New camera pushes limits of digital photography Canon''s 1Ds series of cameras exists in a class of its own.
With pixel counts well above anything else offered in a 35mm-format digital SLR, an attention to detail that addresses the needs of high-end professionals, and a price tag that''s thousands of dollars more than the nearest competition, it continues to push the limits of digital photography.
The 1Ds Mark III, the latest in the series, brings the megapixel count to a whopping 21.1 and is every bit a precision instrument. It offers a high level of control over all aspects of your images, a body design that gives you fast access to these controls, and can be customized to tailor certain buttons and functions to your shooting style.
It''s been over three years since its predecessor was announced, so there are a fair number of new features in the Mark III, which bring it up to date with the latest trends in dSLRs. With this latest model, Canon has stepped up to a pixel count that, up till now, was solely the realm of medium format digital backs, while maintaining an edge in terms of physical size and sharpness of available lenses.
Design Canon''s 1Ds series body design, with its long, relatively straight grip, seems somewhat blocky compared with the sculpted designs that Nikon and some other manufacturers use. However, that''s partly because the grip itself is longer, with about 3.25 inches of main grip space compared with the Nikon D3, which has about 2.5 inches of main grip space. That means that the Canon might better accommodate people with larger hands.
The Canon 1Ds Mark III isn''t for everyone. You really have to have a need for a lot of pixels to warrant buying one instead of the 1D Mark III, which offers very similar image quality, an extra stop of sensitivity, and double the burst speed for thousands fewer dollars. For my style of shooting, I''d opt for the 1D Mark III and spend the savings on some primo lenses. That shouldn''t diminish the 1Ds Mark III in any way though. It is a unique imaging powerhouse and that can''t be denied. If money were no object, I''d want one.