My only complaint so far is that the LCD seems to pick up skin oils more easily than the older cameras and if I don't have microfiber cloth at hand the oils smear around so that eventually I can't see the images.
sadja wrote:
My only complaint so far is that the LCD seems to pick up skin oils more easily than the older cameras and if I don't have microfiber cloth at hand the oils smear around so that eventually I can't see the images.
I can not compare to older 1-series bodies, but I can attest to the fact that the screen gets quite oily. Sometimes I think my shots are oof, even though it's the face grease making them blurry. Though I do shower, often.
My wife took a couple of our Goldens out for some agility training today, so I decided to tag along to do some testing with the 1D Mark IV, and my freshly recalibrated 70-200 f/2.8 IS. I was really pleased with how well the Mark IV's AF tracked the dogs through the weave poles.
rsg_1 wrote:
On this forum and other forums, I've seen nothing but great performance out of the 1DMkIV.
Rob Galbraith's credibility is now shot and will be difficult to redeem.
I haven't seen many, if any photos, in this forum from the IV in situations RG claimed the IV didn't perform well. Also, not many, if any, are posting full sequences where AF inconsistency could be picked out or confirmed not to be an issue.
As a IV owner I have seen some of the issues with my copy that RG touched on... but I think it's also important to keep in mind that RG confirmed that the IV clearly is very good at tracking in situations where the III had a lot of issues - primarily subjects coming directly at the camera. From my experience the IV has better focus consistency in more situations than the III, but it's still not 'perfect'.
rscheffler wrote:
I haven't seen many, if any photos, in this forum from the IV in situations RG claimed the IV didn't perform well. Also, not many, if any, are posting full sequences where AF inconsistency could be picked out or confirmed not to be an issue.
As a IV owner I have seen some of the issues with my copy that RG touched on... but I think it's also important to keep in mind that RG confirmed that the IV clearly is very good at tracking in situations where the III had a lot of issues - primarily subjects coming directly at the camera. From my experience the IV has better focus consistency in more situations than the III, but it's still not 'perfect'....Show more →
A new 1d mk4 owner - finally got to give it a proper go at the weekend....and....I LOVE IT.
I will post some series shots when I get the chance. But my initial thoughts are:
1. Exposures: spot on...read difficult lighting scenarios very well with little or no need to dial in compensation. Consistent across the baord as well.
2. IQ: comparable to the 5D mk2 up to 3200, then blew the 5D mk2 away. Not that I use high ISO much but it is nice to know it is there and useable if I need to
3. AF: This really is quite remarkable. Although I would offer a word of caution. The default settings are fine for landscape and people portraits, but action wise, I found a significant miss rate for high speed subjects (such as small birds). But a few choice minutes adjusting the AF custom options and I was getting all shots from a 7fps burst in focus and sharp. This was shooting at 1600 ISO, back lit, and gernarlly hard to focus conditions. My 5D mk2 just gave up, refused to lock and then proceeded to give me a great shot of a OOF bird :-)
Joking aside, the camera worked well, but only when I had adjusted it. It is a bit like a Formula 1 car compared to a fast road car . I can drive cars very well, high speed and perfomrance cars come second nature to me. But put me in a F1 car and I will look like a rank amateur - the F1 car is a throughbred that needs setting up to suit your driving style, you will even have to adjust your driving style to suit it iin ceratin situations...and boy, you will have to practice to get the best out of it.
The 1d Mk4 is the same. I can jump in but I will probably crash and burn (and I did!!). But given a few setup alterations, and taking the time to get used to the performance and adjust my shooting style to fit the new agressive AF, and bam, I am winning races :-)
More to come ass I get used to this piee of equipment.
Bwhip2 I would love to see some chute images or dogs coming over the top of the Aframe, those are two of the hardest focusing situations. Especially if you can do them in low light. I shoot agility and nearly everything I shoot is inside or undercover. ISO 1600 f2.8 1/400 are my good day settings. I'm definitely wanting to move up from my Mark IIn.
How were the shots just as the dog was coming out of that blue tunnel?
searchnk9 wrote:
Bwhip2 I would love to see some chute images or dogs coming over the top of the Aframe, those are two of the hardest focusing situations. Especially if you can do them in low light. I shoot agility and nearly everything I shoot is inside or undercover. ISO 1600 f2.8 1/400 are my good day settings. I'm definitely wanting to move up from my Mark IIn.
How were the shots just as the dog was coming out of that blue tunnel?
Thanks
The pics of them coming out of the tunnel were tricky for sure, but the AF did a really impressive job. The dog in the first image (Groovy) is absolutely lightning-fast, so there would be nothing, nothing, then instantly a dog FLYING out of the tube. I'd pre-focus on the inside edge of the tube, and then try to follow Groovy (or other dogs) as they darted out, hoping the camera could keep up. The other tricky part (as you know), is that the dog's movements on coming out of the tunnel are rather unpredictable. At least it was with these dogs. They'd come straight out, or dart right or left depending on their next target or what they were chasing.
Being outdoors definitely helped, as I could keep the shutter speed much higher with low ISO. This weekend is the indoor trial for one of our dogs, so I'll be able to test the high ISO capability of the 1D MKIV.
I shot a lot more in the weave poles than exiting the tunnel, but here's one of the sequences at tunnel exit. These have minimal sharpening added in post, and they were shot at 1/1000, f/7.1 and ISO 250/320. I was experimenting with different apertures through the session to see what I could get away with. I'm happy to admit that it was difficult to immediately track the dog when appearing out of the tunnel and keep the center focus point locked on the dog's face as it ran! You can see in the second and third shot, the AF loses the face a bit, and then gets it back in the fourth and fifth.
M006 wrote:
pumaknight, would you post here your updated Custom Functions you found best with your IV? Anything different from these?
These are my default settings for the AF: Those not listed are left at default value of 0:
Cf2: faster +1 for aircraft, slower -1 for birds.
Cf5: 1 – focus search off
Cf7: 2 - adjust by lens
Cf8: 2 - surrounding AF points
Cf16: 1 - select different AF points
Cf18: * - enabled different low //high fps
For the most, they are the same as the link, except for those where the AF is customisable for super telephoto lenses _ I do not have one yet, so not played with these.
I am wrting up a quick review (will post tomorrow with sample photos) showing these settings at work.
Perhaps, differences in technique or in the type of shooting being done yield different results with turning focus search off, but I've experimented with turning it off now on 5 different bodies going back to the 1D Mark II. With every new body since then, I've given turning off focus search a good test with a full day of shooting. With every one of those cameras, including the 1D Mark IV, turning focus search off has resulted in an especially high number of shots that were close to being sharp but that were not quite sharp and that, therefore, ended up getting trashed. My conclusion is that, while I allow for changing a number of the custom functions depending on what I'm shooting, the one that I don't ever consider changing is III 5. For me, focus search stays on all the time.
I wondered if it were different on the Mark IV. On the Mark II when I tried it, it resulted in a number of missed shots because the camera simply declined even to try to focus.
