Just the points I like best/worst about the camera

There are lots of pages of facts and opinions about this camera. I will try to stick to just the specific points I feel noteworthy.

Pros:

Incredibly solid and well built, I like the water-tight seals

Unmatched resolution - gives you a lot more working range or crops and resizing

Very fast - the processors in this camera blow all other Canon cameras away

Built-ins - you don't need to buy an extra battery grip/vertical trigger

Comes with dual charger

Shoots very well tethered to a laptop/desktop

Rear screen is very bright - easy to use outdoors

It's a Canon - Service and cleaning are easy and the company is great


Cons:

It's a heavy camera to lug around all day - consider that

Images are HUGE! at 25-30MB/image in RAW, you eat up storage fast

Price - are the extra pixels worth the price (and size)?


Personally, I love the camera. I don't think there is a better SLR on the market. Sometimes I think 21.1MP is overkill when I use it for personal shooting, but that doesn't make the results any less.

Consider the points above when trying to decide. These are some of the points that affected my decision.

Maurice
headcheese dot com

Canon software works well if yoy learn to set it up

Canon software works well if you learn to set it up.

It is sleek, fast, reliable, stable and most of all gives you a nice preview in CMYK. Yes you and your AD gets to see a CMYK preview!

Most the portrait and wedding guys havn't a clue what this is but if you shoot tethered for high end clients you want your AD to see CMYK previews not RGBs.

This is the software the does this. And if you open an image in Photoshop to show the AD some retouching and you have calibrated everything correctly in both softwares the on screen images look exactly the same!

When showing the ADs several images at once in the Canon software they all scroll and zoom at the same time and locate to the same place!

If you are a pro learn this software . . if you shoot weddings then stay with Photoshop so you don't get too confused!

The software is first rate as is the camera.

The previous poster is completely wrong about Canon Software.

I use these cameras tethered to shoot on figure fashion in a studio all day and the software is excellent!

You have to learn how to use this camera if you want to realize all the features.

It is not a point and shoot.

Excellent Camera

I have owned the Canon 1Ds Mark I for 4 years; it was an truly wonderful camera in its own right, but I was looking forward to upgrading to the Mark III and bought the first one sold on eBay on Nov. 29, 2007.

It was worth the money...this is a fabulous camera.

The 21.1 megapixel sensor is razor sharp; the new chipset is blazing fast, and the dual memory card feature allows you to put your raw images on one card and your jpegs on the other, simplifying iPhoto RAW/Jpeg workflow. This camera has all the software advances such as auto-rotate, replay zoom up to 100% actual pixels, and color histogram.

Liveview allows you to use the display as a view finder (albeit with manual focus), which can be handy if you want to hold the camera over your head to take a picture.

It's too early for me to tell whether the automatic sensor cleaning will solve the dust issues with earlier bodies, but so far dust hasn't been an issue in the first two months of use.

The battery life is amazing...much better than the 1Ds even though the batteries are smaller and lighter.

I like the ability to customize the filenames; you can specify the first 4 characters from the menu. By including the date or date/month in the filename, you can assure that your filenames will be unique even after you take 10,000 photos.

One thing to keep in mind is that with such a high resolution sensor, your lenses' limitations will be revealed more readily. While the 24-70mm f2.8L lens does work well with this camera, I've found that some longer zoom telephotos like the 100-400mm f5.6L and the 70-300mm f5.6 DO lens are too soft.

You may want to budget for a couple of new prime lenses to make the most of this camera's resolution.

If you own the 1Ds Mark II, then you have some of these features, and 75% of the pixel count, so this is merely an evolutionary change...for everyone else it's a revolution.

Note that as of January 15th, 2008 the raw files from this camera are not supported by Aperture or iPhoto, but are supported by Adobe Photoshop CS 3 and Lightroom.

Previous Canon cameras owned: EOS 1Ds mk I, 5D, 30D, 20D, D30

Canon lenses that I do recommend for this camera:
EF 14mm f2.8L II USM
EF 16-35mm f2.8L II USM
EF 24-70mm f2.8L USM
EF 50mm f1.2L US
EF 70-200mm f2.8L
EF 180mm f3.5L macro USM
EF 300mm f4.0L IS
EF 600mm f4.0L ISM

Lenses that may be too "soft"

EF 70-300mm f5.6 DO IS USM
EF 100-400m f5.6L IS USM

Other lenses I don't have so I can't tell. I'd expect that using less than an L-series lens with this camera would be a waste of pixels.

Best body for all around shooting. Nothing it can't do!

The 1DS Mk III is perfect for wildlife, landscape or anything else. It has excellent tracking ability for BIF and quickly locks on target for high percentage keeper rates. I also shoot the 1D Mk III, and use it primarily for fast moving action. The 1DS delivers more lush color and contrast, and is excellent for those images that require severe cropping. On the wide angle side, I love the depth with my 17-40L with colors more vivid than you can imagine. I started with the 40D, 5D Mk I, and the 7D but I get what I want from the 1DS Mk III. Not as expensive as when it was new, but still measures at high marks compared to some of the newer products depending on your shooting preferences. I don't shoot video, so I don't miss that feature. I also no longer have camera envy. I'm happy with this one.

Canon 1ds III

The 1dsIII is canons top of the line body. It is just like the 1d except it is 21mp. It is for the pro only and weighs a ton. To get the full capability of this unit you should use only prime lenses (no zoom) and of course L glass. The replacement 5d to be anounced in Sept may come close to these camera at 1/3 the price and weight.