Full
frame is addictive but has its bad side:
Let's just be honest, we've had to learn to live with
the limitations of shooting digital with lenses designed
for 35mm film. The main restriction is smaller digital
sensors which in turn, create the need for multipliers
in order to calculate focal length. This reason alone
has created many headaches, and prevented some professional
film photographers from taking the plunge, and going digital.
With
the advent of the new 1Ds CMOS full frame sensor, which
is identical in size to 35mm film, this limitation is
finally eliminated. Photographers now have the ability
to shoot as wide as 14mm with a digital body. Wide-angle
lenses are living up to their name and are now truly wide
again. With this new camera you can take full advantage
of lenses carefully designed for 35mm film. Here is a
look at how Canon digital bodies have evolved. (Illustration
by John Ray)
Unfortunately, the ability to capture information from
center to corner comes at a price. There are a few side
effects to contend with. First and foremost, glass quality
is now a major factor. You'll have to invest in the best
lenses to use with this camera because optical quality
difference between consumer and L lenses is more noticeable
than ever before (in digital). In the super wide-angle
range, current lens designs struggle with the 1Ds capability
to record very high detail and use of full range including
corners. Lateral chromatic aberration can be seen in most
wide angle lenses including the best L lenses available.
(Samples
of these
aberrations can be found by clicking on the 100% crop
links under any photo on this page.)
I
tested the 1Ds with the 14mm f/2.8L, 24mm f/1.4L and 16-35mm
f/2.8L wide-angle lenses and was very surprised by the degree
of lateral chromatic aberration revealed. It was not noticeable
on the camera LCD while using the new 100% magnification
option in the field. However, as soon as I transferred the
images and saw them on my monitor, it was obvious. The flaw
was apparent right away, and my heart sunk. I had never
seen anything like it, and it was the last thing I expected
to have to deal with after avoiding scorpions to get my
shot in the dunes 
.
I can't even tell you how disappointed I was, when the aberration
also showed up on the prints I made with an Epson 2200P.
Others
have speculated that the new 1Ds is somehow creating these
aberrations. But, let's be fair. Wide-angle lenses have
this limitation. These aberrations are nothing new. They
can be seen on film, 1D or even D30, and D60 files. The
1Ds probably reveals this side-effect because this camera
has the unique ability to capture such a high level of
detail within the full frame.
As
you can see from the example above, shooting full frame
at 14mm is fun. I got to meet some cool biker guys and
although they may look scary, they were actually really
nice and didn't rob me after all. But lets get back on
track here, click on the "unsharpened 100% crop"
link right below the image and pay attention to the faces
and the edges on the crop sample to see these aberrations.
Up until this point, all of the examples I have shown
were taken with the 14mm f/2.8L.
However, the same aberrations still pop up even with the
best wide-angle lenses that Canon produces, including
the 24mm f/1.4L. It
performed a tad bit better than the 14mm since the lateral
chromatic aberrations were only apparent in high contrast
images. Here
is a crop from a full-size image taken at high noon
with the 24mm f/1.4L.
Don't despair, there is a brighter side to this. Here's
the difference, below is an image that was shot with the
same lens. However, this image was lower in contrast and
taken at sunset with favorable lighting. In this case,
the aberration seems to be gone, and not noticeable in
the image at all.
