1Ds Mark II Owners Experiences Wanted

I would like to hear from other Photographers who own or have used a 1Ds Mark II.

I just got one and was really impressed with the quality of the body alone!

I want to make some large wall portraits, and some high quality prints for show, and to sell.

I also want to hear what others with this camera are using it for, your reviews, and tips, and that sort of thing.

What you ask is not a small question.

If you want to enlarge really big you'll need to have

a) fast shutter speed. Forget the 1/focal rule, it is 1/1.3xFocal for small prints. The larger you print the more you need (depending on subject of course).

b) find the sweet spot(s) on your lens. Do some testing. If your lens is not that good you'll always get sharpest results with f/8. If you use the best and fastest lenses (85/1.2L is my favourite for portraits) you have to see where the compromise is between sharpness and DoF - for example with 85/1.2L 1.2 is very good and quite sharp but if you enlarge it to A3 or larger you may want more DoF and sharpness because the DoF effect and small lack of (even good lens) sharpness is more pronounced when viewed big. Also, the more you enlarge the more visible all small focus errors will be and that can be very demanding on your technique with f/1.2-2.0. Focus errors may mean operator problems, that your lenses are not capable of HP (high performance) focusing or that gear needs calibrating.

What kind of apertures and shutter speeds you end up needing (aperture is the most important artistic decision)? If you find yourself needing someting like 5.6 for good sharpness and DoF but get too low shutter speeds then you problem is of course amount of light. Multiple flash systems can be built (like couple of 420's and one 580) and that needs plenty of experiments and experience to make full use of those. Or then you go outside and seek the light there.

So you see the question you ask can get huge and it all needs first up few simple questions like: what do you want to achieve, where and when?

I have written a small 1D Mark II review in http://www.photography​-on-the.net/1DmarkII/ which I will continue as soon as I have time (e.g. focus problems I mentioned in review are gone). I like Mark II very much and feel very comfortable using it. You have made a good choice.

I owned 1D MKII and find it a bit soft with every L lens that I have (even set the camera sharpness to 3).

After I sold it for 1DS MKII, the first thing that I tried with the new 1DS MKII is the sharpness, and I found generally 1DS MKII is sharper than 1D MKII (without seting the camera's sharpness).

I mostly use it for people, I like shooting busy people with a real gun .

No, shooting people with a very fast camera (speed of 1D MKII with a M-16), but a bit soft.

And with 1DS MKII, you spend less time in post process.

1DS MKII is also a fast camera (speed of a sub machine gun) & very sharp, good for everything expect sport even.

I am waiting for 1D? MK??? to have 8 fps + 1.0 crop size + 1.6M res. for sport even.

I've had a 1DS MKII for a couple of weeks now, and generally very impressed with it.
I've printed out some A3 size prints (canon i9100) that have blown me away regarding detail and definition.
My computer groans processing the RAW files, so I generally shoot RAW + small jpeg, which means I can scroll through the jpegs (on computer) and cherry pick the RAW files for processing, I also find the files are more tolerant of post processing (i.e. you can push them quite aggressively if needed).

It's a beast of a camera, therefore I use a Lowe pro toploader zoom when out walking (normally the Yorkshire Dales), I find this a lot more comfortable than it hanging round my neck. I use a 17-40L mainly, so can't stack filters, and a normal polarizer causes vignetting at full frame (I'll need to invest in a thin model)
Although most of my photography involves shooting at ISO 50/100 (tripod), I'm impressed with the high ISO results.
I found the menu system complex at first, but after a few days quite intuitive, irritated that you have to go to menu for mirror lock up though.
I've also found my post processing workstream has changed (previously a 10D), and I'm still experimenting to what works best.

All in all, am I pleased I bought it. yes definitely, is it worth more than 4 times the price of a 20D, probably.

Regards

Les

http://lesmclean.photo​blink.com/

Hey, wow it's Les Mclean. Your famous on the photoblink website, fantastic landscape pictures! Sorry, I know that was off topic but I'm a big fan of you work.

Yes, extremely beautiful and impressive photography.

Les,

Also a big fan of your work. I am hoping to gain a little experience with my DRebel, and your work is very inspiring.

I'm quite happy with the 1DS MKII, I've had since early December 3rd. I shoot family portraiture and weddings. I'm very impressed with its low light performance. The lack of noise is a welcome sight and of course the ability to get larger images is a wonderful thing. Startup speed and FPS for a camera with this large of images is just plain excellent. I don't catch myself waiting for the camera and can concentrate on looking for the shot.

I have had an issue with Lexar 2GB 80x cards in the camera, it looses images! I've been able to repeat it a number of times and have yet to experience it on the Sandisk Ultra II 2 GB cards as yet. (That's early but I should be able to confirm tomorrow). I suppose it's possible that I have a bad card but there are others who have complained as well. Just nothing official from Canon or Lexar as yet. I hope to raise the issue this week.

I did some custom functions for focus speed which I'll post to you. I don't have it memorized but followed the guide posted in the forums for wedding and photojouralism for custom settings. If I uncover it, I'll paste it in this thread. It's a great into to the use of the camera.

Thanks for those kind words , they are appreciated.
A a footnote to the debate, I meant to include that I use a Seagate 5GB Microdrive that I ripped from a MP3 player. For the kind of work I do speed is not an issue, so works well for me

Les

Thanks for the info, everyone!

I had some time to read the manual over the Holiday, not much time to actually shoot much with it yet.

One thing I read in the manual under the setting of Custom Functions, pg. 157, was #26, that speeds up the shutter-release time lag? Did I read that right? I wanted more explanation on that. Why would it have to be a Custom Function, and not part of the normal workings of the shutter?

This is assuming I understand what the Custom Function was saying here.

Any input?

Thanks.

I am puzzled about that as well.

The one explanation that I have read said, "the shutter release lag will be shorter, but less consistent".

For me, the default shutter release lag has never been an issue so far (1D Mark II, 10,000+ frames). I am looking forward to the 1Ds Mark II. I am sure I will be happy w/ the default shutter release lag.

It's actually "Personal Function 26". It's set using the Eos Viewer Utility, and is (slightly) more thoroughly explained in the software manual, page W-72 or M-72. From that description it sounds like it makes the shutter lag variable depending on the shooting aperture, when wider apertures will be reached sooner so the picture will be taken sooner (in 10 ms increments). I would assume it's an optional, rather than default, setting so default behaviour is repeatable/consistent.

* Pretends to have an mkII *

I haven't noticed any lag yet either.

Thanks for that info, Jon.

I'd like this thread to keep going. I just recieved my 1Ds mkII. I rented one as soon as my supplier got it in and was impressed enough to buy it. I have been shooting with leaf and sinar equipment for years. the 1DS and the new 1Ds mkII meets the demands of most of the commercial needs I have. Why spend 30-40k on a system that is only needed for 10% of my work.
Today I shot two projects, the first was a 11x17 in studio product shoot NO Problems. The Second, a 20x24 product test shot took a little wrangling to get the DOF and image quality I needed, I am confident we got what we need. I used a 100mm f2.8 usm lens, really sharp! Next week I will be on location and shooting with the 14, 20 and 24mm lens, I will report back here on that one.
Lets hear some more live work going with this new MONSTER DSLR.