skibum5 Offline Upload & Sell: Off
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uz2work wrote:
I'll start with an observation. For 3-4 years, the echo chamber that most forums, including this one, generally are seemed to relish constantly bashing the 1D Mark III. Now, a few years later, the 1D Mark III seems to have become a classic camera that is capable of getting great shots in any situation. As someone who enjoyed shooting a 1D Mark III for 2 1/2 years, I thought it was a fantastic camera then, and I think it is still an excellent camera now.
That said, I'll buck the trend of the posts in this thread so far. For a period of time, I simultaneously owned and used a 1D Mark III and a 7D. When I bought my 1D Mark IV, I sold the 1D Mark III and kept the 7D. My decision and my satisfaction with that decision is not meant to invalidate the logic of those who made the opposite decision. Instead, I think that a preference for one of these cameras over the other can depend significantly on the intended uses of the camera.
As a wildlife shooter, I took pictures with the 1D Mark III that required moderate cropping, and I made 11x17 prints from those cropped 1D Mark III files. At the time, I thought that those prints looked very good; however, when I compare them to similar sized prints made from my 7D files, there is no comparison, and the 7D prints show significantly more detail that is easily seen with only a very casual comparison. Cropping a 1D Mark III file down to the same field of view as that of an uncropped 7D file leaves you with only about 6-7 megapixels. Even if individual 1D Mark III pixels are of a higher quality than individual 7D pixels, I'll take, without question, 18 million 7D pixels over 6 or 7 million 1D Mark III pixels. If my shooting didn't often require cropping or if I wasn't interested in printing at larger sizes or if my only interest was web viewing, I could find good reason for preferring the 1D Mark III over the 7D, but, with an interest in being able to print at moderately large sizes and often with a need for cropping, the 7D performs noticeably better for me.
With regard to noise and high ISO performance, the 1D Mark III may well be better at the pixel level, but, at the image level, which is the only comparison that is of any importance to me, picking the camera that does better with noise is pretty much of a toss up. I process my 7D files in an identical manner to the way that I processed my 1D Mark III files, which is also the same way that I process my 1D Mark IV files, and I don't see the files from any of these cameras requiring me to do anything special in the way of processing.
With regard to AF, the 1D Mark III may well have a marginally more capable AF system. My judgment would be that my 1D Mark IV has a better AF system than either the 1D Mark III or the 7D and that the 1D Mark III and 7D both have AF systems that are better than that of the 1D Mark II that I once owned. Yet, my in-focus keeper rate while shooting action with any of those 4 cameras has been virtually identical. That is because, I think, whatever relatively minor differences in the AF capabilities that might exist are so much of a less important factor in determining whether I get my shots than is the technique that I bring to the table. With any of these cameras, when I've done my job properly, I've gotten the shots, and, when I haven't done my part, I haven't gotten them. I cannot recall a single instance where I can honestly attribute shortcomings in the AF capabilities of any of these cameras as being the reason why I failed to get my shots.
Finally, my guess would be that anyone who makes a decision to choose either one of these cameras over the other is likely to be pleased with that choice because it would appear that a part of human nature and forum postings is such that we all find ways to rationalize why the equipment choices we have made are the "right" ones, and that is likely the primary reason why we frequently see people saying in their posts "I sold my x camera body and bought y camera body. And I haven't looked back because it was the best decision I've ever made".
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