-=1DS Mark II Admirers, congregate! (Part 2)

Hi Brent, I'm sure you'll love the camera. The personal functions do have to be accessed through XP or older and firewire is also the only way to get in. Find someone with an older computer and give it a go or see if there's someone that lives near you that might be able to help. I got lucky and still have my old XP desktop in the kids room with EOS Utility on it from the 5D Classic. Plugged it in and it popped right up!

wannabegood wrote in post #14876419
Hi Brent, I'm sure you'll love the camera. The personal functions do have to be accessed through XP or older and firewire is also the only way to get in. Find someone with an older computer and give it a go or see if there's someone that lives near you that might be able to help. I got lucky and still have my old XP desktop in the kids room with EOS Utility on it from the 5D Classic. Plugged it in and it popped right up!

Windows Vista will work as well as long as it's 32 bit.

Brent - correct - Vista 32 bit will work, but I had a hell of a job doing it - EOS utility shuts down at will, freezes etc etc. But I eventually managed to change my name on the camera and set up 7 shot bracketing. If you do find a Vista machine, prepare for a tough ride!

PS - lovely camera, a brick, but you know where your money went!

Brent, your experience may be different as I had zero problems with changing personal settings using a Vista OS. I only mentioned 32 bit Vista in case you already have that OS installed but think you have to find a computer with XP in order to access the personal settings on your 1Ds MkII.

If I recall, you will need to find an older version of the EOS Utility and firewire driver though.

I found settings set in the personal functions that were causing me issues in every-day shooting, so it was definately worth going in and making sure everything was to my liking. Just so you know that it's worth the trouble!

Thanks everyone for the replies!! Very helpful!

Dale, just to be sure I didnt have that problem I reset all the P-Fnc's asap when I recieved the camera..I didnt see a way to change, or even view which ones were applied/etc, so I did it just to be safe.lol

I actually have several older PCs lying around that I can just install XP on again and use that...hopefully my XP discs are still good..

Now to find a FireWire cable, and hope that one of the PCs has a firwire port..
I am pretty sure I can download the drivers from the Canon site under the 1DsII drivers/software tab..

Keeping fingers crossed!

pilsburypie wrote in post #14877243
PS - lovely camera, a brick, but you know where your money went!

Definitely!! I have always been a major fan of the 1D series..but never had the $ to go for a 1Ds..untill the prices just plummeted recently on the Mark II, and even the Mark III has come down drastically...
I dont miss the 5D2 at all. even with the extra MP. the 1D just WORKS! and that is all I really care about...
Not to mention that even though the buffer may be pretty bad on this model(imho it's downright horrible, but never intended to be an "action/sports" body for me. my 1D2n is easily covering that job for me.) I have yet to see it cause any issues when used in a 'normal' shooting style.
But the AF, coming from the 5D2, is easily worth the $ itself.
And seeing as I got into this body for less than $1k! I am VERY happy with it!

I am happier with my 1DsII and 1DIIn combo than I ever was with the 5D2/7D combo, or even the 1D3 by itself! If I had to do it all over again, I wouldnt change a thing

The buffer is slow. Do you use CF or SD cards? I always used CF until very recently when my new USB 3 card reader doesn't like CF cards so I changed to SD. The buffer is much slower with the SD card even though it boasts the same specs as my CF card (Sandisk extreme 4 class 10)

pilsburypie wrote in post #14879088
The buffer is slow. Do you use CF or SD cards? I always used CF until very recently when my new USB 3 card reader doesn't like CF cards so I changed to SD. The buffer is much slower with the SD card even though it boasts the same specs as my CF card (Sandisk extreme 4 class 10)

Yea, I only use CF but do have SDs for backups or when I want to shoot Raw+Jpeg...but, 99% of the time I just use CF/Raw..

It isnt a problem..not yet anyways...
but I have heard so many people 'complain about' or dog the 1DsII for its buffer size/fps/etc..
So what..it wasnt designed to be a 1D2/n or sports/action shooter, though I can see it being quite good at these with the brilliant AF(imho).
but, it would require a lot more skill in predicting when to press the shutter than the typical "spray and pray" type of shooting possible with the 1D2/n/etc..lol
atleast, AFAIK..

Obviously it is possible though, seeing some of Patricks work with the 1Ds!!

Make sure you read the fine print on the SD cards. None that I'm aware of actually write at the speed they show you, that's typically read speads. I've used a 16GB Extreme Pro at 60Mbs and one at 90 and find that if I shoot too many in a row I'll get a Err99 which clears when the buffer clears so I've gone back down to an Extreme III card with no SD installed. Patrick? Airbutchie? Doc? Anyone know if this holds true in general for the 1DsMkII body with newer cards?

Hey guys, I've just purchased a 1Ds Mark 2; I'm super excited about it because I've wanted this camera for a very long time. I see you guys were talking about the EOS utility. I have windows 7 on my computer. Will I be able to download my pics from the camera with it or will it not be compatible?

cristiaanc wrote in post #14879955
Hey guys, I've just purchased a 1Ds Mark 2; I'm super excited about it because I've wanted this camera for a very long time. I see you guys were talking about the EOS utility. I have windows 7 on my computer. Will I be able to download my pics from the camera with it or will it not be compatible?

First off, congrats!! I am having so much fun with my new 1DsII

Okay...so.
Are you asking if you can download straight from the camera? or by taking the memory card out and downloading from it?
Big difference. especially in these older bodies.

AFAIK, someone with more experience in this model will chime in, but I am pretty sure you would have to use a firewire cable(which is this model's "tether" port) and most(if not all) newer PCs do not have this port. Not to mention it seems this model is not compatible with Win7, or possibly even Vista...definitely not a 64bit platform AFAIK..

So. you pretty much have to just download from the memory card using any number of card readers/hubs/etc out there.

So far this has worked perfectly on all of my PCs(all running Win7-64x)..

Good luck!!