About Reviews

One thing to note about these reviews is this: I only put reviews on this site of products I use on a regular basis. I may try out a new product from time to time, but I won’t put a review up unless it makes it to my camera bag. I’m also never paid to do these reviews. They are only products that I genuinely love and recommend to you. So you know I’m not just saying something because someone asked me to.

Where to Buy or Try

Purchase from B&H Photo Video – 1Ds Mark III (body only)
Rent from Borrow Lenses – 1Ds Mark III (body only)

The Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III Review

This camera is my baby. My bread and butter. I am borderline in love with it. I couldn’t imagine doing what I do with anything else. The 1Ds Mark III is currently Canon’s flagship model SLR (until the much anticipated release of the 1Ds Mark IV). This is the highest up the line you can go with Canon and the performance definitely lives up to the price tag. The body alone will set you back around $6,000-$7,000, but you get amazing quality, performance and features you won’t find anywhere else in Canon’s lineup. Here are the main specs for this beast:

• 21.1 Megapixel Full-Frame Canon CMOS Sensor
• Dual “DIGIC III” Image Processors
• Large 3.0-inch LCD monitor with Live View Function
• Extremely fast, precise 45-point AF system
• 5 frames per second, burst rates up to 12 consecutive RAW images or 56 full-res JPEGS
• Compatible with the newest UDMA high-speed CF Cards
• Ability to shoot 2, 3, 5 or 7 bracketed exposures
• Incredible durability: Tested to 300,000 cycles, dust and water resistant
• Two memory card slots (CF and SD) with RAW+JPEG simultaneous recording possible
• Integrated vertical grip for portrait shooting
• ISO range of 100-1600 (expandable to 50 and 3200)

Okay, there are more features but that’s all I will list for now. The main reasons I decided on this camera body were; the ability to shoot 3-7 bracketed exposures for HDR (this is the only full frame camera that Canon produces with this ability and I shoot HDR about 50-60% of the time), its durability and weather proofing (it can get rained on, snowed on, go through a dust storm – no problem), and its impeccable sharpness and image quality.

• So does this mean you can’t shoot HDR if you don’t have Canon’s flagship camera? Of course not! Before I got around to this camera I shot with a 5D Mark II (still a beast of a camera and still my backup when shooting travel images). The only problem with everything else Canon offers short of the 1D Mark IV is that they only shot up to 3 bracketed exposures. Nikon definitely has an advantage here. However, you can still shoot great HDR’s with this limitation. Take fore example photographer Brian Matiash. He is an incredibly talented HDR photographer who shoots a 5D Mark II. He gets around this problem by using the Promote Control – a wired shutter release controller. I won’t get into the details of this incredible piece of technology, but if you want more information I urge you to check out Brian’s review of the Promote Control.

I’m not kidding when I say it’s durable and weather resistant. My 1Ds has literally been in snow storms, downpours, intense heat and extreme cold. I went on a recent photo walk with a friend in Miami who had a Canon 20D. He warned me that because of the extreme heat and ridiculous amount of humidity there, I needed to put my camera in a plastic bag and let it get used to the weather before taking it out. I have never had to worry about that with this camera body. On a trip to Cancun for a wedding, I was across the street from the hotel a few hundred yards away from the entrance when it started pouring down rain. I mean a downpour! By the time I got back to the hotel with my camera and tripod over my shoulder, I was completely drenched from head to toe. Several people commented how much it must suck to have ruined that nice of a camera. I just grinned . I knew it was no biggie. I even showed an image on the LCD screen to one guy in the elevator after brushing all the water off the screen with my hands.

1Ds Performance as a portrait camera

When I’m not traveling and shooting landscapes and travel images, I’m shooting weddings and doing commercial work, portrait sessions for families, couples, seniors, etc. This is also my primary camera for this type of work. The 5fps is the fastest I know of for any full frame sensor. That means I can capture 5 unique images for every second that a bride and groom are kissing each other on the alter. When I am shooting a family with 16 members, I can hold down the shutter for a second and get five frames to ensure everyone’s eye are opened.

The 1Ds Mark III also performs extremely well in low light. While the 5D Mark II and the 1D Mark IV (the cropped sensor version of the 1Ds) perform better, the 1Ds still holds it’s own. I get comments all the time at weddings from guests who can’t figure out how I’m getting certain shots, while their point and shoots are rendering blurry images of the first dance. While you do run into noticeable noise around ISO 800 and up, it’s nothing I can’t fix in post if I need to. Some people say it’s not about the gear, I tend to disagree. While the best camera and lens set up won’t make a horrible photographer good, it sure makes it easier for a good photographer to get the shots he/she has in their mind. But that’s a whole other post!

If you are still an amateur photographer, this is a nice camera to add to your wish list one day. This camera has no automatic settings: No green boxes, no running stick figures, no flower or mountain icons, and no pop-up flash. I wouldn’t suggest even thinking about a camera like this unless you are a seasoned pro and can shoot fully manual without thinking about. If you are the latter, this camera may be the one for you.

Here is a collection of various images I’ve created with the help of the 1Ds Mark III: