Interesting tale, Kevin. Thanks for sharing.
A couple of months back, I chanced to meet a nature photographer using
the same beast with a 500mm f/4. He said that dust was a big problem
with this particular camera. Much worse than its predecessor, the D1s.
He actually considered going back for this particular reason.
Btw, the photograper is one of the big guys in Norwegian nature photo,
Jørn Areklett Omre. Before digital, he shot Pentax 645. I *almost*
bought his FA*645 600/4 lens... It was only 1000 USD more than I could
manage... <g>
He's got a fair number of pics in stock agency "Samfoto" here:
http://tinyurl.com/cpezu
And he's pretty darn good if you ask me...
Jostein
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kevin Waterson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 29, 2005 9:35 AM
Subject: Canon 1Ds MarkII Test Drive
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."
