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1D Mark lll or 1Ds Mark lll or 1D Mark llll (1 Viewer)

J

jtwood

Well-known member
I have invested my money in Glass up to now being the proud owner of a Canon 600mm f4 IS and 400mm DO f4 IS. Now I am considering investing in a Pro body for birding it has to be a Canon. I use a 40D at present and have been happy with the results on most occasions, where I feel a 1D camera would help would be in low light conditions I would be looking for improvements in niose levels and faster focusing. The 1d Mark lll seems to fill the bill but the romours of a replacement in the Spring have put me of a purchase, is it worth waiting for the 1D Mark llll?
My budget could be streched to a used 1Ds Mark lll is this a viable birding camera given the full frame sensor and extra cost?
 
When we already have perfectly good bodies, it is always worth waiting ;-)

Seriously I have also been wondering whether to go 40d, 50d, 1d Mk ????. I will certainly wait and see. If nothing else a MkIII replacement would surely bring the price down.

Apart from ££££ !, big barrier to getting a 1d is the weight, as I like to travel.

Mike.

P.S. I can see any compelling reason to pay the extra for a 1ds for birding.
 
citrinella said:
When we already have perfectly good bodies, it is always worth waiting ;-)
Click to expand...

I don't agree with this, there will always be a new body on the way but at some point you can end up waiting for ever. 1 series bodies have a number of advantages - weather sealing, better AF (45 point), better build quality... the down sides are the weight and cost.

Who knows when the 1D mk IV will come out or what the spec will be, what is known is just how good the 1D mkIII is. The high ISO performance (at least one and probably closer to two stops better than a 40D), the fast frame rate and AF at f8 make it an excellent birding camera.

I think that the 1Ds series are potentially very good birding cameras, Nigel Blake uses 1Ds mkII and mkIIIs for his bird photography and clearly does very well with them. The only negative I can see to the 1Ds mkIII is the fact that processing 21mp RAW files might well leave you needing a new PC to cope with them. If mony was no object I'd be shooting with 1ds mkIIIs.
 
Hi Postcardcv its good to be reminded about the file size of the 1Ds Mark lll a real consideration in choosing a new body, do you know the file size of 1d Mark lll in Large Raw
 
jtwood said:
Hi Postcardcv its good to be reminded about the file size of the 1Ds Mark lll a real consideration in choosing a new body, do you know the file size of 1d Mark lll in Large Raw
Click to expand...

Unfortunately I don't have one so can't be sure, but given that it's a 10mp camera with a 14bit conversion I guess it's very similar file size to the 40D.
 
The approximate file sizes of a 1D Mk III are as follows:

Large JPEG 3.5MB (3888x2592 pixels)
sRAW 7.6MB (1936x1288 pixels)
RAW 13MB (3888x2592 pixels)
 
Why not consider a secondhand 1Ds mkII, they tend to go for about the same price as 2nd hand 1D MkIIIs (c. £1750). It has fantastic accurate focus system which will amaze you when your first batch of flight shots start popping into focus in your PC. For birds in flight my 40D is a toy compared to the MkII. I know its got a relatively slow frame rate but this is made up for by its hit rate and think of the 17million pixels.

Kev
 
the way i look at it is this ,Birds do not often give you a second chance I have waited weeks stood at the side of a ditch trying for that bit better barn owl shot and no way am i going to risk missing the shot because iv delayed in buying the BEST gear for the job.
when the mk4 comes out and Once its proven to be say 5% better then i will be getting one .
At the momment the 1dmk3 is the best so i would say get one if you have the money.
Rob.
 
GYRob said:
the way i look at it is this ,Birds do not often give you a second chance I have waited weeks stood at the side of a ditch trying for that bit better barn owl shot and no way am i going to risk missing the shot because iv delayed in buying the BEST gear for the job.
when the mk4 comes out and Once its proven to be say 5% better then i will be getting one .
At the momment the 1dmk3 is the best so i would say get one if you have the money.
Rob.
Click to expand...

Not fancied a D3 then Rob. ;)
 
paul goode said:
Not fancied a D3 then Rob. ;)
Click to expand...

Hi Paul
No- my birding friend has one and i tried it then we sat side by side after godwits in flight shooting into the light and the result of over 500shots was a draw for sharp in focus shots 500f4isl and 500vr .
The 1dmk4 might be ok MIGHT lol
Rob
 
Marcus Conway - ebirder said:
Hi Peter - just reading throught the post and wondered what this meant. Thanks:t:
Click to expand...

Most Canon DSLRs will only allow the AF to function if the max aperture of the lens (or lens & tc combo) is f5.6 or wider (which is why people put tape on tcs to trick the camera). However the 1 series cameras allow Af at f8 (center point only) meaning you can use a 1.4x tc with a f5.6 lens or a 2x tc with an f4 lens.
 
Well I took the plunge and bought a new 1D Mark lll Lots of dull weather since the purchase so a good oppertunity to try noise levels as you would expect from a pro body there is a big improvement over the 40D the attached blackbird was taken at F4 800 ISO with a 400mm DO lens. I went down to the coast to-day still dull but it gave me a chance to try the AF performance on flight shots, Wow! is the only thing I can say it is so quick to focus in A1 servo with the 400DO lens and the number of shots you can get fired of is just amazing. I had good light conditions yesterday so I was able to compare the results with my 40D not a lot of difference here if any both cameras producing very sharp images.
 

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