I finally had a play with the 1DS MkIII this afternoon, i've been in bed for the last week suffering from the adult version of Chickenpox, which is by far the worse thing i've EVER been inflicted with. And as a result its been around 5 days until i've even had the strength to get it out of the box..
Spent an hour staggering around the garden with the 300mm F2.8 and a 1.4x trying to nail butterflies before they all die/go away for the winter.
Camera settings - faithful, no sharpening or other stuff
Adjusted in Aperture, +0.3 contrast, +0.2 Vibrancy. No crop, No noise reduction, sharpened slightly after resize, (150/0.2/0) (resizing kills sharpness)
The resolving power and resolution of this thing is insane. I took some shots of textured objects like bricks with the normal 1D MkIII, the images are great and there is stacks of detail. However if I take the same image with the 1DS, it reveals another realm of detail that simply didn't exist in the 1D MkIII image. Its definitely in the realm of medium format when it comes to detail, not just because of the file size but the resolving power.
The files are also gigantic, the tiff from the butterfly picture is 120MB exported straight from Aperture, compared to around 60Mb on the 1D MkIII. I guess this is obvious as its twice as many megapixels.
The great thing is that I can crop an image and its still bigger than the full frame standard 1D MkIII image, but with lots more pixels and detail!
The files are also a lot different than any others i've seen. I expected them to be pretty much the same as what i'm used to but they're not.
They're really warm and vibrant, the first couple of shots I took reminded me of looking at slides of Velvia and Kodachrome, although i've not had a chance to go out and use it properly yet, I know the files are going to look very nice, especially with the deer in 5-7am light
There is a tiny bit more noise present in the images than on the standard 1D MkIII, I did expect this but the difference is almost unnoticeable, I doubt anyone would know unless they'd owned both cameras and shot with one or the other for over a year like I have. I don't generally go over ISO800 anyway so its not an issue for me.
Also due to the size of the files, detail, resolution and general IQ, they can withstand a lot of PP before they fall to bits.
Cosmetically it looks like exactly the same camera as the 1D MkIII, the only exception is the gold writing on the front, and it weighs considerably more. I imagine this is due to the larger pentaprism and mirror assembly.
The viewfinder is absolutely gigantic, it seems far bigger than a 5D's viewfinder. My only criticism is that it appears to have the same focusing screen as the MkIII, which means the focus points are bunched up in the middle, a little too much for the viewfinder. Sometimes I enjoy using extreme left/right focus points. I'd prefer them to be spread out a little more.
You also have to be a little more precise, as the pixels are so small compared to the MkIII, any misfocus or dof issues show up 10x more, I really had to concentrate shooting a long lens (420mm) handheld, to get sharp shots with the 1DS, much more so than the normal 1D.
People may ask why I bought this camera, my reasons are:
1.> I wanted a newer full frame body with auto focus to match my MkIII
2.> The warmth and Vibrance in the images are brilliant. The megapixels and detail didn't make as much as an impression as the overall look of the image did. Brutus Ostling's owl shots blew me away when I signed up to his monthly newsletter.
3.> I want to make the most out of my lenses, and get the shots in safaris this winter. (Canada/Norway/etc) Which will be gigantic files, fit for exhibition printing to A2 and larger sizes.
4.> I paid of a shedload of debt off last month, so I felt like treating myself with overtime dosh
And I got it for a very good price.
I'm not going to go mad doing comparisons between each and every camera I have, at different ISOs/lenses as that sort of stuff bores the hell out of me, detail wise it totally destroys the 1D MkIII. Whilst the 1DS's noise is *slightly* worse, its still very good. The colour processing, and tone of the overall file more than makes up for this.
Its also great to use it with lenses which were designed for full frame bodies.
Really looking forward to putting this thing through its paces, and having some extra large prints done up, the deer will be rutting soon and hopefully the light will improve. I just hope I can get enough strength back to haul the 600mm F4 IS over my shoulder again, and set my alarm for 4:15am!
Spent an hour staggering around the garden with the 300mm F2.8 and a 1.4x trying to nail butterflies before they all die/go away for the winter.
Camera settings - faithful, no sharpening or other stuff
Adjusted in Aperture, +0.3 contrast, +0.2 Vibrancy. No crop, No noise reduction, sharpened slightly after resize, (150/0.2/0) (resizing kills sharpness)
The resolving power and resolution of this thing is insane. I took some shots of textured objects like bricks with the normal 1D MkIII, the images are great and there is stacks of detail. However if I take the same image with the 1DS, it reveals another realm of detail that simply didn't exist in the 1D MkIII image. Its definitely in the realm of medium format when it comes to detail, not just because of the file size but the resolving power.
The files are also gigantic, the tiff from the butterfly picture is 120MB exported straight from Aperture, compared to around 60Mb on the 1D MkIII. I guess this is obvious as its twice as many megapixels.
The great thing is that I can crop an image and its still bigger than the full frame standard 1D MkIII image, but with lots more pixels and detail!
The files are also a lot different than any others i've seen. I expected them to be pretty much the same as what i'm used to but they're not.
They're really warm and vibrant, the first couple of shots I took reminded me of looking at slides of Velvia and Kodachrome, although i've not had a chance to go out and use it properly yet, I know the files are going to look very nice, especially with the deer in 5-7am light
There is a tiny bit more noise present in the images than on the standard 1D MkIII, I did expect this but the difference is almost unnoticeable, I doubt anyone would know unless they'd owned both cameras and shot with one or the other for over a year like I have. I don't generally go over ISO800 anyway so its not an issue for me.
Also due to the size of the files, detail, resolution and general IQ, they can withstand a lot of PP before they fall to bits.
Cosmetically it looks like exactly the same camera as the 1D MkIII, the only exception is the gold writing on the front, and it weighs considerably more. I imagine this is due to the larger pentaprism and mirror assembly.
The viewfinder is absolutely gigantic, it seems far bigger than a 5D's viewfinder. My only criticism is that it appears to have the same focusing screen as the MkIII, which means the focus points are bunched up in the middle, a little too much for the viewfinder. Sometimes I enjoy using extreme left/right focus points. I'd prefer them to be spread out a little more.
You also have to be a little more precise, as the pixels are so small compared to the MkIII, any misfocus or dof issues show up 10x more, I really had to concentrate shooting a long lens (420mm) handheld, to get sharp shots with the 1DS, much more so than the normal 1D.
People may ask why I bought this camera, my reasons are:
1.> I wanted a newer full frame body with auto focus to match my MkIII
2.> The warmth and Vibrance in the images are brilliant. The megapixels and detail didn't make as much as an impression as the overall look of the image did. Brutus Ostling's owl shots blew me away when I signed up to his monthly newsletter.
3.> I want to make the most out of my lenses, and get the shots in safaris this winter. (Canada/Norway/etc) Which will be gigantic files, fit for exhibition printing to A2 and larger sizes.
4.> I paid of a shedload of debt off last month, so I felt like treating myself with overtime dosh
And I got it for a very good price.I'm not going to go mad doing comparisons between each and every camera I have, at different ISOs/lenses as that sort of stuff bores the hell out of me, detail wise it totally destroys the 1D MkIII. Whilst the 1DS's noise is *slightly* worse, its still very good. The colour processing, and tone of the overall file more than makes up for this.
Its also great to use it with lenses which were designed for full frame bodies.
Really looking forward to putting this thing through its paces, and having some extra large prints done up, the deer will be rutting soon and hopefully the light will improve. I just hope I can get enough strength back to haul the 600mm F4 IS over my shoulder again, and set my alarm for 4:15am!
