Well, there is a slight overexposure with my 1Ds2 when lenses are stopped down beyond 5.6 or 8, but it doesn't bother me as it helps me expose to the right
OTOH, my old 5D overexposed by as much as 2 stops at around f/8.
I have had the same experience with the 5D and 40D. I expected this to be focus-confirmation adapter issue only, so the Cameraquest one caught me off guard.
With the 1Ds2 and 1Ds3 this have been a non-issue with ALL metering modes. Richard, knowing you would ask about metering - I went through all metering modes on the 450D yesterday and the results were the same.
I've found that all fast lenses - even Canon AF lenses - need around 1/3 to +1 EC when shot wide open. I suspect the light fall off tricks the metering into see more grayness, thus leads to slight under-exposure. This has been consistent every lens on the 1Ds2 and 1Ds3, so if shooting wide open I boost the EC around 1 stop.
When stopped down I've no categorical errors with the manual lenses on the 1Ds2 or 1Ds3. At F8 they're idiot proof. There might be some over or under, but that's usually scene specific. That's normal with Canon lenses too. Heck, that's just "normal".
This issue with 450D isn't too upsetting because they view is small and I can't even see focus with a 35L. The viewscreen lacks the optical resolution. I suppose lenses in the 50mm+ range would be workable, but for wides, it's zone focusing at best for these eyes.
Image quality does look good. The files are okay in post, but they don't stand up to as much levels abuse as the 1Ds3 files. There's some banding in the shadow errors. It's buried very, very deeply, so I don't it would ever be visible except in the most extreme edits.
The dark areas had their levels boosted from 0,1,255 to ~ 0,1,180 2x. That fairly aggressive. Of course, mid-tones and then smashed back down which reburies some of the noise. I could see some horizontal banding there. Definitely not an issue at ISO 100, but I suspect well see people complaining about horizontal lines at ISO 800 and ISO 1600 - especially when pushed in post.
When looking at 100% crops the files do look very good. The above picture was shot almost that tight, so that was incredible amount of pixels on a tiny, tiny area. I may have been tricked by the magnification. Either way, the file quickly and detail looked very good.
It's tough choice, but I'll probably go with a 40D instead. The XTi is too much button pushing for my taste. I think the image quality may be better than a 40D, so giving that up for better ergo's is a tough call. I don't really like thumb-stick on the 1Ds3, but I guess I use ALOT more than a thought because my thumb keeps feeling for one on the XTi. And I'm too old-school to give up the top LCD screen.
Live view didn't work with strobes. For some reason the hot shoe wasn't triggering. Turned off live view and it worked fine. Also, with the trigger in the shoe, the live view screen was almost black. Slide trigger out, all is good again...?... There's probably something in the manual about it. RTFM, I know.
And live view auto-focus - think 85L in really, really bad light. Canon needs a couple generations to get that functionality optimized.
