Canon 1D MK IV officially released!

FrankLamont · Oct 20, 2009

Amidst the speculation, it's arisen!

Surprisingly, DPReview hasn't got to it yet.

But here is the news.

musicaleCA · Oct 20, 2009

...Cool. I think the 7D still wins in the video department, but only because of sensor size (APS-C is what video gurus tend to consider "full frame"; the 35mm format, the equivalent of Vistavision, is just a wee big).

Too bad DPReview hasn't got a preview/review yet. Maybe they're all too busy harping on the 7D still? :lol:

Garbz · Oct 20, 2009

Good god did Canon suddenly realise that AF is important?

FrankLamont · Oct 20, 2009

DPReview's got to it, now... per usual, they were assembling a large preview and details on it.

It looks good.

I might consider getting one if ISO handling is good... coupled with a 5D MK II, it'd be good.

musicaleCA · Oct 20, 2009

Garbz said:
Good god did Canon suddenly realise that AF is important?

Apparently. I told you all they were learning stuff from the 7D! :lmao:

inTempus · Oct 20, 2009

I don't see any mention of its metering system... is it still color blind? The 7D touted this improvement but for some reason I don't see any mention of it on the Canon website. Hopefully I've overlooked it.

It has dual Digic IV's (no V's) and is only shooting 10fps with an APS-H sensor (the D3s does 9fps with a full frame sensor). It sounds like they improved the AF system but if it's still color blind too I won't be impressed. It looks like we still don't have built in WiFi. We still have one CF card slot and 1 SD card slot (I would like to have two of the same).

It has the ability to bump ISO to 102400 on H3. I'm curious to see how it compares to the D3s in terms of performance.

So we got a new AF system and 16mp. Anything else?

So far I'm not all that impressed. Let's wait to see what the reviews say.

Derrel · Oct 20, 2009

Looks like they missed the boat on the RAW buffer depth of 28 frames at full speed. That's only 2.8 seconds worth of shooting at full firing rate. Its direct competition shoots five seconds worth of RAW files at top speed. If the Mark IV is like the Mark III, the buffer will drop to half,or worse yet only one-third of its "stated" capacity at elevated ISO settings.

Here was one problem with the Mark III, "The EOS-1D Mark III does not support UDMA2, which limits its data transfer speed to about 11MB/sec. when writing to CF cards." http://www.usa.canon.com/dlc/contro...nce. Let's hope they did so with the Mark IV.

blash · Oct 20, 2009

inTempus said:
I don't see any mention of its metering system... is it still color blind? The 7D touted this improvement but for some reason I don't see any mention of it on the Canon website. Hopefully I've overlooked it.

It has dual Digic IV's (no V's) and is only shooting 10fps with an APS-H sensor (the D3s does 9fps with a full frame sensor). It sounds like they improved the AF system but if it's still color blind too I won't be impressed. It looks like we still don't have built in WiFi. We still have one CF card slot and 1 SD card slot (I would like to have two of the same).

It has the ability to bump ISO to 102400 on H3. I'm curious to see how it compares to the D3s in terms of performance.

So we got a new AF system and 16mp. Anything else?

So far I'm not all that impressed. Let's wait to see what the reviews say.

Same feelings here: while Nikon puts just 12 MP on a large full-frame sensor to get lower noise at higher ISO's, Canon is putting 16 MP on a smaller APS-H cropped sensor and trying to get the same ISO's. We'll see when the reviews come out, but it's likely not going to be up to par.

It seems like the Big 2 have carved out these "niches" for themselves: if you shoot a lot of video, go Canon. If you shoot a lot of photos, go Nikon. The D3s is likely to have better ISO performance and does have (still) better AF. We'll see about color.

All in all, looks like a decent product but not one that's really trying to compete with the D3s - Canon's just competing with itself on the video side.

inTempus · Oct 20, 2009

Here are some high ISO images from the 1D4.

Canon EOS 1D Mark IV Preview - Digital Cameras - CNET Asia

Scroll to the bottom of the page.

Personally, I'm not impressed with these. the subject matter is bad for the test shots in my opinion. I'm looking forward to more test images.

I'm not excited about this release. I really-really wanted the 1D4 to be something more... but I'm not passing judgment just yet. But if in a few weeks I don't see some glowing reviews and after Jan I don't see some really impressive shots from actual users... you may be looking at a D3s owner.

Antithesis · Oct 20, 2009

Whoa, 102,400 ISO looks totally useless. Seems like they tried to match the specs of the D3s with questionable results and even missed a few very important things. I was thinking the 1D4 would be totally mind-blowing, but it seems like Canon is barely able to catch up with Nikon in terms of features.

inTempus · Oct 20, 2009

I can't find anything that tells us if the 1D4 has the new color metering system of the 7D. Heck, they don't even bother to mention if it has the same LCD display in the view finder as the 7D. All of this data is suspiciously absent from the Canon website.

You're right, the high ISO shots look pretty bad. It could be argued that these are pre-production samples, but still... if it's that bad it has a long way to go between now and the 1st of the year before they start to ship. The D3s is already showing some badass images taken in the 12800 range and it's pre-production too as they aren't on the streets yet.

It looks like the exact same body, everything is identical to my 1D3. They don't even have a dedicated video button... you have to go into live view then activate video from there. Lame.

This looks like a half baked release to me... I hope I'm wrong but I see absolutely nothing exciting about this new body.

icassell · Oct 20, 2009

Well, at $5K for the Mk IV, I'm glad I bought my 7D yesterday

Canon EOS-1D Mark IV Digital SLR

Big Mike · Oct 20, 2009

It looks like the exact same body, everything is identical to my 1D3.

As with every other recent Canon DSLR release...it doesn't look like it's made for those who own the previous generation model. (Although I'm sure Canon loves those suckers who buy every new model). It's more of an upgrade option for those who have older models or are moving up from a lesser line.

inTempus · Oct 20, 2009

They're saying on the Canon forums that the Mk4 doesn't have color metering. It also lacks the LCD display in the view finder that they gave the 7D.

What a joke.

So, they gave us 16MP on a APS-H sensor that has marginal high ISO performance (based on test shots posted to CNET Asia) and which lacks any real advancements in metering or even AF. Oh, yeah, the AF is color blind too. But on the bright side, they claim it corrects the faults of the Mk3. But then they claimed the Mk3 was superior to the Mk2n... and it wasn't.

They should have called this the Mk3n. This is hardly a major release.

...talk about being majorly disappointed in Canon at this point.

Nikon holds the lead once again.