Anne’s end table pile
Friday, November 6th, 2009
Warren, Connecticut. I decided to rent a Canon 1D Mark III for a week just to see what it’s like to shoot with a "serious" pro camera. I knew it was big but for crying out loud, the thing is BIG. However, in about ten minutes it feels great in one’s hands. Setting it up is easy for any Canon DSLR user and of course, it works well with all canon EF lenses. It has a 1.3x crop which is a bit rough on the wide side but not quite like the more common 1.6x crop on most Canon DSLRs.
My friend Lenny says I should be careful about getting used to it and he’s right, it’s quite a fantastic piece of machinery. Built like a tank, fast as all get out, weather sealed, quiet shutter, clean images with great color and for my taste, 10 megapixels is about right for the kinds of printing I do.
One can dream….
I don’t think my wrists could take a pro camera like that. But that’s probably a good thing, as like Lenny says, I think it would be easy to fall in love with the bits and pieces that are just that bit better than what I have.
Sarah: I agree, it’s too big for us mere mortals but there are aspects of it that I think I want in some future camera:
Better AF
Clean images at 1600 ISO (and I mean super clean)
Quiet and fast shutter (useful for people shots, less so for this kind of shot).
Built like a tank
I’m guessing the Canon 7D has many of these attributes (minus the tank-ness) and I should play around with it sometime.
All of this is to say that I’m not super happy with the 5D mark II. I know everyone loves it but somehow I’m not as in love with it as I’d like to be. So, I’m looking around (don’t tell my 5D mark II).
I may end up sticking with what I have, who knows. But, in the end, I’m glad to have tried this very high end camera. Lenny is right, using it can spoil you fast.
I wish my shutter was a bit quieter too – after that first shot you’re outed and your subject is often on to you. Fortunately a number of my friends are used to my camera now and have learned that actually the best thing is to just carry on and ignore the photographer.
And if the whole thing could be made of some magic super light material, that would suit my poor little arms just fine!
I thought you were a Nikon user Sarah? Isn’t your camera relatively quiet? You should hear the Canon 5D, it’s aptly brand named.
You all should hear nikon d2xs shutter. It’s like kalashnikov (AK-47). Richard you are really gear boy! :) Also couple weeks ago I tried 1ds mkiii it’s amazing camera, and you know price not bad too :)
Gedas: I’m just not as happy as I’d like to be with the new 5D mk II. So, I’m renting other cameras that might work for me to see if I like them better. The 1D is a fantastic camera but it’s too big for me, I really do not want to carry around such a beast.
The new 7D has a cropped sensor but it has much improved auto focus and while I don’t want to go to a full frame camera I’d like to see if that camera feels good. Stay tuned.