TESTING IS FINISHED

This coming September marks six months with the Canon 1Ds Mark III and I feel like I know the 1Ds Mark III fairly well. About five weeks ago we added two Golden Retriever puppies to our family, and chasing them with the 1Ds3 has been a new experience. Normally I do not shoot with Servo focus or continuous frames, but with puppies that has changed. The honeymoon is over with the 1Ds Mark III. No more testing or comparing. There is no going back to medium format. It is time for the 1Ds Mark III to “just work” and do its job. And to do its job, ISO performance and auto focus are key.

ISO PERFORMANCE

DP-Review’s 1Ds Mark III describes ISO performance as about the same as the Canon 1Ds Mark II. I have owned most of the Canon dSLRs - including the Canon 40D and new XSi Rebel. DP-Review published very optimistic numbers for dynamic range and ISO performance for the 40D and XSi. And Luminous-Landscape paints a very rosy picture for the Canon XSi as well. In my experience, I did not see the file quality that those sites led me to expect.

The Canon 1Ds Mark III’s noise is different than the 1Ds Mark II’s. With the 1Ds Mark III’s higher pixel density, naturally the noise has a finer pitch. The noise is more at the pixel level, not in blotches or groups of pixels. In terms of noise levels, I believe the 1Ds3 is a 1-2 stop improvement over the 1Ds2. The 1Ds Mark II did okay at ISO 800, but I seldom shot ISO 800. Whereas with the 1Ds Mark III, ISO 1600 is quite acceptable and I find myself using ISO 1600 more and more.

To process the Canon CR2 files I use Canon’s DPP raw editor software and its built-in noise reduction. On ISO 400 images I like to use 1-2 clicks (on the slider) on the luminance noise and 3-4 clicks on the chrominance noise. For ISO 800 the settings are 1-2 clicks more aggressive and another 1-2 clicks for ISO 1600. With additional noise plug-ins such as NIK’s Dfine noise reduction software, the 1Ds Mark III could probably even go further. But to be honest, I have not felt the need to use 3rd party noise reduction.

CANON 1Ds MARK III AUTO-FOCUS

The 1Ds Mark III auto-focus performance has been a non-issue. In my experience the 1Ds Mark III’s auto-focus performance is as reliable as the 1Ds Mark II’s. My only gripe is not being able to individually select the 45 AF points. The little thumb-stick is a good idea as a controller, but its execution needs improvement. Moving on a diagonal is hit or miss. The controller is placed too far away for use in portrait orientation. I prefer the pad controllers; the Nikon D300’s “pad” was comfortable in use.

The 1D Mark II’s auto-focus has been glorified as a system that could do no wrong. Yet the 1D Mark II series had firmware updates for its auto-focus too, and the photography forums are filled with 1000’s upon 1000’s of posts from owners asking how to get better auto-focus performance. Any auto-focus system could benefit for improved firmware and optimization, so I am sure the 1Ds Mark III’s auto focus could be better. If I shot sport events, then maybe I would feel something was amiss with the 1Ds Mark III’s auto-focus. In my limited Servo focus usage, the Canon 1Ds Mark III’s servo focus has been reliable as the 1Ds Mark II.

To date I have used the Canon 35L, 100-400L IS, 24-105mm F4 L IS and 200mm F2.8 L II with the Canon 1Ds Mark III. Auto-focus has not been perfect on every picture, but auto-focus was not perfect with the 1Ds Mark II either. A Canon 135mm F2 L is on its way - mostly for servo-focus and chasing puppies to and fro. I will revisit servo focus topic later this year. The Canon 1Ds Mark III auto-focus seems fine to me, so we will see what happens and whether or not Canon issues service bulletins for the 1Ds Mark III.

WHAT I WOULD FAULT

My main gripes are the blown highlights - the 1Ds Mark III clips clouds and such too easily. The auto-focus point selection is horrible. Lastly is the rear LCD. The size is good, but it could benefit from added resolution.

The 1Ds Mark III lags behind in features such as auto-ISO. Auto-ISO is very handy and can reduce the button pushing considerably. In Live View a horizon line for leveling the camera would be nice too. And one feature that seems so obvious is GPS coordinates. Even Hasselblad managed GPS...!...