Цифровой Фотоаппарат Canon EOS 1D X — 150 отзывов, плюсы и минусы

Сейчас покупать её смысла не вижу, она устарела технологически ещё до выхода. Кому важен бюджет, тот сможет спокойно реализовывать свои проекты на более старых и дешевых камерах под EF, в том числе видеокамерах, а кому нужен топовый сегмент и последние достижения-тем стоит подождать полноценного RF флагмана от кенона, который раскроет всё качество новой RF оптики+ будет наверное со стабизизатором матрицы.

Для видео сейчас есть самые свежие Canon C70, для фото Canon EOS R5, Canon EOS R6, которые предлагают передовой автофокус и куда более компактный корпус/меньший вес при сопоставимых возможностях.

Резюме: Кенон по-прежнему лидер, но как было с EOS R стоит сразу подождать беззеркальный флагман, чтобы не покупать 2 раза.

Камера своё отжила. брать для фотографии сейчас-бред, надо что-то полнокадровое-смотрите 5D или 5D mark...

Ждем прорывов в области фото.Вот куда теперь деть весь парк оптики?Прикинул потратил на стекло больше 1мл руб

громкий затвор, дело привычки, но иногда он мешает, пугает зверьё и тп.. хотя есть даже ценители подобных "пулемётов". треть примеров в альбоме с этой единички http://vk.com/tamgdefotki?z=album80779689_122706741

ПЗС-CCD Зеркалка по цветам хороша,цвета не рвуться практически вообще,но детализация мала всего 4,1 м.п.

Время движется вперёд, но от этого эта камера ни чуть не теряет. Просто потрясающая цветопередача ПЗС матрицы, также более широкий динамический диапазон нежели у КМОП, позволяет добиваться просто шикарных снимков. Металлический корпус и полная пылевлагозащита позволяет использовать эту камеру в самых зверских условиях. Высокая скорость серии для меня скорее полезный плюсик, ибо использую я её редко. Эргономика немного непривычна, но после недели "общения" все комбинации легко нажимаются в слепую. Большое количество...

ПЗС-CCD Зеркалка по цветам хороша,цвета не рвуться практически вообще,но детализация мала всего 4,1 м.п.

Ещё бы не рекомендовать!Стоимость его всего 148 000 :-))))

Покупайте с ней линзы Canon L класса и все будет хорошо,:)) да и наручный ремень, так будет удобней. B&W хороший фильтр.

Best camera I have ever owned. I was somewhat worried about purchasing this model camera after reading about the initial problems Canon was having. By the time I bought mine the problems had been corrected and my camera never had or is having any focusing problems. In fact it appears to take better or higher quality photos the more I use it. It has been a dream to use and I very seldom expand a photo beyond 11 x 17 so the 10.1Mp works great for me. The crop factor of 1.3 is only visible below 20mm so I use this camera with a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8 lens without any vignetting. If I need to use a lens specifically for a crop body camera then I use my Canon EOS 7D. Before buying this camera my go to body was a Canon EOS Rebel XTi. I used it for 7 years without having any problems so I expect at the very least that much service time with the Canon EOS 1D Mark III. There was a big learning curve I had to overcome when moving from the Rebel XTi to the 1D Mark III but over time I have learned and my photography has improved in a major way. For me I will perfect my skills using the Canon 1D Mark III and the remaining lenses I own for the duration of this experiment.

I want to give this camera 5 stars I really do but I use and love it to much to be anything but honest.

I have used this camera for everything and have never felt like I needed something else. Coming from a 7d, 60d, and a sl1. This camera excels even past these semi-modern day cameras. I mainly shoot in low light and would chose this camera short of everything but full frame!

However after using a newer 6d I have a new love and to compare this to a 6d would be a disservice. This camera is like the older more experienced brother who is set in his ways. The 6d is like the younger brother with fresh new tools ready to take on the world.

If you are looking for a cheap camera even for a beginner I would HIGHLY recommend this camera.

This works perfectly for my Canon T4i. I'd actually forgotten that they were aftermarket pieces and not original Canon! I purchased my camera from a resell store, and it has been transported with the lens attached--I knew that wasn't very safe, and I'm happy now. This "completes" my purchase!

I had a difficult choice between 1D mark iii and 7D. Both are very good camera. But finally I chose 1D instead, even though it was old camera back to 2007 but it was the flagship at that time, by the way it is EOS-1D !!!!!. I like this camera, 10Mp is enough for me, focus speed is fast, well build quality. Nice~~~

The lcd display is atrocius. I'm going it one star due to the fact that it came without a battery or charger so in all essence it's a great camera. Just not the display.

Good caps. If the lens cap was a bit more snug on my Canon 5D Mark II, I would have given it 5 stars.

Start with the good.

The lens cap fits great!

The bad...

The body cap fits terribly and I purchased this item mainly to use the body cap (t4i) because of this I don't recommend this particular item.

I looooooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeee my camera so much! There is still so much to learn about it (I am a beginner) but I am really enjoying it right now.

always good to have these around. i have the rebel dos t3i and these worked perfectly. get them anyways, your bound to misplace some.

The lens caps fit my camera and lens perfectly! Delivered promptly! I would do business with this seller again!

Why anyone would buy expensive caps when they can just buy these is beyond me. These work perfectly fine. I'm probably going to get more.

This is my first professional DSLR after upgrading from a good old Rebel XT. Needless to say it is a huge difference. I'm a photography student and I'm also a freelance photographer at nightclubs during weekends. This camera is amazing as you could expect from any EOS 1D. For my purposes 10 MP is more than enough as most of my pictures get downsized for Facebook but if I want to print, I can go as high as 11x14" with no loss of quality.

I will not waste your time restating what others have already said. I will just quickly tell you what the pros and cons according to my shooting style and needs (yours could be different):

PROS:
1) Amazing image quality.
2) Solid build and weather resistant.
3) Programmable ranges for aperture and shutter speed. I love how you can set it, for example, to never use a shutter speed slower than 1/8s or never use an aperture smaller than f8.
4) Crop factor of 1.3X which is great for sport photographers who don't want to carry heavier lenses.
5) Very usable 3200 ISO for existing light events.
6) Silent mode. Great for shooting at wedding ceremonies.
7) No discernible vignetting due to its crop factor.
8) Records in CF and SD cards simultaneously. It's always good to know you have a back up.

CONS:
1) Heavy after carrying it around for 2 hours even with a shoulder strap.
2) 1.3X crop factor makes it difficult to get group shots in a nightclub unless you use a 20mm lens or smaller.
3) Although excellent for normal lighting conditions or a studio, the extended 6400 ISO is not as good as I need it to be for nightclub photography.

I highly recommend this camera for mostly any type of photography. I love this camera but, like I said, my needs could be different than yours and I'll probably upgrade to a lighter body with a full-frame sensor suitable for higher ISO settings. Other than that, I have lots of happy clients thanks to the high quality photographs produced by this camera.

I used 2 of these body caps last week, and both fell off the camera bodies either in transit in the case or upon taking the cameras out of the case. It takes almost no effort to twist them off. The rear lens caps seem fine.

I am so happy with this item It is difficult to describe. Package arrived a day early via Fed Ex. Comdition was even better than described by seller. First couple of tests have yielded results that I am overjoyed with. Wish I had purchased this sooner.

It is never bad to have extra lens caps or body caps laying around. Better to have more in case you lose them and you need it right away. They fit perfectly on my camera

I needed a replacement set of caps for a Canon T4i - these fit perfectly. I would definitely buy again, in fact at this price I may get another set to have a backup for my other Canon DSLR. Per the packaging, Vivitar's technical support can be reached at 800-592-9541.

At the time of this review this camera is a little old compared to current technology. So with all the other reviews out there i'm not going to beat up a dead horse with everything you've herd or haven't herd about the camera. This camera is built with speed in mind and for me it has far exceeded my expectations. When I was deciding on what to purchase I thought the 10.1 MP would be a hinderance to workflow as i'm more familiar with higher MP files. Once files where in Adobe camera Raw I almost agreed with that statement. I then tried other Raw conversation software and realized that was incorrect. I was able to crop just as much as the higher MP files. This camera restored my faith in my 24-70mm lens and now is my favorite lens paired with this camera. Though the 7d and 5d mark iii and other newer cameras have more sophisticated AF systems. I've found that this system is so simple to use that I wouldn't want to deal with those systems. This camera just gets out of your way and lets you concentrate on capturing the image. The 7d which in most cases people will say is better because of that more sophisticated AF and higher megapixels and currently at the same price point. I will say that its no where as responsive as this system and while it may have more MP it does not have more color depth. Those factors where important to me and I couldn't be more happier.

What do you say about any EOS 1? It is the standard by which every other camera is judged. The 1D mark III is the fastest - if you need 10fps, it's the only game in town. Although not quite a full frame camera (1.3), the print quality is comparable to the best of the full frames, and a full frame can't go this fast. If you have a sharp lens, 24x36 prints still look great. This camera is a dream to work with for sports, fashion or anything where getting that perfect shot/expression counts. 30 shot burst shooting RAW, 110 shot burst shooting JPEG. 10.1MP is plenty for any magazine application.

Superb Camera

Specification

With 22.3 million effective pixels, the Canon EOS 5D Mk III's sensor only has 1.2MP more than the 21.1MP Canon EOS 5D Mk II that it replaces, but it has 4.2MP more than the 18.1MP Canon EOS-1DX at the top of Canon's DSLR lineup.

Whereas the Canon 1DX has two Digic 5+ processors, the 5D Mk II has one, which in combination with its eight-channel readout means that it has a top continuous shooting speed of 6fps.

Autofocus

The Canon EOS 5D Mark III has the same 61-point wide-area autofocus system as the flagship Canon EOS-1DX. This is a big improvement on the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, which has nine user selectable AF points and six assist points, giving a total of 15.

Of these 61 points, 41 are cross-type and five are dual cross-type points, which is good news for accuracy. The customisable AF presets introduced in the Canon EOS-1D X are also available, which Canon claims helps when shooting more challenging subjects.

[...]

i bought it from longsell,with some part of malfunction, but he did not tell me.This is not a pleasant experience.

I owned this camera since spring of 2008,
So at the point of writing this review, I used it for nearly a year.

Now, if you are earlier owner, you might have experienced a problem or two.
I was unfortunately one of the owner experienced problem, and had to ship it back to Canon for the warranty repair. So, I was not exactly happy about paying expensive FEDEX freight.

But, rest assured, no other nasty problem occurred after warranty repair, and this camera has been workhorse of my photography.

Now, let get on the review.

This is really wonderful 21.1MP camera, and it is well worth the money.
But, you have to determine if you need to use one.

At the time of release, there were no other full size sensor camera with this resolutions.
Of course, it has been since passed by other manufacture... but I will not going to that comparison.

For Professional User.

Important thing about this camera is economics.

I own EOS 5D as well, and when non-commissioned or low paid project, I tend to bring 5D instead of 1DS MK3.
It is due to the fact, overall operational cost tend to be higher on the 1DS MK3 so if does not paid well, there will be no point to bring it out.

But, if it does paid well. there are enough justification to own this system, and you should used it as much as you can.

And this system is really reliable, once you get past some getting used to.

One more note,

Now I do own several different system including Hasselblad Medium format.
Medium Format Digital System is superior system when you are working in the control lighting environment. However, it is rather difficult to work with in the outside activity.

If you are studio photographer with magazine or commercial client, and do occasional out side shoot, you should own both medium format and this camera.

If you are professional just wondering about medium format and full size sensor camera,but without pressing need, then do not bother with medium format.

People who uses medium format digital normally has pressing reason such as satisfying client's specifications to own such system.
And it is not really versatile system no matter how medium format camera maker and digital back manufacture portray.

Canon 1DS MK3 is really versatile system, and it will satisfy most of design agency, publisher or stock photo agency's requirement, and L lens system are reasonably priced for the performance when looking at the economics.

For Semi Pro or High Amateurs User

For semi professional. 1DS MK3 is not going to make best economic argument, if you do not shoot studio.
If you are part time photographer who shoots mainly events or doing photo journalism.
I will recommend 1DMK3 over 1DSMK3.

Also, for photo journalist purpose, nowadays 5D MK2 actually makes a lot more sense than getting 1DS MK3 due to the their HD capability.
And for the photo journalist, it is not that good idea to carry bulky system.

But, for an amateur user with a lot of spending money,

It is one of the best system to get taste of what real pro are using.
And it does not cost like price of new BMW, and for the financially resourceful amateur, 7 to 8 grand may not be much of money.

When I got 1DS MK3 there were several amateur photographer I taught how to use this camera...
Surprising thing is, there are quiet many of amateur owner, and with very limited instruction to them,
They were able to create very good quality images.

So, kudos to the Canon for new 1DS MK3 interface.
It is actually easier for 1DS first timer than older 1DS MK2 for instance.

Of course, people who were used to with 1DS MK2 or older tend to disagree on this.

Now here are list of main advantage.

1. It is 21.1MP, more than most of commercial assignment requires.

2. Color depth of 14bit per channel is really useful for RAW work flow process.

3. Economical compared to the expensive medium format system, and still get comparable or sometimes superior result if conditions are right.

4. Build like tank, and it can take a quiet bit of abuse.

5. For user who are used to with 20D~50D, 5D MK1~MK2, it is really easy to learn interface.

6. Dust cleaning is really useful.

7. AF + Canon L Lens combinations is superior to the other known system in the market as of 2008-9

8. Liveview is useful to shoot architecture, land scape, and products.

9. RAW file format is supported well by the major commercial software.

10.CF slot and SDHC slot actually helps. It did not occurred to me until I run out of memory card on the locations, and had to run to the nearby local drug store. At least they carry cheap SD/SDHC at a

The ultimate purpose for a camera is to take photos. No camera except perhaps the Canon 5D II or a comparable Nikon or Sony DSLR will take better photos in more situations than the 1Ds III.

No other kind of camera will do as much as well. Some, such as medium format cameras costing many times more, will take slightly better photos in a studio and for some landscape or still subject shots but canot be used to shoot anything that moves or needs very wide or strong telephoto. A Leica rangefinder is more portable and competes with about everything for IQ but is only useful for certain shots. A point and shoot is very versatile but lacks a comparable IQ. A good micro four thirds is also very versatile but with slightly less IQ. No other camera will focus faster or offer a better range of lenses. Full frame DSLRs can be used to take very wide landscape shots, great shots of kids at play, sports photos, animals at long distances, flash shots indoors, night scenes with wide or strong telephoto, versatile architectural shots, etc. No other camera offers a better range of filters and accessories. Canon and Nikon offer a range of zoom lenses that can take every kind of shot, not just the ones that fit a fixed lens.

The !Ds III has a lot of positives. Great IQ. Very rugged and reliable, maybe more so than any other camera. Works well with Canon flashes. Unmatched choice of lenses, many best in class.

Here are the negatives I have noted after three years of use:

Canon color is excellent but Leica may be slightly better (I don't know about Nikon -- it wasn't a player in this space until I already owned a set of Canon lenses).

Focus doesn't work well with some wide lenses. It is dead on with the 16-35 and the 15mm fisheye but not with the 14mm f2.8 II (the original 1Ds had better auto focus).

It is heavy. A pack with the camera and a complete set of lenses can weigh 30 pounds. This camera is not made for walking around town.

The comparable 5D II is 1/3 the cost and uses the same lenses. (The comparable Nikon costs $2,000 more, the comparable Sony is about the same cost as the 5D II but offers fewer lenses).

The weakest Canon lenses are the wide zooms. They are very clear in the center but soft in the corners.

It lacks an articulating screen, which is useful for shooting the best candid shots of people.

But these are minor quibbles. If you want the best general purpose camera, the clear choice is this, the 5D II or a comparable DSLR.

Ok, the price of this thing is absolutely ridiculous.

Yes, Canon was now nice enough, only a little over a year later, to release a lower level product with equal Megapixels (the forthcoming 5D mark II), and do serious damage to my asset value (this camera). Thanks.

My previous high end camera is the Canon 5D.

It is clear to me that, other than the improved sensor, which gives the latest chip (DIGIC IV), higher Megapixels (21.1) and higher ISO (6400 natively), a very slight speed improvement (3.9 fps) and a bigger, nicer screen on the back (3", 1 million dots), it's pretty much the same camera as the 5D. Thanks to the Megapixel war, Nikon & Sony have turned up the heat on Canon a bit, so they went higher in those specs than they probably would've otherwise. This is great for the consumer, if those are the only specs you're looking at. And hopefully it will eventually obliterate Canon's ability to put pricetags like the one on this camera on anything (see my first sentence).

Of course, I did BUY this camera, nevertheless. Because I could afford to do that. If you can't, then look at what you can, because a lot of insane specs sit at much lower price points.

With that out of the way, let's just view it from the perspective of a mid-range user that might want to move up - someone with a 5D or a 10-50D, who might be trying to decide what else he will get from this camera versus just going for a 5D mark II instead, because either is a very valid option:

- 45 point AutoFocus. What's so great about this? Let's say you've seen it, and you realize it's a bunch of little points congested in the center instead of the 9 on the 5D mark II and their 6 "assist" points. That's just a lot of marketing - 45 is a much bigger number and makes it look much better, right? No, not really. It really IS that much better. I do a lot of bikini/fashion/glamour photography, and therefore I shoot a lot of shots that are of one very, curvy female (ok, yea, I know, I know - it's tough. But SOMEONE has got to do it, and I'm taking the bullet for you guys on this one, OK? LOL). Anyway, as you might realize, a very or at least somewhat shallow depth of field is frequently, in fact is most often, desirable for these types of shots. Curves create a complicated task, and the truth is, the Automatic choice of focal points on the 5D gave spotty results without VERY strict attention to focusing. Consequently, I gave up on it, and set my focus to the Center point and used focus/recompose. This works great most of the time. If the Depth of Field gets TOO shallow, you have to be VERY precise when using this method, which gets very tiring, on both your concentration and your hands/body. However, with the 1Ds Mark III, the advanced AF can be set to automatically detect, and it gives excellent results, with a very low mistake ratio. In observing the points it chooses while I'm shooting, it appears to me that it is very good at recognizing contours, and subtle depth differences, and this is where it achieves it's greatest advantage.

- Focal performance with high end lenses. L lenses perform better with any Canon camera. Even moreso with this. FAST lenses, in this case f/2.8 or faster, perform especially well with this camera. This still ties into the focusing system, yes, but it is worth noting that the better lenses take yet another performance leap on this body. This is no accident, rather by design. I say you lose part of the reason (not all of it, make no mistake) for having the L glass if you don't have a high end body.

- Dual Memory Cards. Yea, it could just as well be two CF cards instead of a CF and an SD, but whatever. I buy a lot of memory cards anyway. And this is more a convenience than anything. It's nice to be able to write large JPEGS to one and RAW to the other. And if you are shooting with someone who needs the photos immediately and HAS an SD card, this could be a huge plus. It, of course, accepts SDHC also.

- Greater flexibility in writing JPEG files. If you shoot mostly or only RAW, this might not matter. But, the fact is, while the 5D and the 10D-50D models allow to write two different quality levels at each JPEG size, this camera has a separate "quality" level that ranges from 1-10, much like Photoshop's 1-12 range. When you look at Canon's site and see the estimate for JPEG's of 6-8MB (it was something like that), it was only an average estimate. They've since removed it (probably because the amount of possibilities are too great to post). I have set mine at the maximum quality of "10." My JPEG's are generally between 10MB-13MB in size. One note, however, as I attempted to photographer a fast moving stage event, and was taken back that I had problems with lag in shooting quickly, as it is advertised at 5fps. I believe you would need to step down to a 7 or 8 quality, whatever their test for "average" is, to achieve these speeds alo

I have been a professional photographer since 1983 using Canon cameras (AE1, T90, EOS 1 and a Mamiya RZ 67. I Beta tested the Canon AF system with the 620 back in 1987 and on my recommendation changed the picture desk at the newspaper I was working form Nikon to Canon.

Since then I have professionally used a EOS 620, 650, D30, (not 30D) 1D, 1DMk2 and my latest, the £6,000 1D Mk3.

It's simply not up to scratch with the focus.

It has front focussed out of the box, and although I know there is a compensation that can be dialled in, why can't a £6K camera perform like it's previous incarnations?

The focus is random on my camera to say the least, I have lots of shots out of focus that I didn't have with previous cameras.

I have also had the Err 99 appear and it has locked up on me with a 35 -350 L lens on a couple of jobs which has lost me shots. I have booked the body in for a examination following a recall from Canon, (I thought it was just me) so hopefully that will sort out the problems.

Rant on: Canon have been targeting pro-am photographers with their 10D 20D, 30D, 40D 5D and now the 5D MK2 (with no Autofocus on video) who are going out making money with good quality cameras, but they don't have the £6K capital investment to recoup. Hence lower assignment prices (or hopefully for the toggie, bigger profit margins) which makes it tougher for the pro forking out for the pro bodies to get an equivalent ROI (Return On Investment).

I also use Mac computers, who have a similar "we're the best, so we can charge more than the rest" Well, I have had issues with my new MacBook Pro case bending (heat?) and a new Mac Pro straight from Apple with a bent grill, which they are refusing to change as I left it too long to open the box. Rant off.

Update March 2013:
Still soldiering on with a +3 autofocus correction dialled into custom functions and the results are random. I always focus on the eyes with people and can take a series of shots and have a few with the focus on the wrong spot. My old 1D Mk2 is still spot on focus-wise. I see Amazon have decided not to sell the 1DX - wonder if there is any connection with my review of my poorly performing 1D Mk 3s?

Update December 2013:
I still use the 1Ds Mk3 and was photographing a wedding on the 23rd December and I was in the bride's hotel room photographing her - after 44 frames I pressed the shutter button and nothing happened - like the battery had died - although the display was still on - battery was of course charged up!

I tried switching off then on again, which sometimes clears a fault like this, but no joy - display on but controls not working.

I then tried battery out - wait 10 seconds and then back in - no joy, this time the display was blank like a flat battery. I had to finish the wedding with my trusty backup 1D Mk2

When I got back home I tried the Mk3 and it worked for a few frames, then on swapping the memory card it locked up again.

So back to Canon and I will sell it when it is fixed. FWIW I had almost every shot in focus with the Mk 2, something the Mk 3 would not have come close to!

Google me: Spike Photography if you want to ask me about EOS 1D MK3 OR MacBook Pro I am happy to talk or email you.
Cheers
Spike

This is a hand-on impression and not a detailed review.
I used the EOS 1D and the EOS 1d Mark IIN before. In addition, I also own a EOS 30D and a EOS 50D.
The first good surprise is that this camera is NOT as heavy as you would expect from this bulky size.
This is probably, at least in part, due to the fact that the battery is now smaller.
Talking of the battery, it's a new generation battery and charger. The battery is smaller than the 1D predecessors, but said to last longer.
By the way, if you put two batteries in the charger, it will charge one after the other and not both simultaneously. Just that you know. I did not like that.
When I took the first few pictures, it still 'sounds' like a powerful camera that attracts everybody's attention with it's loud clicks. I wish Canon tries harder to make this quieter. However, in addition to the modes One Shot, and Multiple Shots, etc, they provided a mode s (silent, or slow?) that seems to delay a bit the colsure of the shutter in an attempt to reduce this mechanical noise. I tried life view without reading the manual. It's tricky to get to it and to get out of it. Autofocus won't work in life view, at least the usual auto focus by half pressing the shutter button.
The buttons and control knobs at the back follow the 50D strategy, which is a good idea. you no longer need to keep pressing on a button and dial to where you want to go. Just press once and dial.
Of course, you do not have the mode dial knob at the top left like the 50D. The EOS 1D Mark III is a professional grade camera. Therefore, no automatic modes for portraits, landscape, etc. You have to know what you are doing. But of course, semi automatic if also offered, like AV, where you decide the aperture, or TV where you decide the shutter speed.
One interesting feeling is that the litle buttons are now stronger. Previous 1D cameras used to have these buttons softer to press. It is still comfortable to use them but I would expect a longer life, because I feel the buttons more resistant but responsive enough and comfortable to use.
What about the ten pictures per second? Yes, indeed, although I did not physically count the number of pcitures per second, but I could easily feel it is higher than the 8,5 rate I had with my old EOS 1D and 1D Mark IIN.

ATTENTION!!! The EOS 1D Mark III does not accept the EF-S lenses. It's a shame, because I would have liked to have the EF-S 18-200mm with this camera.

Last, but not least, I took a few pictures at ISO 3200 in the room of objects of different colors and shades, with conventional light and was amazed how noiseless they are.
As I said, this is not an extensive review but just first impressions. Hope that helps. I'll write a more detailed review some later time.

I've shot with Canon cameras for twenty years. Every time I'm in the mood to do a major upgrade I always go to a camera dealer and take a look at the competition and each time I've done this I've always stayed with Canon.

This camera is built like a brick. Canon tells us they dropped some weight from the previous model, but it is still quite hefty. Yet, it fells balanced and solid in your hands. They've also simplified the controls and menu system and compared to the Nikon system I tested the Mark III is much easier to use. Since I am a landscape photographer and often out before the sun is up I appreciate how easy it is to make a change on the Canon in poor lighting. With all the knobs and dials the Nikon is a nightmare to use.

The meter is excellent as is the image quality. The camera only has 10 megapixels, but the mp's are large and pick up great image quality while holding down the noise. Autofocus is also excellent. They had problems with the first cameras, but later models (mine is a blue dot) don't have the problem. The autofocus locks on moving objects quickly and maintains as the object changes course while you are firing off 10 frames per second. Any time I've had an out of focused shot it's been due to my error. This camera is a pro body and autofocus must be fine tuned - in other words it doesn't give you one size fits all focusing. Take time to read the manual and some of the papers Canon publishes on their website and learn how to set up the autofocusing for different situations and you won't have any problems.

The Mark IV is out now with more megapixels and a totally new autofocusing system, but according to some of the reviews, such as Pop Photo, its autofocus is not as fast as the Mark III's. With the new model out the Mark III is now a bargain.

Go to pbase dot com and in the gallery section select cameras and then Mark III and take a look at the quality of the photos this camera produces. I think you'll be impressed.

This is my second 1D Mark III. The first one I received from Amazon, although beyond the registration number from Canon that had problems, it didn't perform well. Out of 1236 test wildlife photos, only about 30 were in focus. I'm no way in the rank and file of a professional photographer, but those percentages were terribly low. I called Canon's technical support, and they very courteous. But I felt cheated that after spending nearly $4000, the camera had issues. Canon recommended that I return it for servicing, while my husband suggested that I return it. Amazon's customer service was top-knotch. Readily and with no questions asked, Amazon issued a full return and within days a new camera was in my hands. I took this one out for more testing and it seems to being fine. Wildlife photography is my passion, so I need a camera that will respond. I've shot with Canon's 30D and NEVER had the focusing problems that I had with this camera. I'm going on safari in a couple of months and having gear that doesn't work - and at this price - is unacceptable.

I shoot with a 100mm-400mm lens, and carrying it around can be somewhat tiring, so I'm using a Manfrotto monopod that I bought two years ago. That makes a big difference. I'm sure with a smaller lens, the weight wouldn't be a factor. I've used the 100mm-400mm on the 30D for two years without feeling weighted down. Granted the camera is much lighter than the previous model, but just something to keep in mind if you're walking around all day.

The battery life is incredible. For the previous camera, I charged the battery when I received it, and never charged it again. As I stated, I shot the 1200+ photos, replayed and enlarged everything on the LCD. When it was returned, it still had about 63% battery life left. So well done to Canon for the life of this battery. Which, by the way, is 1/2 the size and weight of the 1D Mark IIN.

The burst mode is great. When I shoot in full burst, it looks like a movie is playing. The shutter speed is that fast.

I'll do more test shots but this one seems to be OK. If you're wondering, the serial number for the camera I returned, it was in the 56000 range. This one just above 59000. Maybe Canon figured it out by now.

All in all, I enjoy all my Canon products and the results (except for the first 1D Mark III I mentioned here).

I lowered the rating by 1-star because of the focusing problems I had with the first camera. For this price, I think Canon should have mastered the problems. A nearly $4000 camera should work...in my humble opinion.