Second DSLR

[turboMiata]

After months of waiting, here it is. Thanks to Chris at TCS. TCS rocks!

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/229/513992876_8d9d686f74_o.jpg

[DJ Lazy]

:drool: ... Nice purchase Wei! look forward to seeing some shots

[D'z Nutz]

Second? I thought you had two 20Ds? First impressions?

[turboMiata]

Originally posted by D'z Nutz
Second? I thought you had two 20Ds? First impressions?

yes, i do have 2 20Ds. didn't think same model would count.

- this thing is a brick. much more solid than the 20D+grip and about twice as heavy. will be very cumbersome with a 70-200 and flash.
- controls are super intuitive. as Lloyd had mentioned, the controls are much more similar to the 20/30/5Ds than the other 1Ds. None of the press, hold and select crap.

gotta run and do more testing. later.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn.

You should "test" it out at Secret Streets tonight.

[turboMiata]

okay, I'm just speechless with 10FPS. here is my first shot. no big deal, just hate posting a new camera thread with no photos.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/193/514045199_cfce588cf8_o.jpg

[DJ Lazy]

Wanna sell one of your 20D's now? :)

[turboMiata]

i will if you introduce me to the girl in you r sig.:poosie:

[DJ Lazy]

Originally posted by turboMiata
i will if you introduce me to the girl in you r sig.:poosie:

hahaha... if I could introduce myself to the girl in my sig, I wouldn't care about a 20D... :rofl:

[lint]

Is that the 50 1.2L I see there too? How do you like that as an upgrade to the 1.4? Oh, and nice camera too.

[AccentAE86]

Damn, that is just awesome!!! I'm jealous!

[turboMiata]

Originally posted by lint
Is that the 50 1.2L I see there too? How do you like that as an upgrade to the 1.4? Oh, and nice camera too.

yeah, i have had it for not too many months. i've only owned the 1.8s in the past so i don't know how much better it is than the 1.4. at the end of the day, the 1.2 is alot better than the 1.8. the focus does not hunt any more and it is way more precise. my keeper rates have gone up and i think i shoot alot faster with the 1.2 because i spend last time waiting for the focus to lock on.

now that i have had more than 24 hours of using the 1D3, i thought i'd share my initial thoughts.

- the iso performance is alot better than my 20D. iso 3200 is at least better than iso 1600 on the 20D so this is very good news.
- there is none of the AF issues as reported by Rob Galbraith that i have experienced
- changing iso is a snap now because you can see it in the viewfinder and the iso button is very close to the shutter release. it is a dedicated button unlike the 20D. iso can be changed either with the quick control dial or main dial.
- the safety shift function is also worth a few bucks. how it works is the camera will actually drop the iso setting if it is set too high so you can take the shot. lloyd, you'll love this feature when you get your 1D3 if move indoors to outdoors alot. the cool thing is, the camera will reduce iso to prevent overexposure for that one metered scene but will return to the iso you have set.
- capture one does not work with the cr2 files from this camera yet. looks like i won't be using it on paid gigs until this changes.
- there are tonnes of customization. for example, if you don't shoot in Bulb or P mode, you can disable it in the menu.
- Live View rocks, even if it is MF only. it wasn't a selling point for me but now that i have tried it, i think i will actually be using it alot. it also works with DOF preview.
- autofocus is insane. to really take advantage of it, you'll need a really fast focussing lens like the 70-200IS. almost instant focussing. there are 45 AF points but only 19 are selectable. selecting AF points is a little tedious because you need to hit the AF select button, then select the point a combination of the two dials. the joystick is not used except to center the AF point.
- firmware shipped is 1.08, which implies the camera has gone through a few iterations of updates even before shipping. my 20D shipped with 1.0 IIRC.

overall, i really feel this camera represents the pinnacle of DSLR performance. the 10FPS is overkill but what makes it great is all the features canon put in that are geared towards the working photographer. kudos to canon.

[lint]

Ok, I'm going to have to go to another photog meet to see your new beast.

[Mitsu3000gt]

That camera is way too good. I hope Nikon's D2h replacement is competitive and I hope I can afford it :D

I have a question though. If the AF motor is in the lens, is the focusing still faster than on a regular camera (i.e. 30D)? Or is AF speed only way better on cameras like these when you have a screw drive?

[turboMiata]

Originally posted by Mitsu3000gt
That camera is way too good. I hope Nikon's D2h replacement is competitive and I hope I can afford it :D

I have a question though. If the AF motor is in the lens, is the focusing still faster than on a regular camera (i.e. 30D)? Or is AF speed only way better on cameras like these when you have a screw drive?

that's a good question. on the canon side of things, focus depends on the in-lens motor and the AF processor within the body. EF lenses do not have screw drives so that is not an issue.

overall, an EOS-1 will focus faster than a 30D using the same lens in a wide range of situations (ideal or adverse). that is because the EOS-1 bodies have two AF processors and they are also more sensitive to lower light.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by turboMiata


that's a good question. on the canon side of things, focus depends on the in-lens motor and the AF processor within the body. EF lenses do not have screw drives so that is not an issue.

overall, an EOS-1 will focus faster than a 30D using the same lens in a wide range of situations (ideal or adverse). that is because the EOS-1 bodies have two AF processors and they are also more sensitive to lower light.

Thanks I've always wondered about that. I always hear people say how fast a certain camera focuses but the motor is in the lens so I didn't get it.

[BerserkerCatSplat]

Nikons are bit different, as AF-S lenses have internal motors and will focus more or less the same on most bodies (with some improvement on the CAM2000 bodies) while the D2 series will focus an AF-D lens faster than other bodies due to the more powerful in-body AF motors.

[C4S]

Um ..
Yes.. USM lens on 1D series is slightly faster then on 5D, and 5D is slightly faster then 30D etc ..

Put it this way .. just like car .. same engine .. put it diff car, with diff tranny .. has diff performance too, right? :D

[Kaos]

DAMMMNNNNN, what's the going rate on that again?
$451132121016569999 Dollars.... :devil:

[Mitsu3000gt]

Originally posted by Kaos
DAMMMNNNNN, what's the going rate on that again?
$451132121016569999 Dollars.... :devil:


$5679.95

[AccentAE86]

Originally posted by turboMiata

lloyd, you'll love this feature when you get your 1D3 if move indoors to outdoors alot. the cool thing is, the camera will reduce iso to prevent overexposure for that one metered scene but will return to the iso you have set.


whoa, that is an interesting feature. And yeah, I have to admit I've made that mistake. :banghead: Shoot ISO1600 on a cloudless sunny afternoon.

I'm also interested in the Highlight Tone Priority. Have you tried that out? Great for wedding dresses.

[turboMiata]

Originally posted by AccentAE86

I'm also interested in the Highlight Tone Priority. Have you tried that out? Great for wedding dresses.

when you coming to calgary?

[AccentAE86]

Sweeet. Just got mine friday, and shot a wedding saturday with it. It is awesome. BUT....

do you find the LCD screen blows? Every time I chimp the pictures look like crap, in a pukey green-yellow tone and look out of focus. As the day went on I was getting concerned that I wasn't getting anything in focus. Once I downloaded the shots they looked fantastic but they looked terrible on the LCD screen. Does yours behave in a similar way?

Also, I turned on highlight tone priority and turned it off right away when I found out it doesn't let you go below ISO200. I NEED iso100 for my style of shooting. I also can't find that mode you were talking about that drops the iso for you when you go outside and forget to change it.

But DAMN... this camera is CLEAN at high ISO. I thought my 20 and 30D cameras were good, but ISO1600 on the Mark III looks cleaner than 400 on the 30D. (which is pretty darn clean already) It seems cleaner than the 5D images I got when I test drove one. All in all it's a KILLER camera and it's gonna be hard for Canon to top this in the Mark IV.

This 1600 pic was TOO clean so in processing I actually found myself ADDING noise to photos... this is kinda backwards but hey I'm not complaining. Here is the jpeg straight out of the camera. ISO1600:
http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/iii/b.jpg

And here is a 100% crop straight out of camera that was underexposed. (as you all know, underexposure brings noise out) Look at how clean the dark shadow on the left is. This was also ISO1600.
http://www.nightanddayphoto.ca/misc/forumpics/iii/a.jpg

All in all I'm impressed with the camera. It was worth the price.