

• Two or more Ultra-Low Dispersion (UD) elements (and/or)
• Fluorite Element (and/or)
• Ground and polished aspherical elements

Fluorite is a natural occurring element, but usually not enough in quantity to be useful, so Canon has developed a method to “grow” them. It takes at least two ultra-low dispersion to equal one fluorite element. The fluorite element eliminates almost all chromatic aberrations.

Wide angle lenses and “fast” lenses (f/1, f/1.2, f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2) experience spherical aberrations which causes the images not to be as sharp until they are stopped down to apertures of f/5.6 or f/8. By using aspherical elements, this counter-acts the spherical aberration effect and can also make zoom lenses smaller in size. There are three types of aspherical elements:

• Molded aspherical element: round glass is super heated until near melting and is poured into a molding and allowed to cool thus making a molded aspherical element. This process makes creating aspherical elements cheaper, but not as good quality.
• Replicated aspherical element: a piece of specially created resin is glued to the round glass to create an aspherical element. This types of aspherical element tends to appear in the consumer grade Canon lenses
• Ground and polished aspherical: glass is grounded and polished until they meet the aspherical criteria. Very expensive and appears exclusively in the L line.

The Canon L lenses are designed to be durable withstanding: torrential down pour rain, extreme temperatures, snow, grueling wear and tear. All the L lenses use ring type Ultra Sonic Motor (USM) focus motors. This is the fastest type of auto focus that Canon has. Jim also spoke of the f/4 zooms (17-40mm, 24-105mm, and 70-200mm) and offering customers a choice in lighter weight equipment at a lower price with the same L quality. Jim also spoke briefly of Canon’s “S” line, the EF-S mount lenses specially designed for the crop sensors.

Jim also spoke of the tilt-shift lens and it’s uniqueness in the Canon line. Also someone in the audience had asked why only one of the three tilt-shift lenses offered by Canon is designated as a L and Jim’s response was: 1) L designation is given to lenses who fit the above requirements and 2) not all lenses require fluorite or ultra-low dispersion glass to achieve optimal quality. Thus, the 45mm and 90mm tilt-shift lenses are not L quality lenses because they do not contain fluorite or ultra-low dispersion elements.

Nature’s Elusive Beauty

Jennifer Wu gave a great PowerPoint presentation on capturing Nature’s Elusive Beauty, the one moment in which the scene is perfect, the lighting is just right, the colors are popping, the scene is ready to be captured.

Jennifer shoots with a new Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III and a Canon EOS 5D. Her lenses are the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM, Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM, Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM, and the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. She does very little post processing, usually dodging and burning and does not remove anything from the scene with Adobe Photoshop or up the saturation in anyway. She uses a circular polarizer and neutral density filters.

Some of the bullet point tips she offered:

• Finding locations: Internet, guide books, asking the locals
• Things to consider: seasons, fall colors at peaks, when flowers are in bloom
• Get local advice: call ranger stations (rangers have most likely hiked every inch of the area and done it repeatably where they would know the best times to visit), visitor shops to find the answer to questions
• Scout the area: scenic routes, pullout areas, off the side of the road
• Get off the beaten path. Don’t just come to a pullout area, get out, take a picture, and leave. Walk around a bit, get a different angle.
• Things to consider for photographing: weather, clouds and light (arrive before a storm-clearing storm, fog create mystery, rain-saturated colors, snow-first dusting on mountains (versus white covered mountains), wind and movement
• How to create perspective: lens coverage, distance to subject, and camera angle
• The lens you choose is about the type of coverage you want
• Focus using hyperfocal distance to get things near and far in focus.
• Always use a tripod for maximum sharpness.
• Camera angles: look down, look up, get low. Create depth with wide angle lens by getting up really close.
• Use ND and Polarizers. Polarizers for foilage, water, and midst
• User manual with spot metering on 18% grey of red or blue. Aim for exact exposure, not under or over. Shoot RAW and aim for f/16.
• Foreground elements: fill the subject with the foreground element.

One of Jennifer’s other favorite types of photography is star photography. Here are some great tips she offered for photographing stars:

• To avoid star trails and get points of light: Take 500 divided by focal length of the lens (if you are using a crop sensor, you have to take that into account and get the actual focal length) will give you the seconds to set your camera to get points of light. Anymore and you will have star trails
• Use wide angle lenses at 30 seconds or less.
• Shoot at wide open aperture (f/2.8, f/1.2 if you can)
• For moonless night, set ISO to 3200, with moon (depending on how bright), set ISO to 200-400
• Use your ISO to change exposure and not aperture or shutter
• Turn your camera’s noise reduction on which is great help
• After you take a night shot, let your CMOS sensor cool down for at least 30 seconds or you may have additional noise in your picture because of the heat on the sensor
• Set your white balance to custom kelvin from 3200-3800 to give the nice bluish sky
• WB custom 4200 works really well at the beginning of sunset, but not at 3 AM
• Try focusing on the brightest star and not on a tree or foreground element. If nothing to focus on, set to infinity and back off a bit.

Conclusion

This was a very informative free seminar sponsored by Canon. It was also an introduction course for those who signed up for the Canon Field Workshop the next day. Jennifer Wu has some absolutely stunning landscape shots and is able to articulate her technique and give steps and advice and not boring useless technical details.

As an added benefit, we were able to try all the twenty four lenses and four bodies and all the participants were given a free copy of the newly updated EF Lens Works III book that includes the new Canon Mark 3 bodies and new lenses. Awesome.

Gallery

While 4 megapixels certainly does not sound even remotely professional or cool, let me assure you that the Canon EOS 1D will amaze you.

Specifications

Released in 2001, the Canon EOS 1D is Canon’s first sole professional digital SLR. It’s primary focus is aimed at the photojournalists sacrificing megapixels for speed. The Canon EOS 1D has been out now for eight years and has numerous of reviews. Instead of focusing on the same thing that others have already discussed, I’ll focus on how relevant the 1D is still today. Let’s glance over the specs of this guy.

• 4.15 megapixel CCD sensor (JPEG pixel dimensions: 2,464 x 1,648)
• ISO 200-1600 in 1/3 steps (with ISO 100 and 3200 as a custom function)
• 4 sRGB settings with 1 Adobe RGB
• 45 AF points
• Evaluative, Partial, Spot (3 modes), and Center Weighted Metering modes
• 2.0″ 120,000 pixel LCD
• 87ms mirror black-out
• 30 to 1/16,000 sec shutter speeds with bulb
• 3 or 8 frames-per-second (FPS) for up to 21 JPEGs or 16 RAW
• 1/500th second Flash X-Sync

For more in-depth features, you can check out DPReview’s 1D specifications page. The Canon EOS 1D certainly shows its ages compared to the newer 1D line such as the Mark II/n and Mark III, but it’s still no slouch. The Mark II/n and Mark III’s fastest shutter speed is 1/8000th second whereas the 1D Mark I goes up to 1/16000th second, although you may almost never need to shoot that fast. You would have to photograph the sun with an aperture of f/1.0 or f/1.2 to need a shutter speed this fast. One perhaps more useful feature is the faster flash sync speed of 1/500th second. The Canon EOS 1D Mark II and the newer Canon EOS 1D Mark III’s fastest flash sync is 1/250th second. Having a faster flash sync speed is especially useful for flash fill. The 1D has a 1.3x meaning that with a 50mm lens mounted, it would be like a 65mm lens on a full frame sensor.

Build Quality

Canon EOS 1D

The 1D series design has changed very little in the course of nearly 8 years. The Canon EOS 1Ds uses the same identical body with a full frame sensor. The Mark II/n have a higher resolution screen (the Mark IIn gets a 2.5 inch LCD screen), the addition of a secondary card slot (Secure Digital, or SD), and the addition of a dedicated zoom/change memory slot button. The Mark III’s get a larger LCD (3 inch) and a completely different button layout in the rear.

The 1D, 1Ds, 1D Mark II, 1Ds Mark II, and 1D Mark IIn all use the same Canon NP-E3 (12v 1650mAh), which is nice because you only have to carry one set of batteries and a single charger if you have any combination of these 1D’s. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), the new Mark III’s use a completely different lithium ion battery.

The build quality of the Canon EOS 1D is excellent with 90 points of weather sealing and the entire body built of magnesium alloy. It can survive being dropped from an elephant, not that you would want to try.

Operation

The biggest disadvantage of the Canon EOS 1D is the processing speed. The 1D utilizes a single Digic processor. While file flushing (time it takes to clear the buffer into the compact flash memory card) does a bit of time, and there is a very noticeable delay from on to ready and from sleep to wake, but once it’s on, it’s ready to go. I would recommend setting the auto sleep mode to something like at least 4 minutes so it doesn’t go to sleep too quickly and is always ready to fire. Auto focus acquisition is fast, especially with the 45 auto focus points. The Canon EOS 1D was the first digital SLR that could do 8 frames-per-second (FPS). The Nikon D2H is the second dSLR capable of the same speed, but was released two years later (2003) and sported a larger buffer (40 JPEGs). While the flush time might be slow, it’s noticeable faster compared to the Canon EOS 1Ds when it comes to image review. With the 1Ds, it would take forever for the image to appear on the LCD, whereas with the 1D, it comes up quicker; granted that the 1Ds has 3 times the resolution so the camera has more data to move.

With 8 FPS, the Canon EOS 1D is clearly aimed at photojournalists and sports photographers whose needs require faster auto focus acquisition and capture versus megapixels and that’s where it shines. Surprisingly despite having only 4 megapixels, it excels in portrait photography. The weaker anti-aliasing (AA) filter means that photographs taken with the 1D are inherently sharper out of camera than the newer Canon EOS 1D Mark II with a stronger AA filter. Having a weaker AA filter on the flip side will cause more moire to appear with certain patterns, which usually isn’t too much of a problem. I can definitely say that the 1D is sharp, very sharp and this is with the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM which generally isn’t that sharp in the edges.

External White Balance Sensor

Also the Canon EOS 1D has an additional external white balance sensor that assists in adjusting and correcting white balance in addition to the sensor. From what I notice, the external white balance sensor hasn’t made any difference. Canon continued to put the external white balance sensor on the Canon EOS 1Ds, but stopped after that.

The second major disadvantage of the original 1D is the LCD. With only 120,000 pixels on a 2 inch screen, the image quality when displayed on the LCD is very poor and not very useful to judge color correctness of a scene. You really have to rely more on the exposure and RGB graphs. This isn’t too big of an issue if you’re shooting RAW, as all data is recorded, but can be very important if you are shooting JPEGs.

The Canon EOS 1D takes a single compact flash card with a maximum limit of 2GB (see Rob Galbraith’s excellent table on CF cards and write speeds). I had no problems using my SanDisk Extreme IV 2GB Compact Flash card. It formatted and wrote to it with no problems. When I tried using a higher capacity CF card, like my SanDisk Extreme III 8GB Compact Flash, the camera would only detect 2GB worth.

In The Field

With only 4 megapixels, there isn’t really any room to crop the image. Framing and composition are much more important when using the 1D versus using something like the Canon EOS 1Ds or the Canon EOS 5D. This can be limiting in situations where you don’t have a longer focal length lens to isolate the subject and would normally crop down. The 1.3x crop factor, in my opinion, is a great compromise between wide (full frame) and reach (1.6x crop factor). It makes this SLR very versatile by being able to retain a majority of the wideness but also have that little bit of “reach”.

The auto focus is exactly what you would expect from a 1D series: top notch and spot on. It’s 45 AF points do not disappoint. It’s not as fast as the newer Canon EOS 1D Mark II/n or the latest Canon EOS 1D Mark III, but it’s slouch compared to entry level (Rebel series) or consumer (10D/20D/30D/40D series) level dSLRs despite being older.

Noise. It’s noisy. Even at ISO 200, you can see the existence of noise in the shadows. Compared to the 20D, 30D, and 40D, it is noisier at the same levels. The noise exhibited is the chroma type of noise, which is similar to film grain, like the Canon EOS 1Ds. The noise doesn’t bother me too much because I think it gives the image a nice “feel”, nostalgic feel almost. Just check out wedding photographer Joe Buissink’s work. He shot with Nikon D2h’s (4 megapixels) for years and produced some stunning photographs. Just goes to show you that megapixels aren’t everything.

Battery life sucks. The CCD sensor definitely drains more battery power than the CMOS sensors. I’m getting about 500 or so shots on average with a full charge. If you’re using an Image Stabilizer (IS) lens, then the battery will drain slightly quicker.

The only other issue, for me anyways, was I was finding I was missing shots because of the slow start up times. It was getting to a point where I finally set the camera to fall asleep after 4 minutes as opposed to 1 minute that I normally have my Canon EOS 1D Mark II set to. When I’m using two bodies and when I know a crucial shot might be coming, I tend to periodically half depress the shutter on the 1D to keep it from sleeping so that it’s ready to fire.

I also tend to find that I was using longer focal length lenses on the 1D because of the megapixel limitation with cropping. The Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM would be primarily attached to it with the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM on the 1D Mark II. The images taken with that lens comes out great.

Conclusion

The Canon EOS 1D is an excellent camera which is capable of great shots despite the shortcomings in megapixels. It has the fast frames-per-second and superb auto focus that all future 1D series will be based off of. The images produced by this camera are both sharp and natural looking and reminiscent of prints made from film. It obviously has some issues with noise, but those can easily be combated with a noise reducing software such as Noise Ninja.

It’s a great camera to have in any one’s arsenal, especially since the average price for a used 1D is around ~$800. By using a camera such as this, you can improve your photography skills because you learn not to rely on things you take for granted everyday such as major megapixels and excellent in-camera noise reduction. With 4 megapixels and virtually no possibility of cropping, you learn to better frame your shots instead of just firing off random shots and heavily cropping later.

The 1D is an excellent tool for the photojournalist and sport shooters. With 4 megapixels, you can make images to about 8×10 without any major issues. Images for the web or newspaper, 4 megapixels are plenty. The photographers who should consider the Canon EOS 1D are ones that don’t need the lowest noise but need a fast focusing and fast shooting SLR.

To see the sample images, please click here.

Canon EOS 1D Image Gallery

The new bag is just perfect. It’s very stylish and able to carry all my necessary equipment such as my 15.4″ MacBook Pro, Canon EOS 1D Mark II with Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM attached, Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM with hood reversed, Canon 550EX external flash, Canon CP-E4, extra AA batteries, extra CF cards, and various accessories such as off camera hot-shoe, microfiber towel, extra caps, pens, business cards, etc.

The only complaints I have is that the front of the bag, there isn’t any padding to keep a large dSLR like the 1D from banging against things in the front pockets. It’s not a huge problem, but worth mentioning. The other complaint is that the strap doesn’t sit properly in the “o” rings and thus can cause some discomfort when wearing the bag for long periods of time. This can probably be attributed to how heavy the bag becomes with all the equipment loaded.

It’s also worth mentioning that the NG-2477 comes with 2 enclosed internal pouches versus 1 enclosed internal pouch with the NG-2475. The enclosed internal pouch can’t fit the 1D with a lens mounted, so I only use 1 pouch which holds my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM and Canon 550EX external flash.

As I had mentioned in my NG-2475 review, the olive canvas color makes the bag a very stealth camera bag. Also with the abundant pockets, it’s easy to stash and access needed accessories such as a spare Canon NP-E3 battery.

The only complaint I have is that with all my equipment loaded, the shoulder straps at the “O” ring becomes bunched up and looks ugly.

[November 11, 2008 UPDATE: I now carry my Canon EOS 1Ds Mark II in the bag and leave my Canon EOS 1D Mark II in my Pelican 1514.]

National Geographic NG-2477 Gallery

Specifications

Released back in 2002, the Canon EOS 1Ds was Canon’s flagship model and first digital full frame sensor (35.8 x 23.8 mm) SLR on the market with a cost of nearly $8,000 (which is about the same price as the new Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III when initially released. So what did you get for $8,000? Here’s a brief preview:

• 11.4 megapixel CMOS sensor (JPEG pixel dimensions: 4,064 x 2,704)
• ISO 100-1250 in 1/3 steps (with ISO 50 as a custom function)
• 4 sRGB settings and 1 Adobe RGB
• 45 AF points
• Evaluative, Partial, Spot (3 modes), and Center Weighted Metering modes
• 2.0″ 120,000 pixel LCD
• 87ms mirror black-out
• 30 to 1/8,000 sec shutter speeds with bulb
• 3 frames-per-second (FPS) for up to 10 JPEGs or RAW

For more in-depth features, you can check out DPReview’s 1Ds specifications page. Even by today’s standards, some of the features are obviously dated (such as the 2.0″ LCD screen), but it can still hold it’s own at 11 MP with 45 AF points (still the same number of AF points on the new Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III). The only other cameras that has more AF points is Nikon’s recently released D3, D300, and just announced D700. Also worth mentioning is that Canon started the full frame digial sensor with the 1Ds whereas the Nikon has just started with the D3 and D700.

Build Quality

Solid like a tank; it is a 1D series after all. The button layouts next to and under the LCD are identical to the Canon EOS 1D Mark I. So are the buttons on top and the LCD readout panels and also the menu layout.

Here is an example of a very well used and still functioning Canon EOS 1D Mark II by humanitarian photojouranlist, Karl Grobl when he accidentally dropped his 1D with Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM from about 9 feet while seated on an elephant.

Operation

The Canon 1Ds is certainly not designed to be a sports camera like it’s brother, the Canon EOS 1D; evidenced by the huge difference in frame rates (3 fps versus 8 fps). That is not to say that it can’t be used in sports, it just takes more patience and timing. People who generally purchase the 1Ds are more interested in maximum quality and thus the resolution is hugely different (11 MP versus 4 MP). The 1Ds definitely shines when it comes to landscape photography, studio work, portrait photography, weddings (formal pictures), etc.

From the moment the camera is turned on to when you can actually take a picture, it usually takes about a second; it’s only marginally faster from sleep to wake. This is horrible if you expect to capture shots quickly when the camera is turned off or asleep. But once awake and during operation, it’s much more responsive. Unfortunately for someone who is used to using a Canon EOS 1D Mark II, the 10 image buffer on the 1Ds fills up quickly. The flush time (the amount of time it takes to write the data from the buffer to the compact flash card) is decent, but definitely shows its age when compared to newer cameras like the Canon EOS Rebel XTi/400D and Canon EOS 1D Mark II.

Like the Canon EOS 1D Mark I, the Canon EOS 1Ds Mark I also features an additional external WB sensor. On future 1D/1Ds generations, Canon did away with the external WB sensor. So far I have not noticed any additional benefits of having an additional external white balance sensor or any ill effect, but one person on FredMiranda reports that the external WB sensor can actually have a negative effect:

In my experience, the AWB sensor affected the colors in a bad way as in most cases the light falling on the subject has a different color temperature than that at the camera position. For instance, if you have the sun behind you, the subject is in the sunlight while the sensor is in the shadow. It was a good move from Canon not to continue with it. I find the AWB on my 1Ds2 much better than the 1Ds.
edwardkaraa

I wonder if Nikon’s external WB sensor helps on their D2x and D2xs?

Forgot about being able to review images on the LCD right after you take them. It usually takes a few seconds from when you take the picture to when it actually displays on the rear LCD. Also because the LCD is only 130,000 pixels, you can’t really judge sharpness or colors. It’s best to rely on the histograms. Plus another major disadvantage of the 1Ds LCD is lack of zoom. You can’t zoom in on any images you take. One good thing about having a crappy SLR LCD such as this is that it makes you more reliant on reading histograms (a good thing) and learning to better judge your settings. The more I continued to use the Canon EOS 1Ds, the less I found I was relying on the LCD to tell me whether or not I was taking a good picture, but rather checking histograms for blown highlights and good exposure. The camera LCD isn’t the best thing to judge sharpness, exposure, or colors because of many factors. For one, the image that is displayed on the rear LCD isn’t even the actual image you took, but rather a low resolution JPEG that is created in camera for the purposes of LCD viewing. That’s why when you try to check sharpness of an image you took and it looks jagged and not quite sharp but later extracted on a computer, it looks perfectly fine, that’s why. Another reason is the color discrepancies between the different models of the same brand! For example, the Canon EOS 5D has a slightly greenish hue to it’s LCD, making images appear a bit more green than let’s say the Canon EOS 30D. While I’m not saying you shouldn’t use the rear LCD, it’s a great feature, just make sure you’re using it for how it works best.

In The Field

During the couple of weeks I had the Canon EOS 1Ds, I did quite a number of photojournalism work such as our office’s employee appreciation day and most notably, the 2008 SF Pride Parade. For the 2008 SF Pride Parade, I was using the 1Ds with the Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L USM and the 1D Mark II with the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS USM. Having full frame on a super wide angle lens like the 16-35mm allowed me to get shots like this.

Having a full frame SLR allows for some great wide shots especially when in tight situations such as close-up crowds, in small rooms, etc. It’s definitely refreshing when a 16mm lens is actually 16mm and not 20.8mm (1.3x crop factor) or 25.6mm (1.6x crop factor), which may not seem much, but when you get to longer focal lengths like 70mm, on a 1.3x and 1.6x crop sensor becomes 91mm and 112mm, respectively. Although on the flip side, having full frame may not always be advantageous such as when photographing birds or birds in flight, wildlife, and so forth. A full frame SLR requires a longer focal length lens than a 1.6x crop sensor to achieve the same crop.

Noise is problematic for the 1Ds. At ISO 400 and above, noise is quite apparent and gets very bad at ISO 1250. Proper exposure is paramount to keeping noise as low as possible. I highly recommend the technique of Exposing To The Right (ETTR). Software can be used to clean up noise quite well, although at a cost of some sharpness. I personally use Noise Ninja, and would highly recommend them. Here is a 100% crop of a shot of Stripes (our cat) with the 1Ds at 1/25th second at ISO 1000. Here is the same image and crop with Noise Ninja applied using the default 1Ds profile. Here is another example at 1/20th second at ISO 1000 and with Noise Ninja applied.

The 1Ds, shooting in JPEG with sharpness set to level 5 is very sharp; more so than my 1D Mark II, the most likely reason is a weaker AA (anti-aliasing) filter which allows for sharper images at the cost of increased moire. I have noticed that moire is more apparent on the 1Ds. The 1Ds produces very pleasing JPEGs that require little post-processing, provided you get the exposure and white balance correctly. I find at sharpness set to level 5, I rarely have to apply Unsharp Mask in Photoshop whereas on the 1D Mark II at the same sharpness level, I do have to apply Unsharp Mask.

After having used the Canon EOS Rebel XTi/400D for more than a year, picking up a full frame camera with its large and bright viewfinder is a revelation of how truly small and inadequate the 1.6x crop factor viewfinders truly are. The 1Ds, unlike the 5D, has a 100% viewfinder (VF) coverage (the 5D has a 96% coverage) meaning that what you see in the viewfinder is what you get. It’s amazing what a difference of a full frame viewfinder compared to a 1.6x crop sensor viewfinder or even a 1.3x crop sensor viewfinder. The best analogy is with a 1.6x crop viewfinder, it looks like your standing at the beginning of a long tunnel and looking towards the end where there is just some light, but mostly darkness. The 1.3x crop viewfinder feels like you’re in the middle, so the end of the tunnel where the light is fill up more of the darkness and with the full frame viewfinder, you’re right at cusp of the exit, so there is hardly any darkness around.

Conclusions

If you don’t mind the weight (1265g or 2.78lbs), the Canon EOS 1Ds is a great SLR, albeit six years old. Any one who has either used or felt a 1D series camera can attest to the rock solid build quality. These are the kind of cameras that photojournalist use in war zones that can (need to) handle abuse. While it may not necessarily survive a drop, in some cases such as Karl Grobl who dropped his 1D Mark II from an elephant, it will take some degree of abuse, not intentional mind you.

When the 1Ds was first introduced, its asking price was $8,000. Today’s market value is about ~$1850 which is about equivalent to a brand new Canon EOS 5D, the prosumer full frame dSLR.

Noise can be problematic at times, but a noise reduction software such as Noise Ninja can do quite a bit to reduce noise. The camera produces very sharp results because of a weaker AA filter like the Canon EOS 1D Mark I. What is interesting is that normally with a larger sensor (full frame) and decent amount of pixels (~12 MP or less), noise is very well controlled. This is the case with the 5D, but for some reason the 1Ds exhibits quite a bit of noise. Fortunately for the most part, the noise appears in no patterns which makes the images from the 1Ds look like film noise.

So given a choice between a Canon EOS 5D or a Canon EOS 1Ds Mark I, which should one choose? We’ll evaluate the differences and similarities in a future post.

Canon EOS 1Ds Gallery Images

I recently picked up one because I use flash a lot and need it ready to fire at any time and sometimes ready to fire off a burst.

So this is just an initial review of the Canon CP-E4 that I purchased from B&H Photo Video for $149.95, a bit steep for a lot of plastic, but then again, nothing of Canon is quite cheap. Also be forewarned that additional battery trays for the CP-E4 is very expensive ($46.95) considering that it is primarily made of plastic. Unless you shoot 1000 pics with flash, I don’t think you will need additional magazines, but it does dramatically reduce the load time necessary when the CP-E4 runs out of batteries. It take a bit of time to reload eight (8) double AA batteries into the tray.

CP-E2, CP-E3, CP-E4…Which One Is It?

The CP-E2 was one of the first Canon battery packs. It only takes six (6) double AA batteries. The CP-E3 replaces the CP-E2 and increases the power by two (2) more double AA batteries for a grand total of eight (8) batteries. The CP-E3 is about 25% faster in recharge rate because of the additional two (2) double AA batteries. The newest Canon battery pack, the CP-E4 is identical to the CP-E3, except it now features weather sealing on the plug to the flash to better weather seal the 580 EX II. Obviously you would hardly save any money buying the CP-E3 brand new versus the new CP-E4, unless you can find a used one for a great price.

How Do You Use It?

It’s very simple to use the battery pack. There is a single spiral cable that you plug into your flash’s external battery plug. There is no on or off switch on the battery pack, it auto detects whether the flash has been turned on or off and the unit turns itself on and off with the flash.

On thing to remember is that you do need to leave the four batteries in the flash itself as that powers the electronics, the other eight batteries from the CP-E4 power the strobe flash

Does It Work Good?

It works excellent! I often have fired five flashes in successive bursts and the ready indicator still remains red for for me. There is a warning that if you fire 20 successive bursts of flash in one sitting, you have to power the down the unit and let it rest for at least 10 minutes or risk burning out the CP-E4 and your flash.

Final Thoughts

If you have additional money to spend, I would definitely recommend getting the Quantum Slim Turbo battery pack (~$450+), it’s not cheap, but worth every penny. On the other hand, the Canon CP-E4 is a budget for what it does. One thing that might annoy some people is that the cable is a bit short. While it does stretch, there is some tension in the cable which can be annoying when you’re bringing the camera up to shoot really quickly. I’ve sometimes got the cable twisted around the lens, which can be a bit frustrating when you need to photograph quickly.

One particular thing that has changed from the CP-E3 to the CP-E4 is that rather than have a belt slide clip, it now has a belt loop. In the past, there has been complaints that the belt slide clip on the CP-E3 is not very secure. The problem with the new design is that once you mount the CP-E4 to your belt, it will take awhile to take it off. One trick I found that is very successful is to use the Velcro strap and attach that to your belt. It’s plenty secure.

I do have a complaint in the design that can be important to some, unlike the Quantum battery packs, the CP-E2/CP-E3/CP-E4 does not have a battery life indicator. If you haven’t used the CP-E4 in a while and unaware of it’s power reserves, you can be caught surprised at a crucial point, which is why it would be good to have spare magazines. Personally I would like a battery life indicator so I can be ready to change the battery.

One other thing is that the tripod mount for the CP-E4 is about utterly useless. First, with the CP-E4 mounted in the tripod, you lose the tripod mount. Also with a Canon EOS 1D series, it becomes very difficult and inconvenient to use the camera’s portrait grip because of the added size and awkwardness. Also Canon recommends that you do not mount the CP-E3/CP-E4 to any camera that does not have a battery grip or is not a 1D series because the close proximity of the battery pack to the compact flash can cause card write errors.

While these two SLRs are not even close to being in the same class (amateur stepping up from point-and-shoot camera vs. pro shooter), it’s still fun to just to compare. So let’s lay it out in an easy to read table (information compiled from dpreview.com):

It’s pretty obvious, side-by-side, which is the superior SLR: the 1D. There are a couple areas where the 400D/XTi has an advantage over the 1D, but it’s a slight advantage such as the LCD size. While the 400D/XTi has a bigger LCD (2.5 inch), the 1D has as better resolution screen. The most noticeable difference is megapixels. For those concerned with megapixel sizes, the 400D/XTi has nearly 2MP more than the 1D. But you have to consider from a relative stand point, that 8.2 MP on a 1.3 crop factor sensor versus 10.1 MP on a 1.6 crop factor sensor will result in lower noise. The pixel size on the 1D Mark II is 8.2µm versus 5.7µm (figures from the-digital-picture.com) meaning that the 1D Mark II is able to capture more light per pixel resulting in higher sensitivity meaning less noise in the picture. That’s why more mega pixels is not always better and the Canon EOS 5D has such fantastic low noise capabilities because of it’s full frame sensor with 12.8 megapixels.

So Which Camera Is Right For Me?

Unless you make serious money from photography or you just make serious money, I would recommend the Canon EOS Rebel 400D/XTi (or the newly released Canon EOS Rebel 450D/XSi). The 400D/XTi and 450D/XSi has some very useful features and should not be easily discounted as merely an amateur camera as Peter Gregg found out. Read his informative post about the Canon EOS 400D/XTi as a sleeper camera on his website, abetterbouncecard.com. It’s small and portable and can utilize Canon EF and EF-S mount lenses, unlike the 1D only taking EF mount lenses. The battery is small and lasts forever and is cross usable with other Canon point-and-shoot cameras. It will do a decent job for amateur sports, event photography, party photography, etc.

If you need the serious frame rates because you’re shooting sports, professional auto racing, etc., then definitely spring for the 1D. The prices for the 1D are pretty good, if you can get a good condition used one for under $2k, it’s definitely worth doing. The 1D Mark II may seem old, but it’s still performs as good if not better than a lot of the new SLRs right now. The Canon EOS 1D Mark IIn is also worth considering if you can find it for a good price. I generally see some once in a blue moon at BH Photo’s Used section and occasionally on Craigslist. There aren’t really too many major differences between the Mark II and Mark IIn other than bigger LCD (2.5 inch vs. 2 inch), you can write different file types to either card, slightly faster Digic II CPU, and a few other minor things.

I know some of you may be wondering, why not a Canon 1D Mark III or Mark IIn for that matter? Well, it’s simple, it’s still hard at the moment to justify the cost of the Canon 1D Mark III (~$4,000) and for the price I paid for the Mark II versus what I would have had to pay for the Mark IIn, it was was simply too good a deal to pass up. Especially since the Mark II and Mark IIn are virtually identical except for a few key differences ( it’s like the difference between the Canon EOS 20D versus the Canon EOS 30D), they are one and the same.

Initial test shots and some light use with the Canon EOS 1D Mark II, all I have to say is that it is absolutely amazing. You don’t know how nice it is to have 45 AF points versus 9 on my Canon XTi. Even though this camera is about 4 years old now (first announced in February 2004), it still performs better than a majority of cameras currently out on the market. How many other cameras can do 8.5 frames per second or faster? To my knowledge, only 3 other cameras: Canon EOS 1D Mark IIn, Canon EOS 1D Mark III, and the Nikon D3. I did like my dad’s Canon EOS 5D to a certain extent, but I’m loving the 1D much more.

In case anyone is wonder, yes, I am still keeping my Canon EOS Rebel XTi, it’s still a very handy and versatile tool. And, yes, there is a very specific reason I purchased the 1D, which I’ll be announcing very shortly. As I get a chance to play with the 1D Mark II more and get more acclimated, I’ll post a review.