melkor

I've just bought my unit, 2nd hand off EBay for AU $4100. I'm stoked with this new camera. I've upgraded from an original 1D and D60. Areas of improvement are:

*AF is slightly faster than my 1D. Accuracy seems about the same as the original 1D.
*Exposure seems more accurate than either the 1D or D60
*WB seems more accurate than either the 1D or D60
*Massive 2.5" LCD screen is fantastic! Love it. Good angle of coverage, not too bad in sunlight, plenty of detail and information at hand.
*LCD screen magnifier - fantastic. Much better than the D60's imho, and of course, the original 1D didn't have one (major oversight on Canon's part if you ask me). My main area of photography is Insect & Arachnid macro photography, so checking focus is sharp is important to me, preferably in the field.
*Dual memory card slots - excellent idea, and well implemented. The Mark IIn also supports fat32 file systems, so it can take cards over 2gb, which the 1D cannot (at least not without some good 'ole DOS trickery).
*8mp file size - much better than the original 1D's 4mp, which hampered cropping.
*High ISO noise performance - amazing! I've found that my D60 is noisier than the 1D unit - ISO 400 on the D60 is about the same as ISO 800 on the 1D from my experience. With the Mark IIn, ISO 1600 is the same as ISO 800 on the original 1D, in some cases I feel ISO 400. It's THAT good. I don't know what people are whinging about when they mention noise and the Mark IIn in all honesty...some of these people need to go out and shoot high ISO film to see what it's like, then they might stop griping.
*Much improved battery performance - the original 1D is a dog when it comes to battery performance, averaging 130 shots per charge - something which Canon Australia have confirmed for me. The Mark IIn is way ahead by all accounts.

As an overall package, the Mark IIn is a HUGE improvement in all areas over the original 1D. Sure, it's an incremental improvement over the Mark II, but I'm writing this review in mind of upgrading from the original 1D or an older Canon prosumer DSLR.

Some of you will talk about the new Mark III, and yes, I believe it's a fine camera, sadly, it was out of my price league. The Mark IIn has a fine reputation with AF and tracking, the Mark III by all accounts has a very dubious reputation in this respect, so maybe it's a good idea that I got a Mark IIn instead Wink

Dave