I own the 1Ds and D30 classic. Pixel quality of the latter is lower than expected because of poor color fidelity. Based on FM postings, the best pixels come from the Nikon D2H (as long as infrared is avoided). As for the 1Ds, I remain faithful. It's a remarkable studio machine even today. Of course, I lust for the 1Ds2 and 1Ds3 at regular intervals, but the old girl has something special:
It's hard to demonstrate this without shooting the same shot with the same lens, but while the 1Ds does a great job, it doesn't make a lens look any better than a 1Ds2 or 1Ds3 will. It can hide lens limitations by capturing less detail (effectively blurring them), but it never produces a better image. So if you want to make good pictures, the 1Ds offers no gains over higher-resolving 135 cameras, whereas if you are a lens performance fetishist who is not interested in the final print, it's a real winner, as you can marvel at how all your lenses resolve enough for your sensor. Of course, a 1Ds3 user can play the same game by using the 5 megapixel sRaw setting. It's incredible how sharp your lenses are with sRaw! Every pixel jumps out from the next! And your lenses perform even better if you downrez your output to 640x480. Inter-pixel contrast is stunning at VGA. A 1Ds3 file taken with a coke bottle lens and downrezzed to 1 megapixel will blow your 1Ds file away (assuming you view them both at 100%).
Here's your scarf crop at 1Ds3 magnification with a bit of high frequency sharpening. The noticeable difference will be that it will lack detail by comparison, and perhaps more importantly, it will have larger scale moire.
There is just no sense in this less is more argument. If we compare a crop from an A5 print to a crop from an A3 print, and favour the A5, we're just fooling ourselves. Leave bad arithmetic to DPR.
Hey, Richard, I agree with you! That the 1Ds does a great job was my sole point. In the near future, I see a 1Ds2 or D700 (two hungry systems to feed). The 1Ds3 is stretching my budget, sadly.
In good light yesterday I set out with the 1dsmk1, Contax 21 2.8, 35-70.
Very careful tripod mirror up ,remote, bracketing in a quiet churchyard where I wouldn`t be disturbed.
I just know this mk1 is the better camera and under these conditions will blow me away It didn`t
At 100% on screen I must have been forgetting that things don`t change at all. I got a few keepers and worked on them but I had to do a small crop on them, then I had to up size them to meet the minimum file size required for stock library stuff. I`m not submitting them because at 100% viewing when they are checked I`m not sure (from previous failures) that they will get through.
So! I will use the 1dsmk1 from time to time but the 1dsmk3 has got to be my camera of choice for stock work. I can overcome the problems of the 1dsmk1 but what I did miss more than anything else was live view manual focussing using my newly aquired 2.5" hoodloupe ( see a previous thread where I sort of reviewed it)
So! I make you right and thanks for explaining it yet again (you must be sick of it)
I`m going to bed tonight with my Mpeg3 player with a recording on it " I must not judge my work at 100%, I must not judge my work at 100%, I must not judge my work..........
It didn`t 
and thanks for explaining it yet again (you must be sick of it)