Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

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Archive 2010 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

Jman13
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p.2 #1 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

I had a 1D II for a short while and bought the 1Ds II right after. There might have been one occasion where I wanted the 8.5 fps back, other than that, the 1Ds II smokes it. Amazing image quality, incredible dynamic range, wonderful noise handling (though likely not as good at the pixel level as the 1D III, but I'd bet pretty close for a print). It just makes beautiful images. I think, all things considered (time of release, etc), it's Canon's finest SLR. Sure, the more modern SLRs like the 1Ds III and 5D II offer better resolution, dynamic range and noise control, but very incremental, IMO, and the 1Ds II still easily holds its own among any of the newcomers, which is amazing for a 6 year old DSLR.

Feb 09, 2010 at 11:38 AM

PetKal
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p.2 #2 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

1DsII is a great camera with a small LCD.

However, if you need a fast action camera, 1DsII is not it. Neither the frame rate nor burst depth is there.

Feb 09, 2010 at 12:28 PM

PaulB
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p.2 #3 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

PetKal wrote:
1DsII is a great camera with a small LCD.

However, if you need a fast action camera, 1DsII is not it. Neither the frame rate nor burst depth is there.

OP already has a 1DMkII.

Feb 09, 2010 at 03:06 PM

OntheRez
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p.2 #4 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

As lideson noted earlier "Otherwise 1Ds Mark II is the best camera Canon ever manufactured so far". I believe this sentiment is widely held. I doubt that this will ever be said about the 1DIII

I certainly agree with it. I have been shooting a 1DII and a 1DsII until recently when the 1DII went on a "5-finger vacation." Sigh.

Anyway, the advantages of using the same batteries and gear and already knowing how to use the 1DsII have been mentioned. The 1DIII beats the 1DsII in shot buffer, ISO, and a more refined user interface. I can't image that anyone will claim that its IQ can touch that of the 1DsII. The images I get out of mine are often just amazing and allow for significant manipulation when necessary.

Finally, I regularly shoot sports with my 1DsII. I have, on occasion, gotten 6 fast shots but it does take awhile for the buffer to clear. I very rarely feel the need to just machine gun away. Admittedly most of my work is pro bono for middle school programs, but the 1DsII does an excellent job.

Bluntly, buy the 1DsII. You will not be disappointed.

Robert

Feb 09, 2010 at 03:24 PM

Jeff
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p.2 #5 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

schristie11 wrote:
I need help choosing which camera body will for my needs best. I have now a 1D II and love its speed and image quality.

I used to use a 5D and it was toooooo slow for me, shutter lag and AF lag was my main complaint, IQ was worse than my 1D II too, even though 5D had larger sensor and better high iso. However, I want some slightly larger resolution photos for enlargements and for viewing on large LCD screens.

I can understand complaining about AF speed, but shutter lag and image quality? The shutter lag should be *virtually* the same as any other camera out there; I doubt most people could tell much of a difference. I've heard few people complain about the image quality of the 5D, especially compared to a 1D MkII. Perhaps your 5D had a problem?

I'm offering customers a CD with slideshows they can view HD like photos on their large screen TV's. I know the 1Ds II has a much larger sensor and therefore larger images than my 1D II. I think I might be very happy with a 1Ds II but have never used one.

I'm sure you'd be very happy with a 1Ds MkII. However, that being said, the increased resolution of the 1DsII won't be significantly better for your purposes as stated above, unless you tend to crop heavily. Most 6MP DSLRs would be fine for an HD slide show, assuming of course you had the ability to produce one (it currently isn't very simple to produce a 1920x1080 slideshow that most people can view on their HD TVs).

However, I do shoot some action photography and wonder if I will miss the 8.5FPS. In fact I’d love to have even more 10fps like the 1D III has. I don’t shoot a LOT of sports with the shutter held down though; I’m usually using single shots. The response time of the 1D II is so fast I can usually tap the shutter and get the image on the first try. It is hard for me to decide to let go of high FPS speed.

If you are mostly using "single shots", then the 10 FPS vs. 8.5 FPS shouldn't matter in the least; I can tell you from experience that the difference is minimal. In fact, a 7D would suit your purposes, as its AF is adequate, and it is higher resolution than the 1D MkII you currently have.

The files it saves are larger though, 8mb vs 12mb. How does this translate, if at all, to a larger image?

It doesn't, necessarily. The larger file of the 1D MkIII is also due to the 14-bit files (I believe), in addition to the modest increase in resolution.

I personally would not want to be without a backup camera, and your 1D MkII is a great body for the sports you shoot. Why replace it? Although the 1Ds MkII is admittedly a great camera, do you really need (or even want?) two 1-Series bodies? I find it convenient to have one smaller body for dragging around when I don't need a pro-grade camera, and it seems to me that adding a 7D to what you've got fits your needs on several levels, and probably saves you a few bucks (unless you have to sell the 1DII to finance something else).

Feb 09, 2010 at 04:21 PM

Ralph Thompson
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p.2 #6 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

What glasss are you shooting with? If you're shooting wide angle stuff, the FF of the 1DS2 is wonderful. (I shoot all three bodies, 1d2;1ds2& Ihave 2 1d3's). Using a 1d2 and a 1ds2 makes a lot of sense. Same menus, batteries etc.... If you need frame rate go 1d2. Using long fast glass on a 1ds2 is awsome!!!! I absolutely love shooting my 1ds2 w/ a 400 2.8!

Here's another little nugget... I was told that the 1ds2 and the 1d3 have the same pixel density. How that would effect you...who knows..... I do love my 1d3's I like the LCD, I like the images etc....

For what it sounds like you're doing I thing the 1d2/1ds2 would fit the bill...

IMO

Ralph

Feb 09, 2010 at 09:36 PM

schristie11
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p.2 #7 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

Thanks for all the input everyone.
I'm still on the fence about this.

I did find a very helpful canon whitepaper describing all the specific differences of these cameras.

EOS-1DMKIIIwp.pdf

EOS-1Ds_MarkIII_WP.pdf

Feb 11, 2010 at 05:06 AM

schristie11
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p.2 #8 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

I decided to get a 1D III for now, since I do want better IQ, which it has, and I want 10 FPS for occasional action shots. I also don’t want to buy "old" technology if I can help it. The Price of the 1Ds III will likely drop to around $2500 in the next year. Then I can get it also, and then have all III model chargers batteries focus screens and other accessories. Also the buttons and settings work the same, and much improved over 1D II.

I was really surprised how much better the 1D III looks compared to my old 1D II N. I'm blown away at the difference in IQ. It was definitely with $500 bucks to upgrade. lol

I rented a 7D and hated it, the IQ was miserable, and the low light performance was disappointing. If I resize images to only 4x6 print size, the 7D was great IQ. But 8x10 was not often usable. I suppose asking a $1500 camera to compete at the IQ level of a $4000 camera is not fair, but with price drops of the 1D III, it is the 7D competition now.

Feb 13, 2010 at 08:55 PM

gcrimmins
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p.2 #9 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

To me, the difference between 8 and 10 MP isn't enough to justify an upgrade to the 1D mk III, if image resolution is your primary concern. I've never used any of the 1Ds cameras. The 1D mk III produces nicer images than the Mk II, and is a very fast, responsive camera. It does have it's quirks though. After three trips to CPS repair, mine finally works great as long as I shoot RAW. The color balance on the jpegs tends to be all over the place, and I usually have use the color-balance microadjust if I want the jpegs to be usable. While there's much to like about the Mk III, it requires a lot more fussing than the Mk II or original 1D.

Feb 13, 2010 at 09:17 PM

rscheffler
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p.2 #10 · Help choosing 1Ds II or 1D III

schristie11 wrote:
I decided to get a 1D III for now, since I do want better IQ, which it has, and I want 10 FPS for occasional action shots. I also don’t want to buy "old" technology if I can help it. The Price of the 1Ds III will likely drop to around $2500 in the next year. Then I can get it also, and then have all III model chargers batteries focus screens and other accessories. Also the buttons and settings work the same, and much improved over 1D II.

I was really surprised how much better the 1D III looks compared to my old 1D II N. I'm blown away at the difference in IQ. It was definitely with $500 bucks to upgrade. lol

I rented a 7D and hated it, the IQ was miserable, and the low light performance was disappointing. If I resize images to only 4x6 print size, the 7D was great IQ. But 8x10 was not often usable. I suppose asking a $1500 camera to compete at the IQ level of a $4000 camera is not fair, but with price drops of the 1D III, it is the 7D competition now.

That's an interesting observation about the 7D. I don't have one, but recently got a IV and have noticed that the added resolution (compared to the III I was coming from) is both a benefit and liability. And I expect that 18MP packed into an APS-C sensor will be even more so. The benefit is high resolution but the tradeoff is relatively poor technique is no longer masked by relatively low resolution. The camera will show focus inaccuracies, camera shake, subject motion blur, etc.., something that would have been somewhat masked in an 8MP camera.

lidesun wrote:
Any cameras you mentioned are good enough for produced images for the purpose of showing on so called large LCD screen only.....

And if you need the 10 FPS frame rate and high ISO performance, 1D Mark III is your choice.

Otherwise 1Ds Mark II is the best camera Canon ever manufactured so far, reliable, great IQ, better handling and responding etc., and it's cheap for an used one...

Haven't there been a lot of user complaints of 1DsII prematurely blown shutters?

Ron

Feb 13, 2010 at 10:14 PM

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