New Toy

[Mt Spokane Photography]

I've been thinking of a backup DSLR for my D MK III, since I'm not ready to upgrade it yet, I was looking for something cheap but capable. I spotted a old 1D MK III today on our local craigslist for a decent price. It was purchased locally new, used only to photograph the owners children and vacations, and is spotless, not a scratch. It is complete with everything as new plus a extra battery. One of the things I liked about the 1D II from years back was the way image color and contrast popped. I'll see if thats still the case.

I just snapped a couple of quick shots with it, 10mp is certainly not much. I thought I remembered that my old one had AFMA, but I guess not. If I see any issues with my lenses, I'll probably just trade up, but my first shots were sharp enough. Most of my use will be product photography where I use live view and MF. The charger acts as a ac adapter, so I can operate it for long periods without running the batteries down. The sensor has never been cleaned, so I'll be checking for the almost certain dust and dirt on it.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

OK, I found the AFMA, its not as obvious. Next, to see if my Focal supports it. I thionk I detected a very slight front af on my 100-400L, but I was pretty close, and front focus is common at close range.

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

OK, I found the AFMA, its not as obvious. Next, to see if my Focal supports it. I think I detected a very slight front af on my 100-400L, but I was pretty close, and front focus is common at close range.

I also updated to current firmware, I don't know why the guy who is a software manager left the original F/W on it.

 

[Deleted member 91053]

You have a spare battery - I wouldn't worry about any other for of power supply! The 1D3 seems to go, almost, forever on a single pack.

If you have any decent SD cards lying around then the 1D3 is, probably the only camera, that works faster with SD cards than CF cards. I believe the Sandisk extreme III 8Gb cards are the fastest in this camera.

You have gone and done it now! You have bought a 1 Series - you won't be happy with anything else! ;D

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

You have a spare battery - I wouldn't worry about any other for of power supply! The 1D3 seems to go, almost, forever on a single pack.

If you have any decent SD cards lying around then the 1D3 is, probably the only camera, that works faster with SD cards than CF cards. I believe the Sandisk extreme III 8Gb cards are the fastest in this camera.

You have gone and done it now! You have bought a 1 Series - you won't be happy with anything else! ;D

I've owned the 1D series in the past, but sold them because of carpal tunnel. I had surgery on both wrists about 2 years ago, so I'm going to avoid lugging it around.

I'll try a SD card, but I'd really doubt that its faster, I've yet to see a SD card match a CF card of the same generation, SD cards are very limited in write speed, the specifications are very misleading. The new ones can write pretty fast (only on a new camera model with uhs1 support) for a few seconds, then slow down to 20 mb/sec max. On older cameras 5mb/sec is more average.

 

[AlanF]

You can use FoCal in manual mode as Neuro prefers if it is not compatible.