I spent a few hours playing with the latest offering from Canon. On the front of it we put a 70-200mm f2.8 lens and went walking around Sydney. The camera is a 16.7 megapixel full frame shooting 4 fps. ISO from 100-1600 and custom settings will stretch it from ISO 50-3200.
My first impression was, this is an ugly machine. Upon lifting this beast it is immediately obvious that it should not be used without a tripod. The combined weight of the lens + camera made this something you dont want to carry for too long or too far. If you are hiking, a monopod and/or neck strap are a must. I must admit I was a more than a little lost on the control interface. My first instinct was for my index finger to turn it on like an *istD but there is no switch there. 10 mins of tuition had me comfortable with the basics and away we went again. This machine takes SD or CF cards but the 'hatch' to access them is not something that would be easy in low/no light, although the camera does have a built in light for the task but I was unable to find it. My interest was the ability to plug the camera directly to a pc/laptop and have the files saved directly to the hard disk. This can be done via USB (1.1) or a wireless connection. Does it get any better than that? I was told the LCD screen was large and bright and this may be the case in the dark but it was daylight and it was difficult to see. Even when venturing into a low light situation it was not great, the *istD has it trumped in this area. File sizes when shooting in RAW are at about 13-15 megs, but of course you can reduce this with several jpg file qualities to choose from. The firmware also has an auto-rotate feature for images. This could be quite useful for folks like myself where every moment saved in front of the computer is money saved. What I was again looking for is the auto-focus mechanism. Fast. Several metering options are available with a gazillion variations, my primary interest was with the camera set to ISO 800 f2.8 and to whatever shutter speed manually set to 250. The focus was sharp and fast. In low light the performance was excellent, not once did I experience any hunting. It hit the mark 100% of the time. I really only have the Hasselblad H1 to compare this to and when it comes down to bang for bucks, this one really has everybody in second place. I guess with the only 16mp full frame 35mm sensor on the market they can charge what they like for them. The camera with 70-200mm f2.8 lens swings in at about AUD $15,000.00 but compared to the Hasselblad at about AUD $40,000.00 it really offers alot of bang for you bucks. Even though the blad is a MF camera, this really does compete and will certainly be at the forefront of alot of photographers shopping lists. I can see journo's and wedding photographers looking for this en-masse. If pentax is considering joining the MF Digital market then I think they really need to be looking at starting their sensor size at least better than the oppositions 35mm offering. I am still holding in there with pentax to early in the new year. Kind regards Kevin -- "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote."
