Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III review

 

The Canon 1Ds Mark III is the top of the line Canon professional camera. It shares the same body of the 1D Mark III, and many of the improvements that have appeared with this camera, as the new menu system and interface, 3.0" LCD with Live View, new battery and lighter body. But there are some substantial differences: the 1Ds3 has a 21 megapixel fullframe sensor, instead of the 10 megapixel APS-H sensor of the 1D3. Other than that, the 1Ds3 has a continuos shooting of 5FPS instead of the 10FPS of the 1D3; the 1Ds line is often considered as landscape or studio camera, while the 1D line are sport cameras. Nevertheless, the improvements and the 5FPS speed make the 1Ds3 much more usable as "all around" camera than its predecessor. After having used consumer bodies for years, I've bought the 1Ds3: here, as usual, I review the camera with the eyes of a nature photographer. For a complete, in-depth description of the camera, I recommend to download the detailed Canon 1Ds Mark III White Paper published by Canon.
 
 

Camera Specifications

 
 

The 1Ds3 and other cameras in 2007

I have been asked many times why I have choosen the 1Ds3 instead of the faster 1D Mark III. The answer is that overall the 1Ds3 is a much better camera! The only advantage of the 1D3 is the 10FPS burst, that I'd use only in some situations (birds in flight and other fast moving animals). For all the other nature photography subjects (still or slow moving animals, flora and macro, landscapes), the 1Ds3 has some big advantages: 1) 21 megapixels VS 10 megapixel...there is an huge difference! The extremely high resolution of the 1Ds3 allows to capture much more detail than 1D3, so it is possibile to make larger prints or to crop more without compromising image quality. 2) The fullframe sensor is great for landscapes - now I can really get the best from lenses as the Sigma 12-24 or the Canon 24-105! The APS-H sensor of the 1D3 instead is, in my opinion, the worst format currently manufactured - it does not allow to use well the fullframe wide-angles as the 12-24 or the 16-35, and it can not use the wide-angles dedicated to APS-C cameras as the 10-20. 3) The 1Ds3 has slightly smaller pixels, that gives some advantage when I photograph distant subjects - in other words, if I crop a 1Ds3 photo to 10 megapixel, I get an 1.5x focal length multiplier, better than the 1.3x of the 1D3.  
 
The only other camera that I seriously considered has been the Nikon D3. It is very different from the 1Ds3 - the only similarity is the fullframe sensor; but, the D3 is a camera built for speed, much more similar to the 1D3. On the other hand, the D3 has truly impressive ISO performance - it if fully usable up to 6400, and even 12800 ISO is still OK...800 and 1600 are almost noiseless, impressive! Other than that, Nikon produces the awesome 14-24 f/2.8...I'd love to see a similar lens from Canon! So I had been tempted by the switch, but in the end I've choosen the 1Ds3 because it has much higher resolution, and because I already have a very nice Canon lenses lineup ;-)  
 
What about the (now sold) Canon 40D? Even though I have used this camera for just two months, I believe that it is the best camera in its price range. In terms of price/performance ratio, for sure it is better than the 1Ds3! The 1Ds3 is seven times more expensive but it is not seven times better ;-) Actually, in some respects, for example live view with electronic shutter, the 40D is even better than the 1Ds3, but overall the 1Ds3 is a big step up.  
 
What I said in the first paragraph for the 1Ds3 does not hold true for the Canon 5D. While the 1Ds3 can be considered a good "all around" camera, the 5D is more a "landscape camera". The 5FPS of the 1Ds3 are ok, while the 3FPS of the 5D are quite slow - of course you can take good action shots even at 3FPS, but the 1Ds3 is almost twice as fast. Other than that, the 5D has much lower resolution, so you can not crop its photos as much as you can do with the 1Ds3 (thus it is more difficult to photograph shy animals). Last but not least, the 1Ds3 AF works up to f/8, so it is possible to use extreme focal lengths, as 600 f/4 + 2x, while maintaining autofocus; the 5D AF instead works only up to f/5.6.
 
 

The 1Ds3 and other cameras nowadays

Nowadays, the 1DsIII is no longer the camera that offers the hightest resolution in the 35mm world (Sony offers the 24 megapixel Sony A900), nor the camera with the best overall image quality (the much cheaper Canon 5D Mark II offers the same resolution and a little less noise). Other than that, the new Canon 5D2 has an excellent video mode, that makes it a much more versatile tool than the 1DsIII. I'm going to keep my 1DsIII, but if I had to choose now I'd go for the Canon 5D2! The following table compares the high resolution 35mm cameras currently on the market.

The 1DsIII has still some advantages in comparison with the 5D2 and A900 (more robust body, slightly better AF), but overall I think that the innovations and the lower price of the 5D2 make it a better choice.
 
 

The body

The 1Ds Mark III all around. Click for larger view.
 
The body of the 1Ds3 is essentially identical to the 1D3 body - the only difference is that the viewfinder is a bit larger, so overall the camera is 4mm taller. This paragraph is almost identical to the description of the 1D3, so if you have already read the 1D3 review you can skip it ;-)  
 
Every Canon 1 series is built to last - and the new 1Ds3 is even more rock solid than its predecessors. The body, even though it is 220g lighter than 1Ds2, is made mainly by magnesium alloy and it incoporated 76 rubber O-rings for weather sealing - the 1Ds3 is made to be used enven in the most harsh conditions. The shutter unity durability has been increased from the 200,000 cicles of the 1Ds2 to 300,000 cicles. Other improvements includes the new battery - Canon has finally dropped the old Ni-Cd battery in favor of a smaller and ligher lithium-ion battery pack. The new LP-E4 (3 cells, 11.1V, 2300 mAh) lasts for 1800 shots, vs the 1200 shots on the old battery pack of the 1Ds2: an huge improvement, made possible by the low power consumption of the new electronic components of the 1Ds3. In the menus, you can even check the percentage of charge - I really like this feature, it is much better than the small "three steps" battery icon of the 40D, that many times is not as precise as it should be.  
 
The user interface is an enormous leap forward compared to the older 1D series - in my opinion, it is a so big improvement that it is worth itselft the price of the upgrade from the 1Ds2. The previous 1 series had really an "user-enemy" UI, the menus were slow to navigate and you always had to keeping pressed two buttons to change a setting...by far the most aweful interface that I had ever seen in a camera. The 1Ds3 had been completely re-designed and now it is a joy to use! It has less buttons than the 1Ds2, but it is far more intuitive; the navigation between the menus is fast and easy, thank to the joystick and the quick control dial. The screen is big, bright, sharp, easy to read and it has an extremely wide angle of view, one of the best screens that I've ever seen in a DSLR!  
 
The entry-level Canon EOS 400D was the first Canon camera with anti-dust - a system that shakes off dust from the sensor. The new flagship now has the same technology, with some improvements to make it even more effective. I've never considered the dust a serios problems - even with my old 20D that has not anti-dust, I've never had particular problems, and I've had to clean the sensor just few times. Anyway, the new anti-dust is a welcome feature :-)
 
 

Technology

The camera has a 21 megapixel CMOS sensor. Twenty-one megapixels - now that's an huge resolution! As the previous 1Ds series, it is a 35mm fullframe sensor (24x36mm), without the "focal length multiplier" effect of the APS cameras. There are many myths and misunderstandings about this sensors and fullframe in generas. Does it outresolves the lenses? No, unless you use the worst Canon or Sigma lenses ;-) What does matter is not the overall resolution, but the pixel size - and the 1Ds3 pixels are larger than those of 40D, that still does not outresolves the majority of high quality lenses. Of course, the fullframe sensor includes a wider area of the image circle than APS-C sensor, so the 1Ds3 stresses more the lenses in the borders and the corners. Nevertheless, I think that the majority of L lenses provides enough resolving power for the 1Ds3.  
 
Some wildlife photographer are worried to lose the 1.3x or 1.6x multiplier when switching from APS to fullframe. Again, what really matters is pixel size: the smaller the pixel, the more magnification you get. For example, the 1Ds3 has smaller pixels than the 1D3; if you make a 10 megapixel crop from the 21 mp file of the 1Ds3, you get about a 1.45x multiplier, higher than the 1.3x multiplier of the APS-H 1D3. Instead, in comparison with some recent APS-C cameras, you truly lose some reach: you need to crop a 1DsIII image to 8 megapixels to get the 1.6x multiplier, while the new Canon 50D has 15 megapixel at 1.6x (and you can even get 2.4x cropping the 50D at 8 megapixels).  
 
The 1Ds3 has 6.4 micron pixels, while the 1Ds2 had 7.2 micron pixels - since the sensor size remains the same, reducing pixel size is the only way to get more resolution. But it also means reducing the light collection capabilities of every pixel, thus more noise. With the 1D3, Canon has made big improvements in sensor technology, so they managed to get about 1 stop lower noise, while reducing pixel size. With the 1Ds3, the sensor improvements seems minor; according to Canon, they have managed to maintain the same noise level of the 1Ds2 while reducing pixel size, but there has not been any improvement, so it will be about 1 stop worse than 1D3 (if you compare the images at 100%). That said, if you resize a 1Ds3 photo to 10 megapixels (or if you print a 1D and 1Ds photo at the same size), the noise is just a little worse 1D3.  
 
The 1Ds3, as all the new Canon cameras, has a large, bright and sharp 3.0" LCD screen with live view. This screen has a wide viewing angle (140° both vertically and horizontally) and it is quite readable even outdoors, if you set the brightness on the hightest value (as I do). When you magnify an image at 10x to check the detail, you get a much sharper preview, in comparision with the 1D3 or 40D - all these cameras magnify the image up to 10x, but the 1Ds3 looks sharper due to the higher pixel count. Even though it might seem a nice thing, actually it is a disadvantage - in practice you have to focus using a less magnified image, so it is a bit more difficult to make a precise manual focus.  
 
The Live View is one of my favorite features of the 1Ds3. In the Canon lineup, it first appeared in the 1D3, and now it is a standard feature in every new Canon DSLR. You can use the big LCD screen to frame the photo; you can judge in real-time the exposure and the depth of field, and you can even magnify up to 10x a portion of the image for a more accurate focussing. In Live View mode you can not use autofocus - still, it is very useful to photograph landscapes, macro and other subjects from awkward positions. The 1Ds3 live view is not as advanced the the Live View of the 40D - it lacks of silent shooting, so you still have to use mirror lock up for macro work. Nevertheless, it is a very welcome and useful feature!  
 
You can even use live view combined with a PC, using the EOS Utility 2.0 software provided by canon. With the wireless transmitter Canon WFT-E2A (that is much smaller than previous versions, and it is weather sealed), you can stay at up to 45 meters from the camera, watching in real time the scene recorded by the sensor, and you can change every setting and take the photo when you want! Last but not least, with live view you no longer need the Angle-Finder. In the past I used a lot the Canon Angle-Finder C for macro photography, it is very useful when you have to frame a subject from weird angles, but I didn't like it a lot: the built quality is average, it makes more difficult to find the subject, it makes the viewfinder even darker, and it has a crappy diopter adjustment system (you have to change the diopter every time that you switch from 1.25x to 2.5x). The live view is so much better!  
 
The menu system is another huge improvement, in comparision with previous Canon cameras. The navigation is easy, fast and intuitive, thanks to the clear icons and the excellent interface - you can navigate between the option using the joystick and the main control dial, and you change the settings with the "Set" button. There is no longer the crappy two-buttons system of the previous 1 series cameras...the 1D3 interface is so much better!  
 
The custom functions are now ordered into four categories; there are 57 functions, so you can really customize every aspect of the camera! Another feature that I love is the new "My Menu" (the last menu page, marked by the green star icon). In this page, you can record every setting that you want, to have fast accesses to the setting that you use most often. For example, I added Live View and Mirror Lock Up in My Menu - now, when I want to use one of these functions, I no longer need to navigate though various menus, I find them immediately in the My Menu page.

 

Above: the Canon 1Ds Mark III custom functions menu. The fonts are large and easy to read, and the new colored icons makes more intuitive the navigations between the various menus.
 
The Canon 1Ds Mark III is the first Canon camera that is able to take advantage of UDMA compact flash cards - in comparison with the previous Canon cameras, as shown in the Compact Flash and Secure Digital page, it is almost twice as fast in terms of writing speed! This camera can really take advantage of the very fast Extreme IV CF cards, that is a nice plus, considering that the RAW files are about 30-40 MB!
 
 

Image quality: resolution

It is almost needless to say that the 1Ds3 has outstanding resolution! I was already very happy with the detail captured by the 10 megapixel sensor of my previous 40D, but the 1Ds3 is another world :-)  
 
If you use good lenses, the files are very sharp straight out of the camera, and with a little of smart sharpen the detail is just perfect! Here, I compared the 1Ds3 with the 40D (but the comparison would hold true even for other 10 megapixel cameras, as the 1D Mark III). The photo on the right side shows the entire frame; the red square is the detail that you see in the next crops. Both 40D and 1Ds3 photos were post processed with the same settings.

 

With such image quality, it is possibile to print in sizes as 60x90 centimeters with razor sharp details, and it would be possible to make even 2x3 meters prints with good image quality! The 1Ds3 has an image quality that compares with medium format, but it much more flexible (and cheaper, in spite of the $8,000 price tag).

 

The crop from the photo taken with 40D
 
 
 
 
 

 

The crop from the photo taken with 1Ds Mark III
 

 
 

Image quality : noise - ISO Performance, comparison with 40D and 5D

The Canon 1D Mark III was a big improvement in comparison with the 1D Mark II, in spite of the smaller photosites: does the same improvement apply even to the 1Ds3? Sadly no - as Canon states in the white paper, the noise of the 1Ds3 is about the same of the 1Ds2. But it is important to understand how it compares with other cameras, and how the noise influences image quality.  
 
If you look at 100% crops, the 1Ds3 is about 1 - 1.5 stop worse than Canon 1D3 and Nikon D3. But there is a big difference between these three cameras: the 1Ds3 has 21 megapixel, while the 1D3 only 10mp and the Nikon has 12 mp. If you print or resize all the photos at the same size, the resolution advantage of the 1Ds3 reduces the noise differences. The Nikon D3 and Canon 1D3 are still a little better, but unless you routinely use ISO 3200 or higher, all these three cameras gives excellent result in terms on noise/ISO performarnce.  
 
When I buy a new camera I am always curious to see what improvement it gives in comparison with the previous camera, so the first test compares the 1Ds3 with my previous 40D. When comparing the results, remember that the 40D applies a some noise reduction directly on the RAW file, while the 1Ds3 is very conservative with in-camera processings. The crops shows a small detail of the full size test photos; I converted the RAW files with my usual ACR settings (see Introduction to Adobe Photoshop), so I did not apply any adjustment of color, contrast or sharpness. The files of the 1Ds3 had been resized to 10 megapixels before cropping - I did not want to make a "pixel per pixel" comparison, instead I wanted to see how the two cameras compare with the same image size, as if I made two prints of the same size from the 40D and the 1Ds3.

The Canon 1Ds3 gives very clean images up to ISO 800 - I'm impressed by the very low noise that it has at 800! At 1600 and higher the noise becomes more visible, but it is still fully usable. In my opinion, the 1Ds3 has about 1 stop advantage in comparison with the 40D; as I said in the previous paragraph, you have to consider that the 40D applies a much stronger noise reduction, that kills the detail. If you apply some noise reduction on the 1Ds3 file, to make a fairer comparision with the 40D that applies some NR in-camera, the 1Ds3 advantage is clear:

As you can see in the two crops above, the 1Ds3 at ISO 1600 has the same amount of noise of the 40D at ISO 800!  
 
Another camera that I was curios to compare with the 1Ds3 is the 5D. Both cameras have a fullframe sensor, but the 5D has 12 megapixels VS the 21 megapixel of the 1Ds3, so it has lower resolution, but better light collection capabilities: how does them compare? Between ISO 100 and 1600 they are really very close, so here I show only the comparison at 3200, where the difference is a little easier to see.

You might be surprised to see that in terms of high ISO capabilities the 5D is actually a little better than 1Ds3 - if you compare two 100% crops, the 5D is a little less noisy, and it shows about the same amount of detail of the 1Ds3 crop! What does it happens if you resize a 1Ds3 photo o 12 megapixels, the same image size of the 5D? Here is th result:

Now, the two crops looks very similar, even tough the 1Ds3 is still a little noisier - in conclusion, I'd say that the 1Ds3 is about on par with the 5D (in terms of noise), if you print the photos to the same size.
 
 

Image samples

The following samples show the image quality of the Canon 1Ds Mark III. The photos has been taken in RAW format and converted with Photoshop CS3; I processed each photo to optimize the image quality (contrast, color, sharpness), and I saved them as high-quality JPEG for web display. You can download both the processed JPEG and the original, untouched RAW files.  
 
Click on the image to download the full size JPEG sample, or use the RAW link to download the untouched RAW (large file!). Please respect the copyright! This image can be printed only to evaluate the quality of the camera, for personal purposes. All other usages are prohibited.

Studio Photo - 24-105 IS, ISO 50, 8" f/9 JPEG / RAW - the best image quality that you can get with the 1Ds Mark III
 
 
 

The Lion King - Canon 300 2.8 IS, ISO 100, 1/60 f/4 JPEG / RAW - the 300 2.8 at its best. The detail is awesome!
 

 
 

Conclusion

When it was announced, in september 2007, the Canon 1DsIII was one of the best cameras on the market; it had the hightest resolution in the 35mm world and its noise performance was second only to Nikon D3 and Canon 1D3. Its fullframe sensor allows to get the best from wideangles; it has superb built quality and it is fully weather sealed. In comparison with the previous 1Ds2, it is a bit lighter, it has live view, a much better user interface and a 3" LCD screen. The new battery is smaller and lighter than 1Ds2 battery, and it gives 1800 shots (the previous 1Ds has 1200 shots per charge). The AF is the same of the 1D3, but it has never had the same big problems, and it works up to f/8.  
 
Currently, there are many more FF offers on the market, and some of these cameras have much lower prices and more advanced features. The Canon 5D MarkII (that costs just $2700, while the 1DsIII is ridiculously overpriced at $ 7500) has the same resolution, a much smaller and lighter body, a more advanced live view and very high quality video mode. Nowadays, I not recommend the Canon 1DsIII; I'd get the 5D MarkII instead.