The Canon 1D Mark IV: such a great camera.
Canon 1d Mark IV:
All you’d ever need, and then some!
Read my 1D Mark IV in-depth review here.
These days, I hear quite a bit about Animal Eye AF tracking technology and how amazing it is. I am sure it is. I also hear on how the eye autofocus technology from Fuji isn’t as good Sony, who apparently isn’t as good as in the newer Canon R5 or R6.
Maybe I’m just getting old, but here I am, a simple man, shooting with a 11 years old DSLR that has over 300 000 shots and that has seen better days… and I feel just fine…using ONE autofocus point haha. I never struggled taking a shot in the last 10 years as a photographer… or I did, but usually adapted myself and was able to take the shot.
The 1D Mark IV is just one of those camera that I fell deeply in love with. Nothing beats the color rendering –nothing on the market!– and the satisfaction of shooting with a 1D.
I keep it simple. I shoot with one focusing point, the one in the middle. It’s only 16 megapixels too. It only shoots at 10 fps. The buffer is small (30 RAW files). But you know what it has? It has character and I love it for that.
I raved quite a bit about the 1D Mark IV. It has a 1.3 APS-H sensor, so my 300mm f/2.8 frames as a 390mm (bokeh is f/3.3 ish, but light transmission stays at 2.8). So being able to carry a 400mm f/2.8 equivalent is a luxury!
I guess I just don’t care anymore about having the latest gear. I’m blessed with the X-H1 and the 1D. I will eventually upgrade for a 1Dx, if I ever find the motivation. But what for? I was in Africa with a Nikon Df, and that was plenty. I shot weddings with X-Pro2s or D3s. I always shot with one autofocus point, then recomposed. Only with the Fuji X-Pro2 did I start to use the face detection feature a bit!
New photographers have it goooooood. Hell, I started with a Nikon D80! Shooting above ISO 800 was a bit of a stretch! Shooting at 1600 and above was for black and white only. Now you can get a Canon full frame camera for $1000 USD, that lets you shoot all the way to ISO 102 400! Oh, and it has 20 megapixels. My D80 had 10, and that was a lot back in the days.
We are blessed with an abundance of great lenses and bodies. Never did we have so many choices!
The colors!
The dynamic range!
Taken with the 300mm f/2.8 USM L with the 2.0 TC III. Was able to focus on it at 6.5 meters away.
Shot at ISO 12 800. Terrible, but okay for the web or the Gram.
If you are new to photography, I would recommend getting a Canon 1D Mark IV and an extremely good lens or two, rather than splurging on a R5 or A7S III (if you aren’t doing video). There is something just so satisfying about older DSLRS (nikon D300, D3, 1Ds, the likes) than I haven’t found yet.
Cheers,
JP