Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III review
Review Date : Mon, 3 Mar 2008
Author : Jamie Harrison
The 21.1-megapixel Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III is Canon's flagship professional DSLR.
| Pros: | High resolution, full frame, low noise, solid build, speed of AF |
|---|---|
| Cons: | Manual focus live view, low-res LCD, artisan design |
Worth a Look?
How many people are going to spend £5,500 on a camera? Even more importantly, how many enthusiast photographers rather than pros, will fork out that amount of money and justify it to their partners? Probably not too many, but Canon’s flagship DSLR is still worth looking at for a number of reasons.
Dream Camera
First, people are always interested in the top end, desirable-but-unaffordable gear. The car enthusiast who drives a Skoda is still going to be interested in the Ferrari review and the motorbike fan with a little 125cc Yamaha will harbour fantasies of one day owning a Ducatti. For the enthusiast or hobbyist, the dreams of new kit, or of owning the best kit, whiles away the hours when we’re not pursuing our hobby. Hours stuck in traffic, idly thinking, ‘What camera would I buy if I won the lottery?’ Then making a mental list of the Aladdin’s Cave of wonderful equipment we could accrue if our numbers came up. Or is that just us?
Trickle Down Effect
Second, what comes from the top eventually filters to the bottom. The top-end cameras today are the entry-level and consumer models of tomorrow. The same amount of money ten years ago would have got you a 2MP DSLR, while the 11MP Mk I of five years ago has now been surpassed by the 12MP models launched recently for about £5,000 less. Similarly, technology other than the pixels trickle down to the consumer better processing, faster AF and higher ISOs are just some of the improvements to mid-range and entry-level cameras that originally came from the top end.
Next page: Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III features
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Verdict
Canon has done it again with the 1Ds Mk III and I expect that studios across the globe will be ordering them as a matter of course, just for the high resolution. In use it?s a workhorse, and what it lacks in grace and beauty is made up for with its strength and results ? and what results! The image quality achievable from the 1Ds Mk III, when coupled with excellent optics, is, quite frankly, awesome. One notable example of this is the exceptional sharpness that?s possible from the high-resolution CMOS sensor, permitting very fine detail capture, and the excellent exposure and tonality of the pictures. As long as the camera produces images this good, there?s little else that matters. <br>
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