First impressions: 1D mk IV

[Chris van Rooyen]

HI guys

Apologies for my long silence. I had the opportunity today to play with a MK IV, creating some 1000 images of cattle egrets in flight at a breeding colony near my home. My first impressions of the camera is that the AF is vastly superior to the MK III and probably on par with the Nikon D3. I found the focus acquisition to be blisteringly fast (faster than the D3) and the focus retention also impressive (almost as good as the D3), I managed to get many series of birds flying towards me with image after image pin sharp. I was using AI Servo, centre sensor with 6 points expansion, I found the 45 point expansion to be too erratic. With 6 point expansion the performance was more than adequate and certainly comparable with the Nikon D3, which is my favourite body. As far as noise at high ISO was concerned, I was not quite as impressed. I am used to the class leading performance of the D3, and the MKIV, although not bad by any measure, is IMO not yet in the same class (I set the high noise reduction function at Standard). Personally I would avoid using the camera above ISO 1600 when possible (at first glance it seems to me that the MK IV at ISO1000 is about as noisy as the D3 at ISO1800). Anyway, it was an interesting experience with a fantastic camera!:) Comments will be appreciated.

Camera Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark IV
Firmware: Firmware Version 1.0.4
Date/Time: 2010:01:24 14:48:27
Shutter speed: 1/2500 sec
Aperture: 7.1
Exposure mode: Manual
Flash: Off
Metering mode: Evaluative
Drive mode: Continuous (high)
ISO: 1250
Lens: EF500mm f/4L IS USM
Focal length: 500mm

[Markus Jais]

Thanks for the comments on the 1D Mark IV.
The image is spectacular. Nothing not to like about it.

Markus

[arash_hazeghi]

Awesome image Chris, love the wing position BG, sharpness is excellent. I like the composition too. Nicely done!

Thanks for sharing your experience aith MKIV with us,With my Nikon D700 I use 9 point expansion in Dynamic AF area with "AF tracking with lock-on" parameter set to 0 and I was really impressed at how camera would retain AF on raptors against busy BG even when the bird had drifted from the central sensor for more than a few frames (which is why expansion mode is there), I cannot get the same performance with 7D.

From your experience, can the MKIV hold and track AF in expansion mode when tracking birds that have the same color as BG as good as the Nikon does? Also did you use Canon sw or Adobe for converting the RAW files as far as noise was concerned?


Thanks again fro detailed info

[Arthur Morris]

Funny how great photographers make great images with whatever camera they have in their hands... I love the soft backlight here and the outstretched feet.

[Gal Shon]

Funny how great photographers make great images with whatever camera they have in their hands... I love the soft backlight here and the outstretched feet.

There's some redish cast, no?
Wonderful BG.

[Marc Mol]

Great lighting & BG with the outstretched wings & feet Chris.
For a moment there I thought you may have changed back. :eek:

Thanks for sharing your experience aith MKIV with us,With my Nikon D700 I use 9 point expansion in Dynamic AF area with "AF tracking with lock-on" parameter set to 0 and I was really impressed at how camera would retain AF on raptors against busy BG

Arash
I have the D3 and find with the better processor (over the D300) that 21 pt exp in Dyn AF area is excellent and doesn't drift with busy BG. (On my D300 I have to use 9 pts.)
The D700 & D3 use the same engine and wondered why you had to revert down to 9 pts?
Just curious.

[arash_hazeghi]

Great lighting & BG with the outstretched wings & feet Chris.
For a moment there I thought you may have changed back. :eek:




Arash
I have the D3 and find with the better processor (over the D300) that 21 pt exp in Dyn AF area is excellent and doesn't drift with busy BG. (On my D300 I have to use 9 pts.)
The D700 & D3 use the same engine and wondered why you had to revert down to 9 pts?
Just curious.

Hi Marc,

I never had a D300 or D3. But in my experience with D700, 9 points worked better than 21, 21 was a bit slow in tracking and could grab other objects, I was using zoom 200-400 f/4 + 1.4X TC, results maybe different with other lenses.

[Marc Mol]

I was using zoom 200-400 f/4 + 1.4X TC, results maybe different with other lenses.

Thanks Arash
There could be some truth in that, mine is mostly used with the 500VR.

[Morkel Erasmus]

stunning Egret image Chris! I second Artie's assessment :) love the light through the wings...
results from the 1Dm4 all round look very good.

[Chris van Rooyen]

Thanks for the comments guys:) I use my D3 mostly with 9 points, but sometimes with 21 points, and find that both are very consistent, although the 9 points gives me s slightly quicker focus acquisition. Arash I found that the MKiv was really good in retaining focus even against a busy background, although not quite as good as the D3 (but we are talking a very small margin here). I never found this to be a major constraint though, it generally performs very well in the AF department, infinitely better than the mk III. I used Adobe Camera Raw for the conversions and found the files to respond excellently, I was particularly impressed with the ease of highlight recovery.

[paul leverington]

Chris thanks much for the heads up on the 4. I was calibrating mine all day yesterday and hope to get out wioth it today and tommorrow especially. Excited is putting it mildly.

Paul

[Callie de Wet]

I just have to attend one of your courses, love this and the light shining thru!

[Jan Fourie]

Thnks Chris I will post also some BIF images with MK1V.Great shot and comp
jan