1D Mark IV Update
February 5th, 2010 Posted in Canon 1D Mark 4
1D Mark IV Update
I’ve been driving around picking gear up and testing the 1D Mark IV. Everytime I think I have a good first review done, I notice something else. There’s also a swelling group of people wondering why Canon gimped spot AF for the 1D Mark IV. We’ll give full coverage on that soon.
I purchased the Sennheiser MKE-400 flash shoe mic for the 1D Mark IV and I’ve been pretty impressed with its performance so far. It’s the right size and price for a video newbie like myself. I still need to get a “dead cat” for it.
February 5th, 2010 at 11:40 pm
Still looking forward to next week…
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February 5th, 2010 at 11:47 pm
I am too. I never get bored of it.
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homerfreak Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 12:19 am
And please keep being excited about it, because this is a great site =) However, I’m going to buy the Rode Stereo Video Mic, it’s in the same price range but comes with the dead kitten. Have you found a comparison between those 2 mics?
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Canon Rumors Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 12:21 am
Not yet, the Rode I saw today was nice, but it was huge. I haven’t researched their entire line though. Size was a concern with me. I use a 14mm from time to time.
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homerfreak Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 12:26 am
The Rode I want to buy is this one:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/data/1/rec_imgs/3293_7d_rode.jpg
For me, that’s the optimal size. However, I didn’t know about this mic until you linkes the Rob Galbraith article, so thanks again ;)
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/multi_page.asp?cid=7-10042-10239-10240
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DC Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 2:09 am
I actually had the rode stereo one time and it actually came down to between those two external mics. The sennheisser for the light/compactness and the rode to take advantage of the stereo capabilities of the 5d2 and coming with the additional accessories like the dead kitten that was mentioned. It was fun when I had it for the time being a lot of people gave stares and ask what that puffy dead thing on the camera was, though it does leave that circular mark from being screwed down to your hot shoe which is to be expected – no big deal unless you are a cosmetic freak to your camera.
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traveller Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 5:59 am
Glad that you posted the dead kitten link, I was wondering what horrors would load onto my LCD screen when I clicked on it… Fortunately there was a rational explanation!
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homerfreak Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 12:28 pm
:D :D
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February 6th, 2010 at 1:45 am
When you say “gimped spot autofocus”, do you mean there’s no spot autofocus option available at all, or do you mean it doesn’t work right?
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W Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 2:38 am
Not totally sure what he means but spot autofocus works for me.
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SJ Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 8:17 am
I found the spot focus didn’t work as good on my 1d3 after it was put through the last big overhaul of updates.
Maybe they are concentrating more on continuous AF for ’sports’ cameras.
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W Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 11:10 am
Hey SJ, my spot focus has been spot on and performs better than my 1d3 (which was actually a good copy) ever did. If you are thinking about upgrading to the 1d IV that is one thing you don’t have to worry about
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SJ Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 11:56 am
If the price dropped a couple thousand pounds I would… ;)
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Scalesusa Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 11:57 am
On the 1 D MKIV, spot AF cannot be assigned to any camera buttons. It can only be assigned to the buttons on the big White Lenses. There are a lot of users wondering why it can’t be set in the body to work for any lens.
It might be a technical reason, but no one knows.
So those claiming to use spot AF without those big whites, please lets know how you set it. There is nothing in the manual.
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February 6th, 2010 at 2:01 am
that 200 f/2 IS is my dream lens!
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February 6th, 2010 at 2:46 am
Do you mean the fact that spot autofocus on your chosen focus point is disabled when you choose all 41 autofocus points?
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Baron Fizzy Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 3:14 am
Of course I meant 45 :D.
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February 6th, 2010 at 2:59 am
So CR Guy, like your early, brief thoughts of the 7D what do you think of it?
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February 6th, 2010 at 3:18 am
1d4 200 f2 IS spot auto focus work fine.
http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/canonmonster/4333534113/
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February 6th, 2010 at 4:16 am
i hope they announce a new 50 1.4. i want to buy a 7d with that al lense :)
by the way very nice pic canonmonster, i love it!
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February 6th, 2010 at 6:44 am
Not in the right place, but just to let you all know: http://www.photozone.de now have their Canon EOS 7D review online.
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hille Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 7:48 am
thanks for the link.
i wonder a bit why they only gave 4 stars for the image quality…
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s'ok Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 9:32 am
Yeah, real shocker there
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Mr. Prime Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
They gave it 4 starts? That was overly generous.
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EF mount Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
I think they explained it quite well in the review. What really make you think about is what would have Canon achieved with lesser pixel density, if this is what they have done now. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining on 7D IQ as I do not have one nor tried one. But I’m still thinking about, what would it be if it was 12MPix (as in direct comparision with D300s) used by current technology, which can pull out very impressive result considering pixel density on 7D’s sensor. I mean look at 7D vs D300s lab results. It’s basically very similar to each other, yet 7D has denser sensor with more resolution. If 7D was “only” as 12Mpix as is D300s, then I believe that Canon could pull out a D300s killer with its technology :)
Well, just an opinion of “what could have been…”, don’t get too carried away, guys :)
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February 6th, 2010 at 7:29 am
Ah, there’s actually a review here http://blog.planet5d.com/2010/02/canon-eos-1d-mkiv-review/, or linked from there anyway, that has the details of it.
I think that’s the issue, the spot focussing is meant to not be useful for fast moving objects (which is why users are discouraged from using it as an option for sports etc in the 7D manual), and yet the ONLY lenses that it is compatible with are the longer telephoto lenses, which you’d mostly use for sports or wildlife. At the moment, spot focussing is really only useful for peeping toms, private investigators or paparazzi. Or maybe other things whose names start with the letter “p”.
The 7D manual goes further to say that the area for the spot metering focus point is too small to track fast moving objects.
The point of the reviewer is that this is fine, because it IS good for focussing on subjects in very low light, compared to the normal auto focus points with the 1D Mark IV.
A question that might be asked is why they’d “gimp” something in the 1D Mark IV and not in the 7D. The answer could be that it doesn’t function as well as it could, so it stays off the pro body. The 7D, while being a robust camera with autofocus, is still a prosumer body, so doesn’t need the absolute reliability of a smaller focus point. The inability to focus in low light, however, is more of a limitation than a complete failure.
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February 6th, 2010 at 8:29 am
the digital picture already posted a review
http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EOS-1D-Mark-IV-Digital-SLR-Camera-Review.aspx
and there is an interesting shootout with the d3s here
http://uniquephoto.blogspot.com/2010/01/unique-photo-shootout-featuring-david.html
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February 6th, 2010 at 9:40 am
Have you all noticed, that Amazon removed the 1D IV from their homepage?? I cant find it there anymore !!!
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February 6th, 2010 at 10:40 am
I wont be buying a 1D4, not that Canon obviously cares. I am a Wedding & Portrait Photographer and use a 5D2 & 5D1 and shoot approx 45 weddings per year. Im constantly pissed off with the autofocus on the 5D2 but need the full frame,if the 1D4 was FF i would have had my oder in from day 1. Obviouslly there is the option of buying the 1Ds but i dont feel i should have to fork out 3 times the price of a 5D2 to get a pro body with a decent auto focus. When the 1Ds4 is released it will probably be 5 times the price.
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February 6th, 2010 at 10:43 am
I have had one (1D Mk IV) on order through “Onecall” since the middle of Nov. I’m told I am near the top of their waiting list? I’ve done ten’s of thousands of Dollars in business with them over the past five years and have always received great service from them, so I believe them when they tell me they don’t know when my order will be filled. As already discussed on this site, I believe the delay in restocking is probably due to Canon ensuring the latest firmware version is installed before shipping more 1D4s. Anyone else received their 1D4 from Onecall? If so, when did you pre-order? BTW, the Rode N3594 works great on my 5D2.
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Scalesusa Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 12:06 pm
I can almost hit their (Onecall) warehouse with a rock from where I live. They are pretty honest, at least as camera sellers go. Unfortunately, they have backed off from competiting with adorama and B&H on prices, so when I buy from them, I have to pay a little more plus 9% sales tax.
They also no longer carry the pro models in their retail store, so a local buyer cannot pick one up and try it before buying it. They can be picked up at the warehouse, and I’ve done that several times, but for extra $$ on a big ticket item, I’d like to see it first.
Still, they are local, and I can return a defective item to their retail store and get a replacement immediately, so it is often worth more to me when I buy a lens that has a less than perfect record for variation in sharpness or AF.
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Baron Fizzy Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 10:36 pm
The same thing is happening in New Zealand, with Canon not wanting to supply stock that they already have until the firmware has been upgraded (which was last week), so that makes complete sense.
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